SSILD (2.0) Tutorial

I dont understand how this can be called as a new method and a fancy name like ssild. it is same as wbtb combined with wild. the basic principle is that after you wake up a few hours after sleep, mind is more conducive to lucid dreaming and then staying aware for a while carries this awareness into sleep and induces lucid dreams. the same effect can be had by meditating in the middle of your sleep, or whatever activity that maintains your awareness just before you drift off to sleep. this same principle can be individualised to see how it works for oneself. two components are very important.

  1. waking up after a few hours of sleep
    2.maintaining awareness before going to sleep.
    naming each variation of the above technique and giving it a special fancy name only adds to confusion for beginners.
    there are no shortcuts or miraculous methods for lucid dreaming. regular reality checks, meditation, maintaining awareness before sleep should be practised.

I actually never awoke and did the cycles instead my mind did the cycles when I went to sleep causing to have two FA’s and I got my first lucid dream :happy: :woo: :grin:

Nice Innerwolf! It sounds like we may both be somewhat new to this. How did you get your other LD?

My understanding is to not mix methods during bedtime only, so it should be fine and beneficial to do RCs during the day. I have seen Cosmic.Iron recommend RCs to know if you might be in a false awakening, and that takes making it a habit to verify dream in an FA or LD.

Yes, can be a type of WILD but is a specific technique that is supposed to be easy for beginners and has brought me 2 LDs out of 7 attempts as a beginner (first LD attempts since childhood). Still trying to actively pursue consistent LDs without any downsides.

For me, not the method, but the success and anticipation is affecting my being able to go back to sleep (I normally have no trouble. I wake up once nightly on average to go to the bathroom). At first I thought it was the SSILD method but found same trouble without doing the cycles/method if I am thinking much about LDs when trying to go back to sleep. In case it helps anyone with the same issue or also if anyone has suggestions for WBTB insomnia which must be a form of “middle of the night insomnia”, “maintenance insomnia” among other names I will list what I am trying to get around this issue.

-Avoid thoughts of LD including using methods during nights before work days or needing to get up early with energy.
-If I cheat and do it during work week, don’t do it 2 nights in a row (2nd night of insomnia=great exhaustion, 1 night of 45-90minutes of insomnia = not bad exhaustion next day)
-avoid night light when I get up to go to bathroom, and I stay up very little (no trouble staying alert to do cycles, though some drifting)
-close the drapes to keep the early morning light from creeping in eventually
-put in ear plugs after waking to reduce various real life noises - though I may need better ear plugs
-tried adding thinking about area 2 inches above roof of mouth to induce sleepiness -read somewhere…not sure if it or a combination of methods may have helped reduce the insomnia time to 45minutes last night and brought on SP and vibrations…didn’t transition to LD this time but fell asleep shortly after.

Tried during a nap after work (too late in the day? was 4:45pm or so)

After doing cycles and not going to sleep I tried the following for the first time in addition to retrying some of the above methods mentioned.

-one less blanket to stay cooler (though weather was nice)
-nasal spray to reduce nasal drainage, increase comfort
-thought about the “mini-dreams” that were drifting into my head and trying to figure out the origin - odd thoughts much like regular dreams - seemed different from daydreams which seem to have more logic but want to research further. One involved a female with a very specific unique face that I don’t remember seeing anywhere-perhaps from my dreams.
-finally what seemed most effective and tried last (all of these were after cycles and while trying to go to sleep) - android app named “binaural beats therapy” using the sleep induction setting.

I feel fairly sure I would have slept, but too much family noise in the house after I started. Even though I believe I never slept(only did one RC=awake), I eventually got up after 1.25 hours very upbeat and refreshed, at least for a few hours. I attribute the refreshed feeling to having relaxed and rested and the binaural beats, but I am unsure.

Hi cosmic.iron, thank you for posting this! I have a question: on the last step, when you say quickly fall asleep, does that mean stop doing the cycles and just fall asleep?

I tried this last night, however I became too awake so couldn’t really relax enough to go back to sleep while doing this technique. I’ll try this again tonight.

I never realized how effective WBTB is. I remember waking up in the middle of a dream, just literally one moment being in the dream, and the next moment I was in my bed. kinda felt like i was in that dreamy state when i woke up, which i don’t get normally.

This is the moste powerfull technique i have ever seen. :woo:

I had for now a 100 % rate for now !!!
I had ld’s, and even wilds and so on. Incredible, it’s the only technique that i can use wich can make me ld easly and 100%

Thanks a bunch, now i can LD at will !!

Hmm this sounds like a nice technique. Thank you :happy:

EDIT: Reading other posts here, I’m slightly concerned about the number of FAs and supposed loss of sleep. Having said that, I’ve got a lot of time for sleep this week and will be trying this!

Thanks. It seems like a very nice, straight forward technique. Excited isn’t the word I’m feeling right now! :cool:

Hey Cosmic.iron,

I hv been having wonderful results in a week of using this technique. I have two questions for u.

  1. I usually dont sleep quickly as i finish doing the technique. Can i momentarily open the eyes after doing the technique before falling asleep naturally?

  2. Could u pls elaborate more on third component, the somesthic senses?

Thank you.

Taking SSILD outside lucid dreaming, I’ve incorporated SSILD into my meditation practice. SSILD is actually somewhat similar to classic meditation techniques, especially some forms of Vipassana (insight) meditation. Has anyone considered this or used SSILD as a daytime meditation practice?

aac

I did consider using SSILD as a meditation method. However, since I don’t meditate regularly, I haven’t actually tried it.

My only problem with SSILD after WBTB is that I fall asleep much too quickly! I will have to find a way to make myself more uncomfortable…

Yes you can open your eyes after the cycles. Just don’t keep them open for too long. :smile: What would you like to know about the 3rd component? It’s really very simple – just direct your focus/attention to your body, that’s all. It can be certain part of your body or the whole, doesn’t really matter. You can in fact think in terms of focusing on different axis – Visual --z-axis; Hearing – x-axis; Body – y-axis. Let your attention glide through these axis and you will be fine.

I tried this technique last night. As I was doing the cycles I randomly went into SP. I thought, “Oh, I’m in SP, I guess I’ll just WILD from here.” As I am waiting to enter a dream, the SP sensation changes. I start to feel growing pressure all over my body. It becomes increasingly painful until I feel like I’m being crushed by a stramroller. I try to bear it but eventually I can’t take it any more and I break the paralysis and sit up :bored: . The pain immediately disappears, of course. I will try again tonight.

It appears that you might have tried too hard. SSILD uses a very “lazy” approach and you should stick to that in order to achieve optimal results. Do not focus too much on the sensations, and do NOT try to stay completely still. When you try to stay still, you often become tense and that will keep you from falling into sleep. It also tends to cause SPs and various weird sensations, many of which are extremely uncomfortable.

Man, it’s been a while since I’ve last lucid dreamed, mainly because of irregular sleeping patterns (damn you school). I’ve just found motivation to start LDing again and it seems that I’ve found the perfect technique to start with.

I’ll try it whenever I wake up, hopefully tonight
Will report success(If any) :wink:

Nice, it did the job. I didn’t really do the exact steps, rather, I remembered to do it just before I fell asleep, I was already in SP at that point so there was no point in doing the steps :razz:.

So a very summarised version of what I did in the LD:
I was on a small floating snow island in space where I learned ‘Super Sight’. Then I woke up, decided to do an RC and realised I was still dreaming. Drank lucidity pills and tried to extend dream time. Summoned a door from the ground and made it change shapes. Got carried away and woke up.

I’m still not fully used to SP, I don’t think I will lol :anx:

For those interested, here is the full dream:

[spoiler]So, you know how SP is. Loud sounds, I could see faces and all sorts of stuff, I was just waiting impatiently for that ‘moment’. All these creepy things became more and more intense and soon… silence. I was ready to enter a dream.
I tried to enter the north pole, or atleast, somewhere snowy. It was pretty difficult at first, I kept visualizing that I was somewhere cold, with the snow blowing against me and stuff, you know, but I still saw darkness.

A distinct sound soon entered my ears though. At first, it was muffled and quite hard to make out, but excitement ran over me once I realised it was the sound of snow, compressing as my shoes tread over them. Slowly but surely each of my five senses ‘phased’ into the dreamworld. I could feel my feet, and soon, my legs traversing the snow. Then, I could feel the weight and warmth of my clothes, and the freezing cold winds that blasted at me. Lastly, bracing myself to fully enter this dream scene. I opened my eyes.

It was very blurry at first, everything was surprisingly, or rather, disappointingly calm. I could see the outline of the goggles that I was wearing. After awhile my dream eyes adjusted and the snow blizzard that I felt earlier wasn’t there anymore. In front me was a wall of snow, literally, like a brick wall except made of snow, about 6 feet high. The sky was eerily dark, it was a mix of bright purple, blue, white’ish yellow and dark blue. Basically imagine you’re looking at space with all those galaxies and nebulas. There was an opening on the wall, of which I entered to see the other side, half expecting to see mountains of snow far in the distance, but it wasn’t exactly that. The ground just… ended. I was on an island of snow floating in space. I really wanted to go exploring and and have some sort of adventure but here I am stuck in this place.

I went back to the wall of snow to take a closer look at it. Unfortunately I started to lose lucidity. My vision blurred and I was phasing in and out of consciousness.

In a dire attempt I said out loud, “Increase lucidity”.

For a second, everything then just became clear… too clear. It was like some sort of supersight. The detail on the snow was amazing, I could see each individual flake of the snow, but then it was accompanied by an extreme headache and loss of clarity afterwards. It didn’t help when I kept doing it on other objects haha, I lost lucidity soon afterwards.

I woke up, feeling mildly angry. I cursed for a bit, ranting about how I could’ve done things better. Then it hit me… what if I was still dreaming? Nah it couldn’t be… Well it couldn’t hurt to try. I raised and looked at both of my hands, counting my fingers. 1, 2, 3, 4 ,5. Check. 1 ,2 ,3… 4?? BOOM sudden realization! I’m still dreaming!.

I was now in some sort small green room with a few furnitures here and there, but this time, I was determined. It felt like I just passed a test given to me by my subconscious and I felt awesome. Everything was clearer this time round too, it really did felt like real life.

“Okay, I need to get there*, but first I have to make sure I don’t lose lucidity again”, I said, noticing how different my voice felt in a dream, “and then i’ll start spawing a door or something”

(*For those wondering, I was referring to a place, a dreamworld to be exact, that I’ve been meaning to get back to, and it’s probably the reason why i’m trying so hard to LD …)

I tried every trick I could remember, shouting ‘increase lucidity’, looking at details around me. Eating a ‘lucidity pill’. Just to make sure I was ‘anchored’ in the dream. I then remembered how Writerscube would control how long he dreamt for.

Pacing around the room I stated, “Okay subconscious, 2 hours of dreamtime, and umm… 6 hours of sleep”, unsure if it would work or not.

“Well, time to start”

After cycling through different ideas, I decided to try creating a door. I readied my self and looked at the ground in front of me. Like some sort of summoner I raised my hands, attempting to ‘pull’ a door out of the ground. It was very difficult and tiring so I stopped and looked at my progress. There was only like this bump on the floor, not very promising :sad: I took and step back and tried again, this time in a more relaxed manner.

A large door was rising from the ground. Excited I tried to alter the shape, making it wider, smaller, etc. I realised that the key to using dream powers is to not to do consciously, in a sense. It was more like knowing that it would happen. The more I tried to consciously alter the door, the harder it gets.

Anyway, at this point I sort of got carried away. I ended up just changing the shape of door and lost my original intent. It soon resulted in me waking up.[/spoiler]

I have done ssild the way it was outlined in the first tutorial for the past three nights. I became lucid on two of them. I may try using this slightly revised version, but for now I’m just going to say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” :wink:

I’ve been in LD “training” for just over a week now, working on becoming more aware in WL, doing LaBerge reflection/intention, RCing a lot during the day, and setting intention for dream recall at bedtime. I’ve been shooting for starting MILD once I get enough DJ entries and start doing well on the LaBerge prospective memory exercises. I’ve journaled successfully dreams from one or more dream periods every night once I started to intend to recall, some with a lot of detail.

Yesterday I read about SSILD 2.0 here and decided to give it a try if I woke up in the middle of the night. I went to sleep last night with the usual intention to wake up and remember my dreams completely. I went to bed around 00:00 and woke up around 04:00, I didn’t move upon waking [normally I toss for a bit before remembering I should stay still] and recalled a few scenes and jotted down keywords in my journal. Then I decided the time was right to try SSILD, so I got up, went to the bathroom, rinsed out my mouth, and got back in to bed. I was out of bed for no more than about 3 minutes but felt very awake so I didn’t want to stay out of bed any longer. I did the cycles, first about 6 quick ones then about 4 slow ones, and tried going to sleep. During the cycles I felt fairly relaxed but didn’t feel at risk of falling asleep. After the cycles, I was highly alert and awake still. Several times I tried changing positions, doing a few more cycles, and so forth, but I just remained incredibly alert and awake. I periodically performed RCs several times (not too frequently to wake me up more) to make sure I wasn’t in FA. I eventually noted the time at about 0600, still very awake. I did not do any relaxation (61 point or tense-relax) because the SSILD guide mentions not to do any other techniques since they can interfere (does this also include relaxation techniques?).

I finally drifted off to sleep at some time and woke at 0800, thinking I had no recall but eventually recalling a few short scenes from the morning dream period but knowing I had forgotten a lot. Normally (in the last week since I started spending effort on recall) my recall is best from the last morning period so that’s sort of frustrating.

Maybe WBTB based systems are not good for me – I generally fall asleep quickly at bed time but if I wake and become alert during the middle of the night I can have trouble getting back to sleep until very late morning (like happened here). Although I will note that in the last week I’ve woken several times around 4-5am to do a quick journal and had no trouble going back to sleep. Any mental activity that’s not relaxation focused tends to keep me up, as seemed to happen with SSILD.

Or maybe I just had “one of those nights.”

Another possibility is that two days ago I’ve moved from a vacation-environment (not working, in nature, dark nights, very quiet, fresh cool/cold air, no bed partner) back to city life (working at office job, street lights partially illuminate room, noisy cars on street outside, stuffier warmer room air, bed partner whom I’m trying not to bother when I wake and journal). I’m using ear plugs for the noise but I think I’ll get a sleep mask to cut out the extra light.

Anyway, I think I’ll stick with my LaBerge program as it makes a lot of sense to me and doesn’t actually seem all that “difficult.” Exercising prospective memory seems like a highly valuable approach. I thought SSILD sounded “too good to be true” and for me it looks like it is. Mabye that’s premature and it will change down the road, we’ll see.

I’m very interested to hear any comments/suggestions!

thanks!

First, thank you for trying SSILD! :smile: What you encountered was a fairly common problem for people who are just starting to experiment with SSILD. It is hard to say exactly what the causes are – cloud be too much excitement, too much concentration, and etc. This problem gradually goes away as you become familiar with SSILD and in fact often becomes the other way around – you fall asleep too quickly! Thus my number one advice is – don’t give up, do it for a week and it won’t bother you anymore.

There are also a couple of other things to do:

  1. Do NOT focus on spotting/causing sensations. For example, many people try very hard to actually see things during the first step, and all that does is causing strain. You should not care whether you see things or not, it’s the action that actually matters.

  2. Reduce the number of cycles.

  3. Lie in your favorite sleeping position so you do not have to turn around after performing the cycles.

I hope this helps. Happy dreaming! :smile:

Hey, I just wanted to pop in and ask if this would be a good method for new lucid dreamers?

Thank you very much for your response! I will definitely try it in the future. Now I need to catch up on my sleep after a bunch of awake WILD-attempt nights. I’m starting to see some results with MILD so I think I will focus on that for a while, and maybe try to sneak in a quick WILD as in the case that I realize I’m just about to fall asleep and see if I make it, otherwise just fall asleep and hopefully DILD :smile:.