SSILD (2.0) Tutorial

Thank you Autumn. That is a fantastic experience!

I used this a few days ago (been trying to get back into LDing) after WBTB… I had one or two really intense HI moments, and felt lots of vibrations in my ears (they actually felt hot after). Didn’t quite WILD, but I could tell I was very close! Of course I was intending to just get a DILD, but a WILD would be a nice bonus :smile:

I haven’t noticed as much HI though the last few times. Could it be not waking in the right part of the sleep cycle?

After 8 months of trying on and off to lucid dream (on purpose, of course; I had 3 spontaneously before this), I finally had my first DILD last night thanks to this method. I woke up at 6:30 AM, stayed up for about 5 minutes more in bed, and I got only about 2 cycles in until I was asleep. In the dream, I was walking with my old friend Mike and we saw that the card and comic shop had turned into a mini-arcade. I walked in and there were people hanging around the door, and the games inside were all mostly retro. It was very small.

As we were waling out, I was looking back at the new corner store and Mike said “Hey, it’s kinda weird that they would just put that there so fast. Are you sure you’re not dreaming?”. That moment I asked myself: “Wait a second, I am dreaming…”. Then the dream ended after about 5 more seconds, or so I thought! I had one FA as well, and finally woke up at 7:20. Curiously enough, my parents usually wake up at 6:30, but last night they woke up about 30 seconds after I did O_o. Still, I’m pretty happy that I finally had an intentional lucid dream, even if for a few seconds. Thank you cosmic.iron.

I’ve never woken up in the middle of SP before I tried this technique.

Last night it happened again, I dreamed that I was trying to get out of a building with no exit by crawling under the wall. I couldn’t get my torso under the wall so I exhaled as much as I could to… compact myself. But I got stuck, and I couldn’t inhale.
Then I woke up in SP after panicking for a bit, then taking a deep breath and breaking out of it. I could’ve DEILD’d if I wasn’t so panicked.

The ride never ends.

SP, for a lucid dreamer, is a good friend :smile: Next time don’t break out of it. Try spin yourself into a dream.

I someone how managed to turn off my alarm, and I have no memory of it. How could I not remember reaching into my pillow case?!

Really great tutorial, I am excited to try this. I wish there was a ‘Thank you’ button. :smile:

I would, but it’s hard to tell that I’m in SP and not still in a dream. Not that I can tell that I’m in a dream when this is happening, but you get the idea. So I end up breaking out of it without realizing. It’s also quite hard to think rationally when as far as you can tell, you can’t breathe.

It certainly takes a while to get used to it. I must have had it over 100 times now but I still break out of it because of uneven breathing.

Can I do the first 3 cycles while sitting up in bed (eyes closed and all that) then lie down for the other 1 or 2 before I sleep? Is that fine? I’m still falling asleep far too quickly.

You could try that. One DreamViews a person did it while sitting in a chair and it seemed to work.

I attempted this method last night and it didn’t work. I’m not sure what happened :sad: I’ll try again tonight though.

Hey Cosmic.iron, Here’s four quick questions for you

  1. Do I have to repeat the cycles until I fall asleep, or is it enough that I do 3-4 cycles in slow motion?

  2. While doing the cycle, Do I have to exclusively focus on the component alone, when I am doing the component. Ex: While looking at the void behind eyelids, do I hv to exclusively focus on it, keeping other components in abeyance? Sometimes I get distracted and focus on sounds as well, while looking at my closed eyelids.

  3. My fan is quite noisy, as a result I am unable to focus on subtle internal sounds and always get distracted to focus externally at the sound of my fan. Is it OK?

  4. What about thoughts that I have when I am doing the cycles. Do I have to ignore them or suppress them?

Thank you.

Hi lucky, pls see my answers below:

  1. There is no need to repeat the cycles till falling asleep. Doing so can potentially making it difficult to fall asleep actually.

  2. It is okay to simultaneously feel other sensations, but you probably don’t want to do that consciously. The trick to a successful SSILD session is really in finding the perfect balance between sufficient stimulation to the various senses and being able to fall asleep quickly afterwards. The stimulation is achieved through “focusing”; therefore you need to make sure there are sporadic moments of staying focused during each slow cycle.

  3. Focusing on external noises is perfect okay.

  4. Do not suppress the random thoughts. You need them to carry you away so you can relax more quickly and it also makes it easier to fall asleep after the exercise. Just make sure you pull your thoughts back to focus on the sensations once in a while.

Let me know how you did it (the more details the better) so I can help you diagnose.

Well I did retry this method, I went to bed around 12-1 am so I woke up at 7 am, I got up rinished out my mouth, then I went back to bed. I settled in and Began the first quick cycles ( how log should these take? I’m not sure if I should be really quick or what) I got exetreamly distracted by my thoughts but I just begun the cycles again. I switched from quick cycles to slow cycles nothing really happend during those and after I finished I fell asleep. Now I did not become lucid, BUT I had very very weird vivid dreams, which I definitely think was from this technique. I will be attempting it more when I have the chance.

Thank you cosmic.iron,

Well, here’s a few more questions:

  1. Can i sleep by 12 and get up at 4 AM, study for 2 hrs and around 6-6.30 lie in my bed while doing this technique and falling asleep naturally. ( What i imply is that, will this method work if gap between WBTB method is large)

  2. Can i do this technique at afternoon naps?

  3. do i have to repeat any mantra while doing this technique?

Thank you.

  1. Assuming you are able to fall asleep after that, you may actually have a much greater chance to succeed this way.

  2. It depends. Sometimes we simply don’t have enough time during naps. Some people do report success during naps so it is worth trying.

  3. No mantra is needed, other than reminding yourself to repeat SSILD cycles and/or do RCs upon each awakening after SSILD.

Thanks a lot cosmic iron.

I still hv few doubts left.

  1. Can I change my sleep position during/after the exercise? Is it necessary to do this exercise with my body facing the ceiling?

  2. Can I move my hands and legs during the exercise? When I am doing the exercise, can I open my eyes?

  3. Can I do this LD induction exercise for 1.5 hrs, i.e, max half an hour for the exercise and 1 hr sleep to induce LD?

  4. Do I hv to allot equal time for each component?

  5. Do I hv to follow the same pattern of ‘Eye-Hear-Feel’ Pattern or is components done in random order?

Thank you.

Cosmic Iron, thank you for continuing to research/refine your method!

Lucky1990, check the tutorial in the meantime, should help with some of your questions.

My Experience in brief. LD last night from SSILD!(assumed) In the past, I had at least one lucid dream maybe around 12years old after my father told me about it as a way to deal with nightmares(defeating the “monster”) but over the years I got away from the practice of recalling my dreams, much less having lucid dreams. In the last 10days or so I started researching, started dream journal, reality checks, looked at different methods to induce LD and decided to try SSILD. Had LD last night on 3rd night time attempt (3 night time attempts, 2 afternoon nap attempts=no luck at nap). LD success was great, though a little short and was discovered instantly when something happened and I said “this is a dream, now I can do what I want”(and did until it ended) - did not do RC in dream.

Some challenges to work through further. Before starting LD methods, I was already waking up to use the bathroom about 4-5 hours after going to bed so don’t need the alarm I think. Previously it seemed I could go back to sleep within 1 minute. SSILD seems to wake me up more so I tweaked it last night so I only stayed out of bed maybe 2 minutes and went straight to SSILD cycles, still didn’t sleep right away (verified through RCs) like normal but did have a big event today-so that probably didn’t help me in dozing off quickly after cycles and is the type of event that can cause some insomnia where I normally have none. Also some noises including wife noise/movement probably isn’t ideal - I put in ear plugs last night when it worked! I only did a few short *additional cycles after putting in earplugs.

Any tips?