SSILD (2.0) Tutorial

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:.

The whole thing was DESIGNED to be easy and effective for new dreamers. It tried deliberately to stay away from delicate mental exercises, relaxation techniques and other stuff that are very difficult for beginners. So the short answer is “yes”, it is a very good method for new lucid dreamers.

Well I have tried it for the past two nights, with decent results.

I use an alarm designed to wake you up without jarring you out of sleep, it starts very quietly, and gradually gets up to a more intense volume. I usually wake up about fifteen minutes before it even starts to go off, for unknown reasons.

These results are using it at the beginning of the night solely as a way to relax and to improve DR (I read a few posts saying it improved theirs)

Anyways, the first night I tried it, I got an FA (Wasn’t accustomed to RC’s that first day though, so I didn’t RC) and a decent dream, so impressive results having two recalled dreams on the second night of practicing LD’ing

Last night when I tried it, when I woke up the first time, I had an EXTREMELY vivid dream, but when I tried it mid-way through the night I got barely any recall at all.

Anyways, I went through all that to ask a few questions. One: For my DJ I use my iPad set on the lowest brightness so it doesn’t wake me up, or hurt my eyes at all, as my only desk lamp is very bright, and it usually wakes me up very well. Should I continue using that system, or would a physical journal still be a better choice?

Two: I know you said that your thought wandering was a natural thing, just to bring it back to the cycles when you remember what you’re doing, but it seems my mind wanders off very easily.

Three: I tend to be fairly good at controlling excitement, so I don’t wake up too much from that which is a good thing, and I find not expecting anything to happen extremely easy, but I seem to wake up a bit TOO much during the cycles, and it takes me five-ten minutes to fall asleep after the cycles. Is this normal? Or should it take less time?

Four: How many cycles should I do to start off, and then what are reasons to increase/decrease the amount of cycles?

Five: How quickly should I do the quick cycles (Each part of the cycle, like how long on sight, how long on hearing, and how long on touch?), and how slowly should I do the slow cycles?

Hopefully, none of these questions were answered in the tutorial and I just neglected to see them, but thanks in advance for the response :smile:

I have decided to try lucid dreaming again. I tried it ages ago and didn’t manage to have the success I wanted.

I decided to try this last night, but it took me ages to get to sleep after doing the cycles, I think this messed up any hope of getting a lucid dream. Any tips?

You need to give me more details in order to help you diagnose. BTW, were you attempting SSILD right after you went to bed?

What book are your writing cosmic Iron :smile: :smile: :smile:

It has been postponed indefinitely, LOL.

I tried SSILD three times so far. The first two did not work, the first was at night before getting to sleep, so it did not have too many chances from the beginning, the second time was before an afternoon nap, and it didn’t work. Last night it was the first time I tried it in the morning, after 3 hours of sleep and then 3 hours of being awake (insomnia problems), when I knew that I was probably about to finally get back to sleep. I didn’t fall asleep right away, though. I remembered that it didn’t matter, it could still work, and the result was that I had 4 lucid dreams in a row (so 3 false awakenings in which I realized I was still in a dream), very clear all of them, very lucid in all of them. The only downsize is that after the forth, when I finally got up, I could not remember as many details as I usually remember from just one lucid dream. However, still good recall and vivid memories.
Thanks for all your posts and explanations about this, cosmic.iron!

Thanks cosmic will start testing tonight. WBTB part will have to wait for a while due to the meds I’m on. :rofl:

The SSILD method is very effective. I think the key is that the method turns people into hypnagogic state fast, as it emphasize an easy manner instead of focusing.

I tried it last night and achieved 2 LD without failure.
Both of them were wake-initiated although the tutorial claims that DILD may occur.

However, this method did cause false awakening.
Both of my dream began with waking up in bed. Though I could quickly recognize the abnormal parts. Also, I have to mention that the pinch-nose reality check gave false result in one LD.

Thank you so much for making this tutorial. I’ve been trying to get an LD for months now using various techniques, but didn’t get anywhere with them. I’ve tried various combinations and experiments but nothing worked.

Then I gave this technique a try last night. After the cycles it was real hard to get to sleep, I think it was because I was focusing too much on the various sensations and trying to “grapple” onto them in the hopes they’d turn into a lucid dream. They didn’t, and I eventually gave up and went to sleep normally.

I had a regular dream and I suddenly thought to wake up from it(not lucid at this point, just part of the dream, and my memory is kinda fuzzy in this area anyway) and once I “woke up” I did a reality check and BAM! I “woke up” in a LD!

Here’s hoping I can get some more through this technique.

I tried this last night but it didn’t work, after rereading this post again I think I know what I did wrong, I’ll try it again tonight and post my results. Wish me luck guys! :smile:

Hi folks,
I’m still refining my SILD technique so I have a few questions. When I was first doing this technique,on the slow cycles, I would focus attention on my senses for a few secs and then just let my mind wander. When I realized it was wandering, i still wouldn’t focus on the senses but just let it wander again until i thought i had spent enough time on one step. Since it wandered for a while(15-20 secs), 1 step might take over 2 mins. I did this because I thought it might be easier to drift off if i didnt focus too much on senses.
Now, I’ve noticed even if I pay full attention to the senses, I still drift off but only for a few secs(not 15-20) before my mind snaps back to attention on the senses. Is this the better way to do SSILD? By the way, when I tested it out this way I was fully awake in the afternoon so chances are I’ll drift off more when I do my WBTB…All I’m asking is how much do we focus on senses in SSILD…

I don’t think it’s a better way. How I understand it, the idea is to train your mind not to wander and instead focus on the senses. Then you’ll more likely focus in your dreams and hopefully be more aware of your state overall. In SSILD you focus on senses and after a complete routine you fall asleep quickly. In WILD however, it’s maybe good to focus on those wandering thoughts.

You may have misunderstood my post. I wasn’t saying I wanted to focus on the thoughts. In both methods I mentioned, I just let the thoughts run until I realized I had lost focus. Then, in the first way, I cleared my mind to let in wander again while in the second way I refocused on the senses. Also, in the second way I only lost focus for a few seconds before snapping back while the first way i might lose focus for around 20 secs. But my only test of the second way was done while fully awake this afternoon and my mind might wander more after I am sleepy from WBTB. So, rather than wasting your time I’ll try this tonight, see what happens for a couple days and get back to you. Thanks for responding…

May have had an FA last night but not sure since i dont recall “waking up” in my dream…but that could be an issue of dream recall…dreamt i was in bed in my room and my mom came in to turn off the A/C

Actually, the only reason i think it was an FA was that it only lasted a few seconds while my normal dreams last a few mins at least

Wait, now I’m really sure cos I just checked with my Mom and she says she DID come into my room to ask if I wanted the A/C turned off. This could be a case of dream/reality confusion while sleeping.

Merged the 3 posts together. Please remember that you are able to edit your post to add more information/comments :moogle: