Pre-Requirements:
- You need to be able to remember at least one dream/night:
- You need to know how to do a reality check:
What is DILD?
Dream initiated lucid dreams are those which start as normal and turn into lucid dreams after a while, usually after performing a reality check.
For example, you go to sleep, have a normal dream and something triggers the thought: “This is weird, is this a dream?”, and soon you realize that you are actually dreaming.
How does it work?
Our conscious brain is partially shut down while we are sleeping which results in low awareness. We can dream about flying or traveling into the future but most of us won’t even think about the fact that it might just be a dream!
However, most parts of our subconscious remain active and our daily habits are carried over into our dreams. So our goal is to intentionally build a reality checking habit that will be also carried over into our dreams.
3 Steps for Creating a Reality Checking Habit:
- Choose your reality check triggers: These are the things that will remind you to do a reality check. When choosing your triggers, search in your dream journal and find things that constantly recur. A person? Place? Activity?If you don’t have a dream journal or you haven’t recorded enough dreams, you can use some general triggers like:
- Going out or in your house
- Being in the bathroom
- Entering your school/workplace
- Each time your wristwatch beeps (hourly)
- Do a reality check when you see some trigger.
- Repeat for 21 days to make it a habit. You will probably have your first lucid dream in about a week.
Tips for creating habits: Lucid Dreaming Reminder
- Create notes and hang them on your bathroom door and your main door. Create smaller notes and put them into your wallet or pockets. They will also increase your awareness and remind you that you might really be dreaming.
- Create symbols – Things that will associate and remind you to reality checking and lucid dreaming. For example, you can do a reality check each time you see your cellphone. Or you can find a small rock/coin and name it: The Magical Lucid Dreaming Object and carry it around with you.