WILD Lucid Dreaming: The Wake Induced Lucid Dream
WILD lucid dreaming may sound like a description of what might happen in the dream, crazy and fanciful things. That might be true, but that is not what this term points to. The wake induced lucid dream is something quite different. As you may know by now, one of the most common and perhaps most effective lucid dreaming techniques remains asking yourself if you are dreaming during your day as many times as possible. This plants the seed and then when you ask yourself the same question when you are asleep, you suddenly realize that you are actually learning how to WILD lucid dream. And in many cases you fall asleep asking yourself that question as thoughts and images enter your mind. This is the essence of wild lucid dreaming or having a wake-induced lucid dream.
We do not favor or focus on one of the other type of lucid dreaming on this website – whether you find that dream-induced or wake-induced lucid dream techniques are for you you’ve come to the right place. But we did decide that we should set aside one full-page to dedicate to wake-induced lucid dreaming techniques because they can be quite different and unique from their DILD cousins. If you are someone who feels that wake-induced techniques are more likely to work for you, you’ve been trying dream induced techniques but they haven’t worked well enough, or you want to be able to be successful at both dream- and wake- initiated lucid dreaming, you’ve come to the right place.
How to WILD Lucid Dream
The following steps provide a wild lucid dreaming guide that you can follow in order to have success with wake induced lucid dream techniques.
Step One: Setting the Stage for WILD Lucid Dreaming
Of course the most important part about WILD lucid dreaming is timing. You want to make sure you are set up so that you are practicing your lucid dreaming techniques at exactly the right time. You want to be right near the time in your REM cycle when dreaming will occur. Thus you either want to do wake induced lucid dream initiation techniques as part of nap-time lucidity or after you’ve slept for to five hours at night. Trying WILD lucid dreaming techniques right when you go to bed is unlikely to lead to anything. Some people are able to wake up that many hours later by using their internal clock, but you may have to set an alarm at first. One way or another you have to set things up so that your body is ready for lucid dream entry and timing will be quite important. Many people find that they are able to dream right away when they nap, though you may also find that these dreams are lighter and more fleeting.
Another important part about setting the stage for WILD lucid dreaming is practicing pre-techniques that are a good match for this approach. So as you visualize having lucid dreams make sure that includes sliding from awake to asleep, and asking yourself “am I dreaming” along the way. Think of what it will be like when you realize that you are aware but not awake. And think about what you will do first to check things out – what dream signs will you use to test the fact that you are actually aware but dreaming. This type of preparation can be an important piece of making sure that you wake up in the dream itself, or more accurately in this case that you slide into the dream maintaining awareness.
Any wild lucid dreaming tutorial will styart with this step, and now we move on to the preparation that you will need.
Step Two: Wake induced lucid dream prep
Now you awake and your body is ready to enter REM sleep fairly quickly. You need to be sure to quickly re-relax yourself after the wake-up. Use deep breathing and relax your muscles – you might use progressive relaxation where you move up or down your body relaxing your muscles, or just concentrate on those areas where you seem to be having trouble relaxing. Release all tension and feel yourself getting heavy and more relaxed. Use self talk to say “I am falling asleep and will enter a dream” or something like that. Stay focused on your quest without being so excited that you stay awake. Soon you may find yourself seeing brief bits of color or patterns, or you may even see images. Beware of getting to excited by these images – excitement can snap you out of this relaxed state and back awake. A trick to WILD lucid dreaming techniques is staying relaxed. Quietly and passively enjoy these first perceptions and you are on your way in learning how to wild lucid dream.
While all of this is happening, continually ask yourself if you are dreaming? As the images and colors pass by, wonder if they will come together and become a dream. Feel yourself falling into sleep. If you find that you keep snapping out of falling asleep as you anxiously wait for the dream state, that is okay. Eventually you will fall asleep, so just keep at it and continue to relax and wonder whether you are dreaming. Keep in mind that being relaxed is a nice state anyway, whether or not you are sleeping or dreaming, so try to enjoy your relaxation instead of getting impatient.
Our lucid dreaming tutorial now moves on to the step of actually entering the wake induced lucid dream, and then we go over how to stay in the dream state.
Step Three: Wake Induced Lucid Dream Entry
Soon you will realize that you are actually close to sleep. The images may become more focused and dream like. Congratulations, you have successfully done WILD lucid dreaming techniques and now you might be entering your dream world. You may realize you are in dream state merely because it is obvious – things are just too weird or impossible and you just realize things are too different. This is actually quite possible. You may notice dream signs if you’ve used wild lucid dreaming techniques and have successfully entered a wake induced lucid dream. You may have decided to look out for “Dream Signs”, those actions or perceptions that are only possible in a dream. In other words, while you were just awake asking yourself “am I dreaming”, you now find yourself aware but in a dream state – you are learning how to wild lucid dream!
Some examples of dream signs that you can look for when using wild lucid dreaming techniques:
Look for dream signs like flying!
- Your hand will always look distorted in a dream, with extra fingers, not enough fingers, or a general distortion in your perception.
- You will not see a reflection in your dream, or if you do it will not be you or will be very distorted or different
- Colors will either be non-existent or very strange during your dream state
- You realize you are doing something unreal, like flying
- Other people will not be “stable” – they may change either their identity or their appearance often
These are just a few of the more common dream signs that can be used to signal that you have been successful with your wild lucid dreaming techniques. Our suggestion is to continually look for these signs in your waking life, even if it sometimes feels repetitive and silly. Look at your reflection in everything you can and every chance you get. Look down at your hands many time. Notice normal colors in your environment.
Wikihow does a nice job of summarizing a simple wild lucid dreaming method
The next step in our wild lucid dreaming tutorial involves maintaining your place in the dream.
How to Wild lucid dream Step Four: Stay in the Dream
Now that you are lucid in your dream you need to be careful not to get too excited or move too fast or you might wake up. Remember, with WILD lucid dreaming you have just fallen asleep, so you are close to a waking state (this is true of all dreams of course, since dreaming takes place in a shallow sleep period, but it may be particularly true when you enter the dream from a waking state.) At first, and particularly if this is one of your first experiences of lucidity, move slowly and be relatively passive. Notice your surroundings and enjoy the feeling of being lucid. Move slowly and instead of trying to take a lot of control let the dream control things at first. Look for the dream signs listed above. If you are able to stay lucid and prolong the dream that is great, but even if the experience is fleeting enjoy the fact that you were successful.
After you wake up there are other steps you need to take to learn from the experience. Make sure you keep a journal that documents your success. Write down aspects of your WILD lucid dreaming experience from the length of the dream (if dream time was real-time), the vividness, what dream signs you used, what time of day or night you were successful, and what you did. This type of information can be helpful as you refine our WILD lucid dreaming approach in order to get better at it. There may be patterns that can help you be more successful, and it is possible that you may even learn how non-WILD lucid dreaming techniques can be more successful as well.
WILD Lucid Dreaming Overview
There is conflicting advice out there about whether a good way to induce lucid dreaming is through daytime naps or daydreams. This is often called daytime wake-induced lucid dreaming. Some say that these times present a better opportunity to quickly enter REM sleep and therefore quickly transition to the wake induced lucid dream and that these times present a good opportunity to enter a semi-dream state to practice lucidity. Others feel that these times are limited in both the duration and number of dreams.
We don’t disagree with either opinion. Almost everyone would agree that the deepest and most prolonged lucid dreams are likely to occur at night, during the regular sleep schedule. The problem with naps is that they often interfere with nighttime sleep rhythms, particularly when they are not “needed”. Thus, our advice is to try to lucid dream at night for a while, and only if it proves difficult and you want to use naps to generate you first lucid dreaming experiences, they may provide a jump-start.
Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD) techniques are probably best for the novice lucid dreamer, and then daytime wake induced lucid dream techniques may be good as an adjunctive approach once you are beginning to see results and want to expand the number of techniques you use and types of dreams you have.
It can be helpful to try both dream-induced and wake-induced lucid dream techniques. If you follow the above, with an emphasis on continually asking yourself if you are dreaming as you are falling asleep, you will eventually realize that you have learned how to wild lucid dream and have successfully used WILD lucid dreaming techniques.