What are all those Acronyms? LD / RC / ND / FA etc

For your convenience here is a list of common lucid dream acronyms, abbreviations and definitions.

If you move your mouse over the CAPITALIZED part of any acronym you should see the full term. This automatically works throughout the whole forum.


AP = Astral Projection - the practice of projecting the consciousness to a realm different from the physical body.

AB = Astral Body - the body or vehicle that the consciousness inhabits within a dream or astral plane.

CALD - Character Assisted Lucid Dreaming - The use of characters made consciously, or otherwise to induce a lucid dream. Invented by Talon Arana

DB = Dream Body - The body or vehicle that the consciousness or dreamer inhabits within a dream.

DC = Dream Character - A person, animal, or object other than yourself that has life in your dreams.

DD = Dream Diary
DJ = Dream Journal - Journal used to record your lucid dreams, preferably as soon as you wake to help against forgetting. Suggested by Sciurus

DO = Disembodied Observer - The experience of viewing a dream without inhabiting a body Suggested by Moogle

DM = Dream Memory - Things that you remember while dreaming that happened in a previous dream, but you think it is part of your life, while in reality this isn’t so.

DR = Dream Recall

DS = Dream Sign - A sign that a person sees in their dream that helps them realize that they are dreaming. This could be a person, place, thing, or event. An example could be: dreams of loose teeth or dreams of being nude in public. They are unique to each dreamer. Suggested by Dust Mote

DILD = Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream

EOD = End Of Dream

FA = False Awakening - This often follows a lucid dream. Usually when the lucid dream ends you seem to wake up, but you are still dreaming you just woke up. Suggested by traumgïnger

FLD = False Lucid Dream - you are NOT realizing that you’re dreaming but still you act like a lucid dreamer and do everything you want to do - but you don’t have the click you are doing all these things because you are dreaming.

FM = False Memory - Things that you remember as being a part of your life while dreaming, that never happened in real life.

HI = Hypnagogic Imagery - There is no “pop-up” for this acronym since it is a common “english greeting.” - Vivid sensory perceptions occuring while falling asleep. HI often consists of images which may eventually develop into a dream.
HH = Hypnagogic Hallucinations - Images and sounds experienced at the onset of sleep.

IRL = In Real Life
IWL = In Waking Life - terms used to distinguish reality from dreams. Suggested by Ria

LD = Lucid Dream - A dream in which you are aware you are dreaming.

LN = Lucid Nightmare - A nightmare in which you are aware you are dreaming.

LILD = Lucid Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream - Influencing the dreamworld in a lucid dream so that dream world helps you to become lucid in a NORMAL dream. For example asking a DC to come back in a normal dream and tell you that you’re dreaming. Suggested by BrainHacker

LL = Lucid Living - Maintaining, in your waking life, the same state of awareness that you experience in a Lucid Dream. Suggested by Dust Mote

MILD = Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams - Falling asleep with the presleep intention to remember to recognize the dream state. Coined by S. LaBerge

MWILD = Music Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams - The practice of WILD with the assistance of music of the dreamers choice.

ND = Normal Dream

NDE = Near Death Experience

OBE = Out of Body Experience
OOBE = Out of Body Experience - Similar to a lucid dream but the person claims to be out of their body. The enviroment mimics the real world and the person claims the details, images, and memories are much more vivid than lucid dreams. Suggested by Clairity

Q = pasQuale :wiske: - The webmistress, brains and creative force behind this website and forum. Thank you pasQuale!

RC = Reality Check - Technique used in waking life and dreams to help you become lucid. It’s simply questioning yourself about your surroundings and determining if you are dreaming. Coined by Qu

RCILD = Reality-Check-Initiated-Lucid-Dream - A lucid dream specifcally initiated through the use of reality checks.Suggested by DreamAddict

RD = Regular Dream

REM = Rapid Eye Movement - The sleep stage in which most dreams occur.

SP = Sleep Paralysis - A natural occurance during sleep to prevent the dreamer from acting out their dreams.

SG = Spirit Guide - An entity or part of the sub-conscious that guides or helps a dreamer.

ULD = Unaware Lucid Dream - You do NOT realizing that you’re dreaming but still you act like a lucid dreamer and do everything you want to do - you have the behaviour of a lucid dreamer, not the consciousness. Suggested by DutchThor

WBTB = Wake-Back-To-Bed method - is when you sleep for between 4.5 and 6 hours, get completely out of bed for half an hour or so, you should get completely awake, reading something about lucid dreaming or doing other stuff, you could eat or drink something (probably so-called lucid foods, foods which are said to improve on lucid dreaming), and then get back to bed. This method has proved to help a lot on getting lucid dreams.

WILD = Wake-Initiated Lucid Dreams - A lucid dream that starts from a waking state. Usually, the dreamer “meditates” or relaxes by other means. Then they are able to go straight from a waking state directly into a full lucid dream.


Color Codes:
Green - Indicates a type of lucid dream or a method to obtain one.

Dark Red - levels of lucidity

Orange - Sensations that your real physical body experiences.

Blue - Tools used by lucid dreamers.

Indigo - Terms used when describing a lucid dream

Olive - Indicates a slightly off-topic but common term.

Black - Not yet color coded. Or not able to be coded.

Names in parenthesis ( ) give credit to the contributor, if available.

If you feel an acronym which isn’t already in the list should be added, please reply in this thread <- link] Occasionally we may clean up this post and add yours to the list .

Thanks for the help everyone!

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