SSILD (2.0) Tutorial

it sounds like you want to “catch” yourself fall asleep, by remembering you were doing a routine in your head prior. i read through it but i didnt see anything about afternoon naps? what is your take on those? can ssild be performed or are other techniques more prominant for afternoon naps

Not really… that’s not how SSILD works – after performing the cycles you just go to sleep. There is no need to remember anything and LD does not need to be the last thing on your mind.

As for afternoon naps, they are not the most ideal for SSILD because they are normally very short. Some people do report success, but I suspect there are techniques better suited for afternoon naps than SSILD.

Read bout this technique the day i left for my vacation. It sounded quite promising so i tried it twice while on vacation. Went to bed around 10, didnt set an alarm but toilet needs woke me up. First night i didnt stay up long enough and fell asleep too faat. Although even that waking up and trying to concentrate helped my DR. The nigt after that i stayed up till i was almost completey awake and had a very short 8 second ld in which i couldnt even see. But still, i had only gotten back to lding within 2 days and already an ld? Sounds to me like succes. Tried it again this night. Went to sleep at 12, and put my alarm at 5. Maybe not my sweet spot so ill have to experiment with that. Finished my cycles and went to sleep. Dindt get an ld but DR greatly increase compared to nights i wasnt doing it. Remembering 3 dreams a night is an acomplishment for me and ill be further experimenting with this. Anyhow i think im gonna have succes with this technique and think its real good for beginners. ith this.

@ Cosmic.iron,

Can i sleep with body position turned sideways while doing this technique? And, can i change my body positions while doing the technique?

What advice you would give for increasing dream vividness, the moment i realise i am dreaming? And also i am always in third person perspective, watching myself dreaming. how can i change it to first person perspective?

Also, how do i extend my time in lucid dreams?

Thank you.

@cosmic.iron

I’ve been using the updated technique for nearly a week now, and only managed to get in one “real attempt.”

When I woke up the next morning, I had the feeling that I had a lucid dream!

This is definitely the only technique I will use from now on.

My only problem is that I still tend to wake up, make a poor attempt to do a cycle, and fall asleep. Any tips on how to combat this?

After you wake up do you leave the bed? Sounds like you are no sufficiently awake when you begin performing the cycles, which will lead to less than optimal result. Make sure you have sufficient sleep (4 hours and plus), then leave the bed or sit up for a few minutes. When performing the cycles try to really focus on the first couple of them then let go.

Yes you can sleep with any body position as long as it’s comfortable. You are also free to move around while doing the technique. Whenever you moved just perform an extra cycle to compensate and you should be fine.

After becoming lucid you can perform some stabilization techniques such as touching and examining objects, crawling on floor, shouting, and so on. Don’t worry about the perspective thing. Just try to really engage yourself into the dream by actively interacting with it and before you know it will change.

@ cosmic iron,
First of all, I wish to congratulate u for the efforts u are taking to help everyone.
Did the SSILD tech yest and had some good results, though did nt become lucid. Did it for few mins, in a rather, erratic manner and slept. No sooner, my body was knocked by a powerful blow like some hammer knocking me up. I woke up alarmed. Though this tech looks promising.

I am a student and cant dedicate much time for ld’s. As far as ur experiences are concerned as well as numerous testimonials that u have recieved, how much time, do u think, that i should dedicate for the technique as well as sleep (to induce ld’s) ? That is, after doing the technique (around 15 mins), for how much time i should sleep to induce ld’s?
Thank you.

Your welcome. :smile: While everyone is different, I think you need to give yourself at least two hours. Try waking up after 4 hours of sleep, get out of bed for a couple of minutes, return and do a few cycles (4 quick + 3 slow should be pretty good), then go to sleep. This shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes. Afterward you will probably have many awakenings (many of which may be FAs), just remember to perform a few SSILD cycles upon each one then fall back to sleep again. This kind of chaining works very well for people who don’t get a lot of sleep because it does not require you to stay out of bed for extended period. Good luck!

Cosmic Iron or anyone with suggestions:

I tried SSILD a few times since the success recorded below and I think the anticipation(I don’t seem super excited) is waking me up more than normal so I am having trouble going to sleep. Last night went to bed a little late(does going to bed earlier help with getting back to sleep?) maybe to bed by 11:15pm and got up earlier than normal around 3:45am to use the restroom. Went quickly back to bed in most comfortable position,did cycles restarting at first cycle or continuing where left off if knew where I left off, finished then tried to sleep. After a while I felt the urge to lay on my side, so I did(which tends to hurt my back, so I roll back to my back-though during the success I wonder if I stayed on my side-so my back may be a tricky factor). I also had what seemed like the beginning of about 10 different dreams(very short-maybe 2-7seconds, were dream like scenarios, not like typical daydreaming)finding myself awake in between them before dozing off after a good while (several RC’s done=awake). I suprisingly was not very tired today but was quite tired in the 2 previous times I tried after the success(took a week or so off).

Any ideas?

Positive result last night!..still some trouble sleeping but SSILD to SP to WILD(I think)will report back later.

Really awesome experience! More on that in a bit. First:

**I can’t blame ssild for my trouble getting back to sleep. This night I decided I wasn’t even going to try because I had a game the next day and wanted to be fully rested. Got up as usual to use the bathroom and had trouble getting back to sleep and I think the blame is my mind thinking about lucidity since I wasnt doing cycles. After getting up one more time and not being able to sleep I decided to the cylcles for relaxation.

That night I was reading about someones scary sleep paralysis experience and had decided if I get SP I would use what other people have sugguested or used (with SP many people see a figure or creature or alien or whatever holding them down as the minds way of explaining why they can’t move) so I decided to use imagining a beautiful woman holding me down.

What are the chances that I would have only my 2nd SP ever or maybe it was a dream where I became lucid and jumped into another dream? (First SP was maybe 8 months ago, well before I decided to get back to LD for 1st time since childhood, and at that time I didn’t know what it was and it scared the heck out of me, evil spirit style, led me to research and got me thinking about LDs again). Anyway this night after having trouble going to sleep at some point I felt a dark figure creeping over me and I immediately switched it to the beautiful woman…don’t remember seeing her but felt the paralysis, stayed calm and then had awesome vibrations through my whole body as if I was under a jet engine! After it seemed to be going 10 seconds or so I decided to jump into a grayish formation and into a dream and I was flying lucid but not real vivid at first. I was looking for an interesting place to stop…did at a green meadow with some characters I decided to shoot flames at, I guess because I had read about others trying this. I flew off somewhere else and should have wrote all this down earlier but ended up somewhere with a dark haired woman in some romantic situation and it seemed to end there.

Wow, the vibrations!!

Cosmic Iron or anyone…Still looking for a good way to not be so excited about LDing so I can sleep after the daily early morning trip to the bathroom. Before pursuing LDing I would knock right back out except rare ocassions of heavy stress. Again, on the night above I did not plan to SSILD but habitually did my RC as I got up to go the bathroom and my mind was still thinking about LDs and only later did SSILD cycles to relax after not being able to sleep.

Sorry I guess there is a ton of discussion on insomnia, and will try looking specifically for insomnia after WBTB or similar. For now I have just taken my mind off of lucidity and that takes care of it…but I want both lucidity and good sleep…ugh…

This technique looks very promising, I am a novice Lucid Dreamer and in 2 months, i tried many classical techniques (WBTB, WILD, MILD, RC etc.) with great effort and the results are very frustrating (only 2 very low lucid dream for a few seconds and 1 LD with Sleep Paralysis for 15 seconds) and my motivation started to disappear.

@cosmic.iron

I will try SSILD tonight but i want to know that; Should I continue to do constant Reality Checks in the daytime to remember to do RC in SSILD dreams? or SSILD give that awareness naturally?

Has anyone tried Thomas Yuschak’s Aminoacid Blend (Theanine, Glutamine and Aspartic Acid) when he woke up for SSILD at night? Maybe this can make it much more easier.

Good luck. Galantamine and Alpha-GPC works extremely well with SSILD.

My last night result is, i went to bed late (1.30 am.) because of my lately morning nap and couldn’t do WBTB but i did SSILD completely before sleeping and i got into a trance state and had a very deep sleep and nice dream recall. I will do this tonight with WBTB and Galantamine/Choline combination properly.

Should I continue to do constant Reality Checks in the daytime to remember to do RC in SSILD dreams? or SSILD give that awareness naturally?

I dont understand how this can be called as a new method and a fancy name like ssild. it is same as wbtb combined with wild. the basic principle is that after you wake up a few hours after sleep, mind is more conducive to lucid dreaming and then staying aware for a while carries this awareness into sleep and induces lucid dreams. the same effect can be had by meditating in the middle of your sleep, or whatever activity that maintains your awareness just before you drift off to sleep. this same principle can be individualised to see how it works for oneself. two components are very important.

  1. waking up after a few hours of sleep
    2.maintaining awareness before going to sleep.
    naming each variation of the above technique and giving it a special fancy name only adds to confusion for beginners.
    there are no shortcuts or miraculous methods for lucid dreaming. regular reality checks, meditation, maintaining awareness before sleep should be practised.

I actually never awoke and did the cycles instead my mind did the cycles when I went to sleep causing to have two FA’s and I got my first lucid dream :happy: :woo: :grin:

Nice Innerwolf! It sounds like we may both be somewhat new to this. How did you get your other LD?

My understanding is to not mix methods during bedtime only, so it should be fine and beneficial to do RCs during the day. I have seen Cosmic.Iron recommend RCs to know if you might be in a false awakening, and that takes making it a habit to verify dream in an FA or LD.

Yes, can be a type of WILD but is a specific technique that is supposed to be easy for beginners and has brought me 2 LDs out of 7 attempts as a beginner (first LD attempts since childhood). Still trying to actively pursue consistent LDs without any downsides.

For me, not the method, but the success and anticipation is affecting my being able to go back to sleep (I normally have no trouble. I wake up once nightly on average to go to the bathroom). At first I thought it was the SSILD method but found same trouble without doing the cycles/method if I am thinking much about LDs when trying to go back to sleep. In case it helps anyone with the same issue or also if anyone has suggestions for WBTB insomnia which must be a form of “middle of the night insomnia”, “maintenance insomnia” among other names I will list what I am trying to get around this issue.

-Avoid thoughts of LD including using methods during nights before work days or needing to get up early with energy.
-If I cheat and do it during work week, don’t do it 2 nights in a row (2nd night of insomnia=great exhaustion, 1 night of 45-90minutes of insomnia = not bad exhaustion next day)
-avoid night light when I get up to go to bathroom, and I stay up very little (no trouble staying alert to do cycles, though some drifting)
-close the drapes to keep the early morning light from creeping in eventually
-put in ear plugs after waking to reduce various real life noises - though I may need better ear plugs
-tried adding thinking about area 2 inches above roof of mouth to induce sleepiness -read somewhere…not sure if it or a combination of methods may have helped reduce the insomnia time to 45minutes last night and brought on SP and vibrations…didn’t transition to LD this time but fell asleep shortly after.

Tried during a nap after work (too late in the day? was 4:45pm or so)

After doing cycles and not going to sleep I tried the following for the first time in addition to retrying some of the above methods mentioned.

-one less blanket to stay cooler (though weather was nice)
-nasal spray to reduce nasal drainage, increase comfort
-thought about the “mini-dreams” that were drifting into my head and trying to figure out the origin - odd thoughts much like regular dreams - seemed different from daydreams which seem to have more logic but want to research further. One involved a female with a very specific unique face that I don’t remember seeing anywhere-perhaps from my dreams.
-finally what seemed most effective and tried last (all of these were after cycles and while trying to go to sleep) - android app named “binaural beats therapy” using the sleep induction setting.

I feel fairly sure I would have slept, but too much family noise in the house after I started. Even though I believe I never slept(only did one RC=awake), I eventually got up after 1.25 hours very upbeat and refreshed, at least for a few hours. I attribute the refreshed feeling to having relaxed and rested and the binaural beats, but I am unsure.