Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Senses Initiated Lucid Dream (SSILD) Official Tutorial

Background

SSILD is a modern lucid dreaming technique. It is easy to learn, highly effective, and produces consistent results over period. I developed this technique in 2011 in order to teach lucid dreaming to fellow dreamers on a Chinese forum. The first written version of the technique was published under the title "太玄功", which literally translates to "A Very Mysterious Technique". This is rather fitting because at the time no one had the faintest idea why it worked. Despite this lack of theory, the feedback on the technique was overwhelmingly positive. Within just a few months we gathered many hundreds of success stories!

Building on this initial success, we continued to refine the technique, and it essentially became a collaborated effort among hundreds of people. The tutorial went through a few revisions, and with each version we saw improvements in ease of use and effectiveness. A year later I wrote the first English version of the tutorial and published it on a few lucid dream online forums. This time I chose the name "Senses Initiated Lucid Dream", partly to conform to the unofficial but widely accepted naming convention of LD techniques, and partly due to increased knowledge and understanding gained during the past year.

While people on these forums appear more slow to embrace a brand new technique, the result was nonetheless quite promising. Between DreamViews and LD4All, there are more than a hundred success stories recorded in 9 months, within only two threads.

Today, SSILD has become one of the most popular LD induction techniques on the Chinese forum, which has grown to host more than 80,000 members. The numbers of success stories are too numerous to count. Another exciting aspect is SSILD's long-term sustainability. Whereas many techniques appear to become less effective over period as the users' initial enthusiasm wane, SSILD delivers consistent performance, turning novices to experts, and experts to masters. For example, more than a dozen members on my tiny personal forum are able to induce LDs on a daily basis. One of them even logged nearly 500 LDs/OBEs in full detail within less than a year, a remarkable achievement by all means.

Design Philosophy

SSILD is designed from the ground up to be simple, "idiot-proof" even. It does not utilize advanced techniques such as relaxation and visualization, and stays away from delicate, non-measurable mental exercises. It despises the notion that lucid dreaming is more "art" than "technique". It does not require you to be gifted or creative, in fact, there is little room for improvisation. Just follow the simple steps outlined here and you should be all set. SSILD is made so concise that if you mix in other stuff you may actually end up creating negative impact on its performance.

The "Cycle"

The core component of SSILD is called a "Cycle". Each cycle consists three steps:

Focus on Sight: Close your eyes and pay attention to the darkness behind your closed eyelids. Don't strain your eye muscles though. Your eyeballs should be resting, totally relaxed. If you don't see anything that's only normal. Do not attempt to spot visuals by moving your eyes around.

Focus on Hearing: Further relax your eyes and shift your attention to your ears. If the room is quiet enough you might be able to hear some noise inside your head or the sound of your heartbeat. However, if you can't hear anything it is okay to listen to external sounds too.

Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): Direct your attention to your body. Feel it and see if you spot any unusual sensations such as tingling, heaviness, lightness, spinning sensations, and so on. If nothing like these can be felt, you can also try to feel the weight of the blanket, your heartbeat, temperature of the air, etc.

The repeated stimulation on the senses enables SSILD to condition our mind and body into a subtle state that is optimized for lucid dream to occur naturally. We should keep this in mind so we don't make the common mistake of "trying too hard" during the cycles. Beginners usually want to see things, hear things, and feel things. When nothing unusual happens they become discouraged or even desperate. Avoid this mistake at all cost! One should not expect to experience anything phenomenal during the Cycle. In fact, it is better to expect NOTHING at all will happen.

The Steps

1. Go to bed early, preferably before 11pm. Set your alarm to wake up after 4 or 5 hours.

2. Get out of bed and stay awake for 5-10 minutes. I suggest you visit the bathroom, rinse your mouth, and walk around or stretch a little bit. Try not to become too awake though.

3. Return to bed and lie down in a comfortable position, preferably different from the one you usually use. This is to prevent you from falling into sleep prematurely. However, if you are the type of person who requires extra effort to fall asleep, you may want to use the usual position instead.

4. Perform the "Cycle" quickly, repeat 4-6 times. This serves as a warm-up exercise so each step should be very short, a few seconds should be sufficient.

5. Perform the "Cycle" slowly, repeat 3-4 times. This step is the most important one. You should take extra time during each step. Thanks to step 4, at this point you should have become sufficiently relaxed and you will find focusing on the senses become much easier. For example, your eyes will feel more relaxed, and you may get visuals such as lights, colors, or movements. You might also notice that the external sounds seem to be fading into the background. Do not get excited though. You should observe quietly and after a while move on to other senses. As far as timing goes we are flexible, but in general each step should take no fewer than 30 seconds.

During the slow cycles, you may become distracted by a lot of random thoughts. This is a good indication that you are close to falling asleep. Do not try to suppress these thoughts -- they are your friends. Imagine they are gentle waves and let them carry you and wash you away from the shore of reality. You will occasionally become alert and realize you have lost track of your exercise. No worry, just start from the beginning of a cycle and you should be fine.

6. Return to the most comfortable position and allow yourself fall into sleep as quickly as possible. Do not think too much and do not worry if it will work. The quicker you can fall asleep the more likely it will work. Have faith!

What happens next

One key characteristic of SSILD is that it is neither a WILD nor DILD technique. It is a hybrid. As such, it is important to become familiar with all the possible scenarios so you will maximize your chances.

1. Hypnagogia: when we enter a dream consciously, we often encounter various unusual hypnagogic sensations. These include the sensation of falling, floating, seeing lights and images, hearing sharp noises, and many more. In fact, sometimes you may encounter sensations so strange that they are beyond words. When we encounter these sensations, chances are we are already in a dream, or getting really close. SSILD is known to cause hypnagogia during the Cycles (although this effect should NOT be sought after). It's also not uncommon for you to wake up suddenly while being bombarded by intense hypnagogic sensations. When this happens you should not become excited. Be a passive observer and wait for the sensations to amplify. You could also nudge them a little bit mentally, but do not overdo it. As soon as the sensations become clearly identifiable you should be able to perform a successful reality check and get up. Typically the dream will start from your bedroom because subconsciously that's where you expect you will be. You can also stay in bed longer and use visualization to create a dream scene manually. In any event, it is important for you to stay calm when encountering hypnagogia. Do not speak to yourselves or analyze it mentally as doing so can cause the sensations to fade and eventually wake you up.

2. False Awakening: SSILD is known to cause a lot of FAs. Not any FA, but some super-realistic ones! A typical scenario goes like this -- you finished doing SSILD and fell asleep. Then suddenly you wake up. No lucid dreams, perhaps not even a normal dream! Feeling disappointed you get out of the bed... then you wake up again! It was all but a dream! SSILD's ability to frequently create this type of FAs have been well-documented by now. Therefore, you should definitely develop the habit of performing a reality check upon each awakening after doing SSILD, no matter how convinced you are about your not being in a dream. Another possible scenario is that you slip into sleep during a SSILD cycle, and an FA immediately takes over. When this happens you may suddenly feel awake and it seems you are about to suffer insomnia. Some users complained that SSILD was causing them to lose sleep, only later found out they had been doing SSILD cycles in their dreams! Once you learn to catch these FAs your chance of success will be greatly improved.

3. DILD: When you fall asleep from SSILD, you enter your dreams with heightened awareness. As a result, lucid dreams occur. This is called Dream Initiated Lucid Dream (DILD). With heightened awareness, you may be able to spot oddities in dreams and in turn become lucid. It is also very common for spontaneous lucid dreams to occur -- you suddenly become lucid for no apparent reason.

4. Real Awakening: You wake up again after doing SSILD. You do a reality check and this time it is real. Do not despair. You still have chances. Try to stay still, and immediately relax your head, allowing the back of it to sink into the pillow. Then you need to perform a few extra medium-paced SSILD cycles. At this stage it is quite possible for you to encounter strong hypnagogia sensations. If not, just finish the cycles and go to sleep. You will have a much higher chance to succeed this time.

FAQ

Q: Can I do SSILD when I go to sleep?

A: Yes you can, but it won't work. When you go to bed you typically start with a lot of NREM sleeps which are not ideal for lucid dream to occur. The level of acetylcholine (an important neurotransmitter which is a major driving force for lucid dreams) is also at lower level. Trying to lucid dream with any technique at this stage is a waste of time, even though this is the favorite mistake virtually every beginners make.

Q: I'm used to go to bed late or have to get up early, can I still use SSILD?

A: I suggest you do SSILD only when you have sufficient time. Even though it does not take up a lot of time to perform, you WILL be losing some sleeps. As such, for people who never get enough sleep, your best bet is to do SSILD at leisure.

Q: Can I combine other breathing, meditation, relaxation techniques during or prior to doing SSILD?

A: No. As mentioned earlier, SSILD is all about "conditioning". You condition your mind and body to the most optimal state for lucid dream to occur. This state, however, is very delicate. Mixing in other techniques will likely interfere with this state and cause negative impact on SSLID's performance. You're free to create your own routines once you master the technique, but for beginners I expect you to adhere to the instructions in this manual.

Q: I get this itch... how am I supposed to stay still?

A: You are not supposed to stay still! If you have an itch just scratch it. If you want to roll you roll. With SSILD you need to stay as comfortable as possible! Just do an extra cycle to compensate and you will be fine. This is in fact a major advantage over virtually all other methods.

Q: My eyes strain/hurt when focusing on visions...

A: Remember, you should NOT expect to see anything, so relax already! Do not strain your eye muscles. Your eyeballs should be resting, if not staying still. Performing a few quick cycles will also help you relax.

Q: I can't feel anything when doing the cycles...

A: We cannot stress this more -- it is OKAY to not feel anything, and it is WRONG if you actively pursue it and expect things to happen during the cycles. With the cycles you are setting a timer for the bomb to go off. You don't expect a bomb to go off WHILE you are setting the timer do you? Sure, it does go off occasionally...

Q: I got insomnia after doing SSILD...

A: Actually, performing SSILD correctly is likely to cure your insomnia. There is a remarkable resemblance between SSILD and Betty Erickson's self-hypnosis routine! Now back to the question. We need to first identify if we are taking about "real insomnia" or "false insomnia". Remember, SSILD likes to create these super realistic false awakenings. It is very possible for you to enter an FA while still performing the SSILD cycles. In this case you will be trying to fall asleep while you are already sleeping! Next time you find yourself unable to fall asleep during a cycle, you should definitely perform a reality check, no matter how convinced you are! For people who indeed suffers loss of sleep due to SSILD, I suggest you tweak your routines in two areas: 1. Reduce the amount of sleep before waking up for SSILD. 2. Reduce the time you spend on staying awake prior to the exercise.

121 comments:

  1. This is a very good tutorial. Great job :D

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  2. ok so i tried this method for a while but i didn't get any results :(

    usualy it goes like this: i get up with an alarm clock or naturally(mostly in the early morning) then when i don't sleep right away or become to awake i do the cycles. while i do them i usually forget to and i do 1 or 2 extra cycles,just to make sure, then i sleep, but i don't have any lucids, or dreams for that matter.

    is there any idea why it doesn't work for me??????

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    1. Sorry for the late reply. I got really busy lately. Anyway, it is difficult for me to diagnose your routine without knowing more details. One thing you should be careful is False Awakening. FAs are extremely common with SSILD and sometimes they are difficult to detect. Therefore it is essential that you perform reality checks upon each and every subsequent awakenings after doing SSILD.

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    2. daniel(the person who was anonymous)May 28, 2013 at 11:57 AM

      ok so after trying the method for a while i yesterday got my first lucid, or to be exact, semi-lucid dream. it was really blurry but at least it worked :P

      what usually happens is i go to sleep after setting up an alarm for 6 hours(for the WBTB part) at somewhere between 12am and 2am, i have a very temporary sleep cycle, then i wake up and go to sleep right away since i don't want to lose my tierdness. i do the fast cycles and slow ones but usually i'll go into trance and forget how many cycles i did so i restart for a previous cycle or just fall asleep to soon :(

      i should note that sometimes my brain "wakes up" from the trance and then i restart from the previous cycle.

      after doing that(if i succeeded in not sleeping) i turn around in bed alot so i do one cycle every time i turn to just make sure and then i go to sleep and pray to god it works,not literally though :P

      and that's pretty much it, but how will i find those FA's aside from RC's? i mean, won't i wake up after i dreamt and know i dreamt??????

      thanks again for the technique


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    3. daniel(the person who was anonymous)June 12, 2013 at 7:05 AM

      ok so now i need help in another thing: i didn't get much time for practicing the technique and the main reason is that i have alot of studying to do and the other one which is even worse is the fact that i'm never tired!!!!! even during the morning after waking up, sometimes i just find myself not tired enough to fall asleep.is there any way i can get around that?????

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    4. That can be problematic. In this case I suggest you to consider:

      1. Get up a little early, such as after 3 or 4 hours.
      2. Do not stay out of bed for too long. Just a quick bathroom visit and immediately return to bed.
      3. Do fewer cycles.
      4. Chain the cycles upon each awakening.

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    5. daniel(the person who was anonymous)July 5, 2013 at 12:33 PM

      Thanks i'll try those, unfortunately, i really haven't had an LD with this method ever since that semi lucid, not really any dreams for that matter!!!

      could this be because i don't check for reality checks, or maybe it just dosen't work?

      I really am confused...

      I still do it the usual way, though this time I go to sleep a bit earlier (about 23:00-00:30) then i wake up at 7:30AM for some reason.I do the fast cycles, then go for the slow ones.
      I still turn around in bed alot and often slip into a trance but I make up for it with an extra cycle or maybe restart from the previous one, I also do a cycle for every time I turn because that's what you said to do in your FAQ'S.Then I(hopefully) go to sleep.

      I really think this method has great potential,
      I hope to see it soon...

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    6. daniel(the person who was anonymous)August 12, 2013 at 4:59 AM

      welp i gave up :(

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    7. Try to wake up before 7:30, maybe 6:00 or 5:00

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    8. don't give up! that pesemistic attitude is probably why you failed at it! it seems to me that the only thing you are lacking is proper dream recall. Until you can semi-consistently (4 days out of the week) remember at the very least 2 whole dreams, dont give up. if even after that you aren't successful and you still want to have an LD, then seek out help. ONLY until then, do you even think about giving up.

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    9. I have done ssild for 2 days now and the first night nothing really happend because i fell asleep while doing the warm up cycles lol and the second day i got some vivid dreams did i make progress?

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  3. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. I am a novice with Lucid Dreaming and I thought my best chance would be with DEILD. However, I only get up at night to use the restroom, so that really ruins any chances of DEILDing. But with SSILD using the bathroom is helpful? Looks like my kind of Induction method!

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    1. Sigh... Blogger ate my reply so I have to type it all over again...

      Anyway, visiting bathroom is very helpful and works extremely well with SSILD. You do need to experiment to find the perfect timing though. The rule of thumb is that the earlier you get up, the longer you should stay out of bed. However, you need to be careful and do not stay awake for so long that you can no longer fall back to sleep. Although SSILD works well with WBTB, this combination is not mandatory. In fact, the more proficient you become with SSILD, the less time you need to spend out of bed. Nowadays I just go to the bathroom and immediately go back to bed. I then perform a few SSILD and cycles and quickly fall back to sleep. Upon first awakening I'd relax the back of my head and focus on hearing. Within a few seconds I will have a successful WILD. This works 100% of the time.

      IMO, DEILD is not very effective and not so easy either. It is one of those techniques that sound perfect on paper but not so amazing in practice.

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  4. I am confused by your terminology at point 5. It seems sometimes you use the word "step" to apply to different things - at one point you seem to use the word "step" where the word "cycle" would've made matters clearer. Please clarify what you mean by this:

    "As far as timing goes we are flexible, but in general each step should take no fewer than 30 seconds."

    Now, do you mean step as meaning: each sensory focus, the cycle, or what?

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    1. My apologies. Yes I meant the "cycles".

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    2. Thanks CI.

      Incidentally, I notice that there's a kind of "pre-cycle cycle" added to the technique now that wasn't there before when you published on DV and other places. How do you decide how you will experiment with the technique? Do you rely on others to improve the technique or do you come up with experiments and get others to test them? If so, how do you get ideas for experiments?

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    3. The quick cycles are a major and very important addition to this version of SSILD. Its development was based on a lot of feedbacks from users on my personal forum. On the forum we exchange ideas on daily basis, commenting on each other's practices. This process enables us to quickly identify problems with the technique as well as coming up with solutions. I do manage to come up with most of the ideas though, primarily based on my personal experience. The good thing is that people are very enthusiastic and they go experiment with these ideas right away so immediately we know whether they are effective or not.

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    4. Is this correct?

      On returning to bed, if performed verbatim (which it won’t be, of course!) we get this:

      MINI-CYCLES

      Mini-cycle one:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      Mini-cycle two:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      Mini-cycle three:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      Mini-cycle four:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      Mini-cycle five:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      Mini-cycle six:

      Focus on sight: for a few seconds
      Focus on hearing: for a few seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for a few seconds

      PROPER-CYCLES

      Proper-cycle one:

      Focus on sight: for thirty seconds
      Focus on hearing: for thirty seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for thirty seconds

      Proper-cycle two:

      Focus on sight: for thirty seconds
      Focus on hearing: for thirty seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for thirty seconds

      Proper-cycle three:

      Focus on sight: for thirty seconds
      Focus on hearing: for thirty seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for thirty seconds

      Proper-cycle four:

      Focus on sight: for thirty seconds
      Focus on hearing: for thirty seconds
      Focus on Somesthetic Senses (Touch): for thirty seconds






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    5. Yes... you can go by that routine. However, I'd suggest not to be so precise. The 30-second suggestion is meant to be a reference only. In practice you really shouldn't be counting. In fact, if you do it right you will discover that your mind drifts so much that you often lose track of time!

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  5. Thanks Cosmic. Looking forward to experimenting!

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    1. No problem. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

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  6. Wow! This is gonna be pretty awesome. Can't wait to try it tonight! :)

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    1. Good luck! Let me know if you have questions.

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  7. Really like this method! Some odd FA's with it all right. Lots of us over at World of Lucid Dreaming are finding this effective ( and an interesting experience). I see how some try to liken it to that OBE 'The Phase' method ( Michael R someone; forget the name); but I find this SSILD is certainly not the same as his. This one is far less dependant on 'precision'. I do think the freedom to move if you need to; and the more 'relaxed' approach has something to do with the success.

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    1. Thank you, and our observation that the phase methods required "precision", whereas SSILD uses a relaxed approach is very well put. This indeed is a defining characteristic of SSILD.

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  8. I had a lucid dream last night!
    Thank you!

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    1. That's great! Thank you for posting the result! :)

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  9. "Focus on Sight: Close your eyes and pay attention to the darkness behind your closed eyelids. Don't strain your eye muscles though. Your eyeballs should be resting, totally relaxed. If you don't see anything that's only normal"

    It's not accurate (not in my experience, anyway) to say you don't see anything, is it? When you close your eyes you see a swirling pattern of blacks and greys with some areas lighter than others.

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    1. That really depends on the individual as well as the timing and other conditions, IMO.

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  10. I couldn't get the "standard" SSILD above to work so I experimented a bit and my variation has been successful for me. I've got some other possible experiments I'd like to try; not sure what experiments you've done, cosmic, and what sort of experiments you'd be interested in doing. Do you want me to put the experiment ideas on here cosmic or would you like me contact you some other way?

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    1. Please feel free to post your experience/experiments here so other people can learn from. Thank you!

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  11. How long can a lucid dream take. I m working to stabilize my lucid dreams

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    1. That really depends. If you can chain them then it's possible to have them last a long time. Each single LD though is usually less than 40 minutes, often significantly less.

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  12. This is one of the experiments I tried with SSILD. It incorporates some visualisation. I am not sure what experiments you have done, cosmic, so not sure what lines of experimentation I am able to rule out.

    For the visual part, I visualised a black "wall" in front of my eyes with a white dot (a hole) in the middle. For the hearing part, I just listened to the "ringing" in my head. For the feeling, I felt my eyeballs in a static position (but relaxed position) staring at the white dot of the wall.

    When the dream began, I had tunnel vision and instantly realised it was a dream.

    The second night I tried this it didn't work and I went on to try other experiments I was keen to try(none has worked).

    What are your thoughts on this?

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  13. Is the order see/hear/feel important? Does the tech work just as well if you did, say, feel/see/hear?

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    1. It's NOT important. Do it in whatever order you wish, and at some point you may lose track of the orders all together - which is a good thing when it happens.

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    2. This is my idea. Let me know what you think:

      You could make the feeling part the "default" - by that I mean it's the first part of the cycle you do (thus feel/see/hear) and it's the FIRST one you go back to after you lose focus/drift to sleep slightly. Instead of just feeling the body, you could attempt a "gentle" levitation instead.

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  14. Umm, can i ask about the cycle
    Should i do all of it at the same time or do it one at a time?

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    1. One at a time initially. In the end it doesn't really matter. Chances are, as you get closer to falling asleep and random thoughts popping up everywhere, you may notice that you are losing track of the cycles, or doing them all at the same time. This is a good sign that you should drop everything and go to sleep, and wait for magic to happen :)

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    2. Well, it's 10PM here, gonna try, thanks :D

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  15. Could SSILD be coupled with the Cycle Adjustment Technique? Just in case you're not familiar with it, I basically wake up 90 minutes earlier than usual for a week, then alternate normal and 90 minute early wake up times each day after the first week. I go to bed at the same time every day. Would changing my sleep schedule like this interfere with SSILD?

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    1. I think CAT will work with SSILD. Please let us know how it turns out should you decide to experiment with it! Thanks!

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  16. Thank you so much for this! The tutorial is very clear and I can't wait to try it out, but I was wondering: are the cycles associated with Sleep Paralysis, are the cycles ARE Sleep Paralysis or have nothing to do with that phenomenon? And I was also wondering: can your chances be lower or greater with age? Believe it or not, I myself am actually thirteen years old, so I was just curious if that could effect my chances. (My mum has lucid dreams naturally, so I got interested). Please let me know what you think! c:

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    1. It has nothing to do with sleep paralysis. In fact, Lucid Dreaming has NOTHING to do with sleep paralysis, and that argument could be made against hypnogogia too.

      I don't think it has anything to do with age. If at all, it's probably easier to do it younger.

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  17. I have used a fan to help me do SSILD. For the seeing step I'll "see" the wall behind the fan. For the hearing step I'll just listen to the fan. For the feeling step I'll just feel the breeze from the fan hitting my face.

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    1. Pun intended?

      Hi, currently I'm a beginner without even one LD under my belt, I'm just wondering if we can practice the technique before we actually do it? Like practice before going to sleep?
      I'm going to try it tonight since it's 20:27 PM here, so fingers crossed.
      If it works be sure to expect a lot - I mean some thanks. *cough*.
      Thanks for posting this anyways.
      -Anonymoose

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  18. The ability for someone to elicit a Lucid Dream State is simply just a matter of practice and training.
    Thanks

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    1. True, but only if the techniques chosen are indeed effective.

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  19. Man, I have been enormously frustrated with the standard techniques. All except dream journaling. I do have very weak and foggy LD's once a week or so when I don't have a good night of sleep but my results have been meager at best.
    I tried your technique just as described last night and I had two LD's! In the first I was doing the technique while dreaming, wondering why it seemed to be giving me insomnia, until the dream turned into something cartoonish, then I became lucid. The second one was longer.
    This was after my first ever attempt!

    Question, why not engage all 5 senses? Such as whatever taste is in your mouth or whatever you're smelling? Why just sight, sensation, and hearing?

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    1. Engaging all 5 senses might be too complicated, but you are more than welcome to experiment! :)

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  20. Last night, my second time trying this, I had 3 lucid dreams! I even had a beer, which of course ruins REM sleep, and I didn't even fall asleep doing the method fully. I just stopped it and went to sleep withing 30 secs or so. I was finally able to stay lucid for more than a flash of moment, and I began to play with flying and interacting with dream characters. My dreams are not extremely vivid yet, but that's one weak spot I've always had. Lack of a vivid emotional or sensory experience in my dreams.
    Thank you for this method. This is the only method with an acceptable effort to reward ratio.

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    1. Thats great! Dream vividness is dependent on a lot of factors, least of which involves skill :) Hopefully as you produce more LDs you will get some truly amazing ones!

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  21. After precisely a year of having little successful Lucid Dreams (4-5) This seems perfect!
    Thank you thank you THANK YOU for inspiring me to try again. I have gained a lot of hope from this!

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    1. Your welcome! Feel free to write me if you have any questions! Good luck and happy dreaming!

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  22. What do you recommend as stabilization technique for SSILD induced OBE's ? specially when your dream body is dormant and your vision is impaired, and also when the it´s night in the OBE environment?


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  23. Hi Cosmic Iron,
    I have tried out SSILD several times and it works great!
    I am planning to conduct a scientific study on SSILD (I am a PhD student from Germany). Could I ask you some questions via email about SSILD? Would be awesome if you could give me your mail address (maybe just send me a mail to krisappel [at} uni-osnabrueck [dot} de)...
    Best
    Kris

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    1. No problem! Feel free to email me at cosmic.iron@gmail.com. Cheers!

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  24. Hi cosmiciron. I did 7 straight nights of SSILD to start of 2014 and got lucid on 4 of them! Also had several OBEs complete with vibrations, which surprised me. Thank you for putting in the effort to introduce this technique to the english speaking world, despite sometimes unappreciative audiences. I for one would be making slower progress without it.

    I also have a question based on my experiences. It seems like on the on the nights I was succesful, I went back to bed feeling like I was too tired and would probably have a subpar performance, but I made myself go through the cycles anyway for the sake of the experiment. Before, I thought that I should get sufficiently awake to do the cycles well enough that I could notice the "trance" state, instead of barely managing to squeeze all 4 of them out of my tired brain. I often felt frustrated that I would have to do go through so many more senses before I could sleep, and I mostly didn't notice any effects. I drifted off often, but felt it was due to tiredness rather than SSILD's effects. What do you think about this? Was I doing it right when I thought I was too tired? Thanks for any advice.

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    1. So you noticed a higher success rate when you were *more* tired, and when you did a "worse" job of following the technique? It seems from reading closely that the subtle theme of this technique is in being extremely passive and non-perfectionist about the method. This seems to be the mysterious component many people don't "get" until they've already had success with the technique. I personally have tried half-heartedly doing SSILDs and have had many cool experiences but no lucid success.

      Maybe there is a way to word this subtle "paradoxical"/"confusing" aspect of the technique, the part about just letting yourself drift off and not "trying" too hard? Somebody who has had success with the technique, ( @cosmiciron ) could you help us understand this part? maybe put it eloquently in a way we can remember?

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  25. Hi Cosmic Iron!
    Thank you so much for this tutorial!
    I have one question: If I get really tired after just a few cycles, should i go to sleep or wake myself up to start all over again?

    Greetings from Germany

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    1. Your welcome! If you get tired you should immediately let go and go to sleep. Chances are you will automatically wake up shortly after and there is a good chance it will be some kind if false awakening. It is important to perform reality check upon each awakening.

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    2. thank you! :)

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  26. Hello Cosmic Iron:)
    I'm a LD beginner. The past 3 weeks I have practised DILD and have had 3 lucid dreams, the first two very short. I found your tutorial on Dreamviews yesterday, and this night I had 3 (long-ish) lucid dreams! LD increase of 100%, it is crazy. Just wanted to say thank you:)

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  27. Cant wait to try this method out thank u so very much for posting

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  28. First off, Thank You for this CosmicIron. Your technique seems to have help numerous people. I have been trying induction for only 2 nights now. WBTB+MILD 1st night, and WBTB+SSILD 2nd night. no LD last night but had first false awakening of my life. for some reason even though i was getting up numerous times during night and performing RCs like counting fingers, and pulling thumb, i'm not sure if i did it during my FA. Also, in my FA i had a point where i found an emergency light under my bedsheets and that dint trigger lucidity. Is it possible for RCs to give normal results in the dreamworld? Anyway, your method seems very promising i will try it for at least a month to see the results....

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  29. Btw, in this blogpost you tell us to do the short cycles for a "a few seconds". Is 5 enough? Also, if we are only doing the cycles for a few seconds, we wont be supposed to drift off during this stage, will we?

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  30. I've done this technique wrong multiple ways and times with my REM sleep decreased under the effects of cannabis and I still got lucid dreams every single time, albeit very short ones. I'm a newbie though.

    On my first time I had a false awakening... that I tried to DEILD inside the dream while experiencing a far too realistic hypnagogia with creepy well women dancing and approaching me. I got pissed instead of scared and achieved lucidity.

    Thanks lol.

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  31. I the results of this technique seemed to slow and then stop and I gave up on lucid dreaming. I've done this 3-4 times in the past two years where I simply give up on a technique. I think my main problem is that I fall asleep too quickly. Could I begin doing this with the lights on or my eyes open?

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    1. Yes, you can probably do that with the lights on or your eyes open, if you manage to sleep after that.

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  32. Hi, I tried this the other night but it was hard to get back to sleep. While I was doing SSILD though I felt weird vibrations in my chest-belly. When I tried to go to sleep after doing SSILD it was hard to fall asleep, I had a qeezy feeling in and below my chest area like that feeling you get when youre really high up and look down. I did a reality check and wasnt dreaming though I think amd when I did fall asleep I didnt become lucid. It was my first night trying though but is there a way to solve this or any tips?

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  33. Hi! I tries this method last night and had a pretty bad experience with it. I woke up 5 hours after I went to sleep, quickly went to the bathroom which took about 2 mins, turned no lights on and went right back into my bed. I did all of the cycles exactly as they were described here but I just could not fall asleep for the life of me. It wasn't false awakenings because I did many reality checks. It took me almost 2 hours to finally fall back asleep. Any ideas as of why this happened?

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  34. Has anyone else noticed that SSILD has an effect on their libido? It's definitely a positive effect! I do SSILD and wake up in the morning like a dog on heat.

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  35. I think this technique would be even more effective if one practiced awareness techniques throughout the day such as ADA. I've been having trouble getting lucid in dreams but this technique triggered some sort of partial lucidity on my first try so its a good start. Thanks for sharing.

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  36. Thank you for the clearly explained method! I'll try this method tonight, and will report back if it induces a lucid dream. :)
    ~SleepyCat3

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  37. This could be an experiment to try: I started doing relaxation exercises in the evening - usually between 6.30 and 7.30 pm. Without much deliberate effort I started using SSILD as a meditation technique. Suddenly my dreams became very vivid and my recall was very good. I just did normal SSILD about 7pm, then nothing - just went to sleep normally about 10pm without even expecting anything. My thoughts were not even about LDing. Who would like to try?

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  38. I had two lucid dreams the first time I used it!!! Im going to practice every night so I will keep everyone posted!!!

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  39. I had two lucid dreams the first time I used it!!! Im going to practice every night so I will keep everyone posted!!!

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  40. I had two lucid dreams the first time I used it!!! Im going to practice every night so I will keep everyone posted!!!

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    1. That's great! You might need to adjust the technique further (timing, effort, etc) to suit you better and achieve more consistent results. Anyway, do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

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  41. Hey! I find you method very intetersting and perspective. I tried it for a month fairly often (above 10 times), but it is very difficult for me to fall asleep after it. I may lay and insomnia for more than 2 hours. And it were not FA, because i have big experience in Raduga's indirect method and LDs for 4 years.
    Surprisingly, but all times when i tired by insomnia and fallen asleep in the morning, i still have LD's and indirect phases!
    I will try to do cycles max sleepily, may be i can catch SSILD without insomnia:) Because it seemes me more physiological and closer to the cause of LDs, then MR Indirect.
    Thank if you will comment my experience

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  43. Hi Iron, thanks for the clear explanation. I wanted to ask you what do you think about afternoon naps, are they suitable for this technique?

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    1. A few people seem to have success with this technique during afternoon naps, but in general the sleep time may not be sufficient to warrant higher success rate.

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  45. Wow, I tried SSILD this afternoon and had, I don't know exactely how many LDs... it was like my mind was super mindful and I could recognize the dream state as I was completely awake. I tried the nose RC and could feel my breathe flowing normally even though my nose was completely close... incredible..first attempt great success... thanks Iron

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  47. Today my second success...I'd say a DILD obtained thanks to the SSILD cicles done just before my afternoon nap. In my dream i was trying to get asleep in a terrace on the fifth floor and thought that would have been much better to stay on the ground floor to not risk to fall from the balcony, when out of the blue, I realized I was dreaming and then I threw myself from the terrace becoming immediately lucid...wow.. I put my finger through the other hand tasting the beautiful sensation to be ...pierceable ahahahahha

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  48. Hi Cosmic Iron. Is there any chance you could share your first students journal? As a help guide for other novices?

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  49. Thanks to this technique, that I tried yesterday for the first time, I could turn a nightmare into a lucid dream and then I had another lucid dream after that. I already had a few lucid dreams before this, but it was a month since I had my last lucid dream. I think I'll use this technique more often. Thank you for the detailed tutorial, it's well written and easy.

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  50. CI, This is great of you to post all this. It will help many people. I do have some questions though regarding something you posted on dreamviews-

    "For beginners you can try this -- you wake up from SSILD. You are absolutely certain you are awake. Don't despair. Relax and allow your head to sink into the pillow. Focus on your nose and imagine that you are lifting your hand to pinch it. You probably will feel some weight on your nose and that's great. That sensation will help you. It is the sensation caused by your imaginary fingers pinching it. Once you manage to feel that your fingers have grabbed your nose you can try breathe. If you can breath the you are already in a dream. Don't let go of your fingers,. Keep focusing on them and roll out of your bed. Voila, you are in your dream world. Keep in mind -- I'm not talking about false awakening here. This is real awakening. But if you do what I say, with practice, you may be able to turn these real awakenings into lucid dreams, even AFTER you have physically moved. That's the beauty of SSILD."

    This isn't clear to me.

    OK, we wake up after having done SSILD. Allow our head to sink into pillow. That I get. But the nose pinching. We should just *imagine* it being done by our fingers? Because you say "If you can breath the you are already in a dream". I don't understand this. If we are actually awake, and just imagining fingers on our nose, then we would be able to breathe as well. Also... Should we physically roll out of bed now, even if we ARE awake, just to establish the habit? Sorry if I'm being slow about this. And thanks for your help!

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  51. Hey

    Approximately how long should it take a person to complete steps 4 & 5? I'm worried that I am taking too long in going through the cycles slowly.Also if you lose focus during a cycle should you restart?

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  52. Hi! I like how the steps are simple and can't wait to try it out, but is it required to get out of bed when the alarm wakes you? It's really hard for me to get back to sleep if I move around.

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  53. I have aphantasia. I've been trying to enter a lucid dream for almost 5 years using visualization techniques, but being unable to see anything, I have been unsuccessful. 2 days after reading this technique and trying it out, I entered my first lucid dream last night--and it was awesome.

    Thank you so much for this.

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  56. Thanks for the method! I'll try lucid dreaming tonight.

    I've been trying for a few days now, and I keep a dream diary and do reality checks. I even ask my friends to ask me 'Are you dreaming?' throughout the day. I really hope this works!

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  57. Hi, I just wanted to let you know that your FAQ has become a quite popular topic over at LD4all 8) You might be surprised by the number of replies it has gotten by now.

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  58. Hi First time trying SSILD and it worked! It was my my first time LD ever. It started by a FA but in completely different bedroom. RT done by pinching my nose. It lasted copuple of minutes (I was flying xD) but then it changed to different dream and I lost my lucidity. Thanks again for posting this.

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  59. Wow...Well, uh I'm very new to this and I've been trying to become lucid for a few days...I find it very fascinating. I have not been successful yet...because the first night I was so excited and expectant that I was so disappointed when nothing happened (and on top of THAT I didn't even remember a normal dream)

    Then last night (my second night) I was also unsuccessful. This is how it went:

    I went to bed at 10:30pm and I listened to binaural beats for about 45 minutes before that. I also turned off all technology as well an hour before hand which is what another article advised. I went to bed in complete darkness and went to sleep like usual.

    I told myself, "I WILL have a lucid dream tonight" repeatedly and then I set an alarm for 4:40am.

    When I woke up at the alarm, I stayed up for about maybe 10 minutes...? Then I layed still and successfully went into sleep paralysis, and tried to relax.

    ...Eventually the sleep paralysis got REALLY uncomfortable, so I had to wake my body up and sleep in a "roll over" position.

    And for once I DID dream, but I did not become lucid...*cries*

    I managed to remember two regular dreams... but nothing special unfortunately...

    I know these things take time and I should be patient, so I've tried doing reality checks all day today and even drew a picture of a landscape I am hoping for in my lucid dream.. But it's hard to tell what will work...

    It's just, I hear stories about these people saying lucid dreaming is so fun and easy for them...*sigh* but really I'm just praying for one...that's really what I've been putting my mind to.

    So the basic idea of what I should do tonight is set an alarm just like I did before, only this time do "cycles" to relax the senses and don't try to be still and strain myself, right?

    Hmm..I guess what I don't understand is HOW I'm supposed to know when I'm dreaming Ya'know? It seems like it's gonna be hard to let my body sleep but keep my mind awake... People say you just "pop" into the dream just like that, but is that all really true? Do the imagery behind your eyelids form into something? That's what I've heard at least...I guess I don't understand the transition and how it all works...How REAL is it? Is it just like real life? Where will I "wake up" ? I guess I'm just so confused on how it all works...haha

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  60. Sooooo LAST NIGHT I FAILED*cries*
    And I followed the method perfectly and it was going so well and I fell asleep on accident...I'm sure it would've worked if I didn't fall asleep. Is there anyway to prevent that and ensure you cross over into a lucid dream? (The good news is I remembered 2 regular dreams, so my recall is improving)

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  61. Awesome post!I love the idea of a Lucid Dream.Thank you for the valuable information.

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  62. Lucid dreaming techniques for induction, dream control, and dream stabilization. lucid dreaming techniques

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  63. Do you think ADHD would make this harder? I tried last night and had trouble focusing on the cycles. I did not end up falling asleep though, so I couldn't really try again, also wasn't a FA. I eventually ended up falling asleep for good.

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    1. Of course this probably becomes easier with practice but I'd still like to hear about your experiences

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  64. Hi cosmic iron, I was hoping if you could explain some details about the technique.

    I’ve been practicing this technique for several months with little results and I believe the reason for that is because I kept having expectations with how the effects of the technique is. You’ve warned us about that , but I suppose it took me longer to realize that.

    After that it became easier to do it, can’t say I haven’t had a lucid dream, but I remember quite a few dreams last night.

    Despite that is there any advice you could give me to properly do the technique and make any more progress.

    I can definitely see the potential of this technique so if you have anything I would love to hear it.

    An issue I still struggle with is the fact I can’t seem to fall asleep quickly.

    Whether i’m Just going to bed or doing the technique.

    My schedule:

    11-12 pm-4-5 am

    Get up a bit from the bed then practice the technique go to sleep. Issue I noticed is that I kinda forget to keep doing the technique. I think it’s lack of focus, but again I have trouble sleeping.

    Any ideas.

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  65. Another success with this tecnique that has became my personal one: I was in my room and everything seemed normal but my pc wasn't on my desk... there was insted a broken glass... that seemed so strange to me than I asked to myself: and if this were a dream?". And I looked at my hands and boom... I was lucid... and I was so excited that I woke up immediately... this tecnique is so effective that I suggest everyone to give it a try...

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    1. im gonna give it an try right now

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  66. Do you have a technique that produces OBE as well?

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  67. All i can say is wow!
    I want to master this technique.
    I did it!!! I had my first lucid dream! thanks cosmic iron.
    It started of as a false awakening and i was in my bedroom, but it felt odd.
    Out of reflex i did a reality check, viola! i could breath through my nose!
    The feeling of being aware of my surroundings was incredible. It was a quick lucid and i tried to leave my front door i saw light from outside and my apartment complex looked exactly the same.... so weird! then i woke up.
    Going to keep working at this method its incredible!
    Just do the technique and trust in it!

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  68. Nowadays, the environment is not as healthy, given which we need to take care of our physical and mental health. For which we need to exercise, it keeps our body healthy and away from diseases. We all should take care of our health and fitness, for which we should do daily exercise. By doing a daily full body workout at home we reduce face fat and get six pack. So we should follow the diet chart for weight loss. Many people ask how to gain weight in one month and How to Lose Weight in a Month. If you follow our diet plan the same. So, of course, you will be able to do that.

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  69. Hi guys!

    So after 3 weeks of trying SSILD, I have had very little succes. I mainly think its because I almost fall asleep during the fast cycles. I can barely stay awake and drift away from doing the cycles. Even if i manage to complete the process and go to sleep, I only have normal dreams.
    Any tips to do something better?

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  70. i got a weird fa where i was writing in my dream journal and my mom became mad about it ...

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  71. Is bro still alive 💀

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  72. Life is temporary but dreams are forever

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