Lucid Dream Induction -- WILD

Here is a basic description of the WILD method of induction lucid dreams.

......WILD
WILD stands for “Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream”, or “Wake-Initiation of Lucid Dreams” to refer to any technique that involves falling asleep consciously. These techniques are similar to self-hypnosis.

For most people, they are far easier when used with WBTB, as the sleep cycle will continue with an REM period. Once you are skilled with a WILD technique, you can try to use it without WBTB. When you go back to bed, lie down comfortably. Now tense and relax your body, starting from your shoulders and working downwards, then back up to the face. This (or similar relaxation, meditation or trance techniques) should make your body feel slightly heavy and relaxed.

There are many different ways to induce WILDs, but they all involve doing something to keep the mind awake as the body falls asleep. A few techniques are detailed below.

If you pay attention to your physical body while using these techniques, then you will likely enter sleep paralysis (which usually happens after you're already asleep) without losing conscious awareness of your body. You will get a tingling and buzzing sensation (this might be unpleasant). These sensations might be so strong that you feel that you will die, but don't worry, this is perfectly safe! Sometimes you can simply wait until you fall asleep straight into a lucid dream. However, if you don't fall asleep, and become completely paralysed (with the exception of your eyes), don't try to move. Imagine your dream hand (or spirit hand if you prefer) going up and leaving your physical hand behind. Now you should have two separate bodies, a dream one and a real one. Control your dream body only — if you control your real one, you will wake up. Now you can try to roll out of bed into your dream world (alternatively, you can get up and walk through a mirror, or sink into your bed).....

......Hypnagogic Imagery
Try not to think about anything for more than a second or two by constantly switching your attention. This simulates your thinking patterns when you are about to fall asleep. Once you have done this for long enough, the images and sounds begin to take momentum on their own (this is called hypnagogic imagery) and get very strange and illogical. You should enter a dream at about this point and you will probably become lucid quickly. Otherwise, you will eventually realise you have entered sleep paralysis consciously (see above)......

......Counting
Another technique is to count up to 100 in your head, optionally adding (for example) an “I'm dreaming” between each number. Alternatively, you can imagine going down stairs, and, on every floor, reading the floor number from 100 down to 0. Try to make this image as vivid as possible — include not only what you see, but also what you hear, feel (touch the banister), and smell. At some point this image should continue into a dream or you will begin to get sleep paralysis as described above.....

This is a great, but difficult induction technique. It takes a lot of time and dedication to master, but ultimately can end up in many more lucid dreams than DILD (Dream Initiated Lucid Dream) techniques.

I have a variation of the WILD technique that I will discuss in another post soon.