WILD Defined
Wake Initiated Lucid Dreams, or WILDs, are one of two types of lucid dreams. The goal of a WILD is to allow your body to fall asleep, while your mind stays alert, allowing you to consciously enter the dream. This is opposed to a Dream Initiated Lucid Dream (DILD), in which the dreamer realizes they are dreaming in the middle of a dream.
Although there are many ways to perform a WILD, every WILD follows the same basic steps. In this article, we will discuss a brief overview of how to perform a WILD
How to Perform the WILD Technique
Step One: Wake up after 4.5 to 6 hours
Set an alarm or use autosuggestion to wake up after 4.5 to 6 hours into your sleep. I recommend this for every lucid dream technique but it is CRITICAL for a WILD attempt. REM (dream) sleep takes up a greater portion of your sleep cycle as the night progresses. The goal is to wake up and perform the WILD technique in the middle or close proximity to a REM cycle.
Variables: Experiment with when you wake up to perform WILD. Try different times and take notes on your successes and failures. In time, you will get familiar with your sleep cycle and find the best times to perform the WILD technique.
Step Two: Get out of bed for 10 to 15 minutes (optional)
This step is optional, but recommended. The purpose of this step is to wake yourself up just enough so you can focus on performing the WILD technique. WILD takes focus and patience, which is difficult to do when you are groggy and coming directly out of a deep sleep. Get up out of bed, get a drink of water, take a few minutes to ground your mind and return to bed.
Variables: Experiment with how long you stay awake. If it takes you a while to fall asleep, err on the shorter side. You are aiming for a balance between falling asleep quickly but having enough mental clarity to focus on WILD.
Step Three: Relax
Get into a comfortable sleeping position. A lot of people recommend laying on your back, but choose whichever position is most comfortable for you. Remember, the goal is to fall asleep, so get comfy. Take some deep mindful breaths and release all the tension from your body.
Step Four: Focus and wait
This is the most crucial step, and where most WILD attempts fail. The whole point of a WILD is to keep your mind awake while your body falls asleep. The key is to pick something to focus on, or an anchor of awareness, and wait for your body to fall asleep. Below are some of the most popular anchors of awareness:
– Focus on your breathe
– Count to 100 in your head
-Focus on a visualization, such as the dream scene that you wish to enter
-Focus on repeating a mantra
-Mindfully watch your thoughts as they drift through your mind
Variables: You must keep a balance between focus and mental laxity. If you focus too intensely on your anchor, you will not fall asleep. If you focus too laxly on your anchor, you will fall asleep into a normal non-lucid dream.
Step Five: Enter the Dream
If you time your WILD attempt just right, you should soon begin to feel your body getting warmer, heavier, and more relaxed. You will likely experience some form of hypnagogic hallucination, such as seeing geometric shapes and dream-lets or hearing knocking and whooshing noises. Do not get too involved with the hallucinations, just observe them and let them pass. Soon you will see a dream form right in front of your eyes or suddenly realize you are in the dream world!
Final Thoughts
This is just a brief overview of the Wake Initiated Lucid Dream (WILD). The intricacies and nuance of a well-performed WILD would take quite a few pages of discussion and takes up an entire Module in our Flagship Lucid Dreaming online course. I suggest you head on over to the course (shameless plug) where we discuss all the best anchors of awareness, hypnagogia, sleep paralysis, tips and tricks, etc 🙂
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