MILD is a popular technique developed in 1980 by psychophysiologist Dr. Stephen LaBerge to aid in lucid dreaming research. MILD is shown to be effective at inducing more frequent lucid dreams compared with reality checks, autosuggestion, or pure intention practices. MILD works by using mnemonics (patterns of association that aid memory) to target existing non-lucid dreams and remind the dreamer to become lucid. Just like how mnemonics can be used to remember to perform tasks in daily life, they can be used to induce lucidity in non-dreams.
The word mnemonic refers to the use of association between dream signs (patterns, ideas, and symbols in dreams) to assist in remembering to become lucid. Using mnemonics provides a powerful tool to strengthen memory (like a mental glue) so that you can remember to perform a future task that will make you lucid. For example, if you forget to pick up jam at the store, seeing a bottle of peanut butter on a store shelf may trigger your memory to get the jam because there is a mental connection between jam and peanut butter already set in your mind. Seeing the peanut butter triggers you to remember the jam because of the association between the two items. Likewise, you can apply this technique to lucidity in dreams.
You can train yourself to associate becoming lucid in a dream with jam, thus causing any dream in which you see jam to becomes a lucid dream! MILD is all about training an association between becoming lucid and any trigger (aka dream sign) of your choosing. This is how mnemonics work with MILD and they can be applied to any type of non-lucid dream. MILD is most effective with recurring elements in dreams, so it's important to use dream journaling or other recall methods in conjunction with MILD.
MILD is a great technique for beginners developing lucidity for the first time, and is also a way for intermediate and advanced lucid dreamers to increase lucid dreaming frequency.
Mnemonics (MILD) should not be mistaken for a mantras or autosuggestion (a repeated phrase such I will lucid dream tonight.), which are less effective due to the lack of a memory aid. Stephen LaBerge developed MILD due to the ineffectiveness of pure intention practices like mantras., as MILD is shown to produce higher rates of lucid dreams.
Some people may still benefit from mantras, but the effectiveness of MILD comes from the associations that trigger prospective memory aids, aka dream signs. You're likely to get more lucid dreams using MILD alone or MILD + mantras rather than mantras by themselves. This also goes for reality checks and any pure intention practices.
The most frequent advise for MILD (and what was originally advised by Stephen LaBerge) is to do it during WBTB (Wake Back To Bed). To use WBTB with MILD, you can either use natural awakenings in the night or set an alarm for (ideally, but other times can also work) 4-6 hours into sleep. Then, go back to sleep performing MILD.
However, you can do MILD any time whether at night before bed, when you wake up in the middle of the night, in the morning, or any time during the day.
Dream recall is important for all lucid dreaming practices in general, but is especially important for MILD users and is the first step of effective MILD practice. MILD works by targeting the contents of your most frequent non-lucid dreams, so you should start by recalling your most recent non-lucid dreams in order to scope out usable dream signs.
Journaling is not required for MILD, but is highly recommended. Alternatively, any form of dream recall will work. If you can remember at least 1-3 dreams per night for a week or more, you're likely going to get good results with MILD. It's okay if you don't remember dreams every single night, but you should aim to remember as many dreams as possible as often as possible and be at least semi-consistent for a week or two. This will give you a good idea of what kind of dream signs you tend to have.
Using whatever is your preferred method of dream recall, go through the past 1-2 weeks of dreams that you've recalled and pick out the best dream signs you can find.
What is a dream sign?: A dream sign is something (a person, object, scene, symbol, even things like thoughts and emotions) that appears in your personal dreams, so you should go through your dreams to pick a good one. For example: objects like swords, glasses, or books, types of animals like cats or dragons, people you know such as a friend, sibling, or Santa Clause, specific locations such as your childhood home or a make-believe mansion, and even emotions such as fear. The best dream sign is one that appears in your recent dreams and is likely to appear in upcoming future dreams. It doesn't have to be dream-like or have supernatural elements (though that certainly can help with MILD). A dream sign can also be something realistic.
Which dream sign is the best? Here's a list of qualifiers for good dream signs in no particular order to help you choose a good one from your personal list of dream signs. Whichever dream sign you find fits as many criteria on this list as possible can be an especially potent candidate for MILD:
- Whatever is most frequent. MILD causes lucidity as frequently as the trigger appears in your dreams, so frequency of the dream sign across multiple dreams matters. Although the process of doing MILD can incubate dream signs and make them appear more often too, picking out dream signs that you already naturally experience at a higher frequency across many previous dreams is a an easy way to take advantage of your natural dreaming tendencies.
- Things you don't experience in waking life. Although it's not a requirement for MILD, using dream signs that already have dream-like or supernatural qualities can help you recognize the dream state when critical awareness is practiced. A horse can lead you to lucidity with MILD, but a unicorn can be even more noticeable since you know that unicorns only exist in dreams.
- Things with strong personal emotional impact. For example, if you're afraid of ghosts and have ghosts in your dreams, you can use those ghosts as a dream sign for MILD to induce lucidity. Emotionally impactful dream signs are especially powerful because of our natural tendency to remember them more.
A note of caution: Lucid dreams are a fantastic way to confront nightmares, but be aware that MILD is an incubation technique. The process of doing MILD may cause you to dream about your chosen dream sign more often. Go with something positive and fun if you want more positive and fun dreams instead.
- Things that don't already make you lucid. Although this one seems like a no-brainer, it's worth mentioning that you probably won't get much out of a dream sign that already triggers your lucidity. For example, if you always get lucid from nightmares, then those nightmares are probably not going to be helpful for MILD. After all, you are already lucid. If you only get lucid some of the time from nightmares, though, you can benefit from raising that lucidity rate with MILD until 100% of nightmares results in lucidity.
It's best to pick one dream sign as your primary focus for MILD. You can add additional dream signs to strengthen MILD, but keep one primary dream sign in mind when practicing the technique for best results.
So far, the steps for MILD have all been parts of set-up for performing the technique. Now it's time to do the technique! The actual MILD process is easy and simple once you have a dream sign picked out from a previous dream (or multiples).
Start by thinking about the dream you had. Put yourself back to that moment during the dream as you remember it. Visualize yourself in the dream as though you are reliving it in your mind, preferably from a first-person perspective (if you have aphantasia, you can use non-visual senses for this). Then, when you encounter the dream sign, imagine yourself becoming lucid upon the encounter. In your mind, imagine what it will be like to stop and say/think to yourself Oh! There's that dream sign I've been looking for! That must mean I'm dreaming right now! Imagine that Aha! moment, going through the scenario and what it will be like to have present-moment awareness and criticality about the dream sign causing your to realize that you're dreaming.
Present-moment awareness is what makes us lucid in our dreams, so it's worthwhile to emulate present-moment awareness in this imaginary dream. You are imagining yourself becoming aware right now in the present-moment of this rehearsed dream scene, like a performance at a play, rather than thinking about your future intent. You are not thinking about becoming lucid some day in a future dream. You are rehearsing doing it now.
Optionally, you can perform a reality check during the rehearsal and make doing the reality check a part of your plan for when the real dream happens.
Once you've attained lucidity in the pretend-dream, continue to imagine what you will do next with your new lucidity. What do you want to do now? Are you going to jump into the sky and fly like a superhero or a bird? What will the sensation of flight be like? What will you see from the sky when you look down? Where will you go? Will you talk to any dream characters? Continuing the narrative past the lucidity point can help strengthen MILD and incubate any kind of dream you want to experience.
Once you've finished rehearsing the dream in your mind, make a mental note to yourself that you're going to perform these actions in your next real dream. It's recommended that you repeat the process a couple of times for a couple minutes each time.
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