Wake Back to Bed

Wake Back to Bed refers to waking up and going back to sleep. It's not a technique by itself (many people wake up and go back to sleep without lucid dreaming), but it's an enhancement for the WILD technique. WBTB is recommended with WILD, but not required.

To do WBTB effectively, it's recommended that you either set your alarm for 4-6 hours into sleep or use natural wakings in the night. Once you're awake, go back to sleep doing WILD. Any time you wake up in the night, you can take advantage of that as a natural WBTB as well (multiple WBTBs and WILDs can be done in a night).

Alarms are a great way to control when you do WBTB, but alarms aren't required. The 4-6 hours in timing is also not set in stone. WBTB can be highly effective any time, including with natural wakings. For example, if you go to bed at 10 PM, but wake up 20 minutes later at 10:30 PM (for whatever reason), this is a great time to do WILD as you go back to sleep. Any natural waking is a powerful WILD enhancement!

You can trigger natural WBTBs in different ways:
- Set intention to wake up. For example, pretend it's Christmas and you want to wake up extra early to open presents!
- Drink water before bed so that you will wake up to go to the bathroom.
- Increase present-moment awareness such as through meditation. We naturally wake up multiple times a night, but lack of awareness can cause you to feel like you slept through it all. Heightened awareness allows you to take advantage of your natural WBTBs.

If you forget to do WILD or if you're too tired, wake yourself up for a bit after you get up. Some dreamers find success from staying awake for a few minutes, or even an hour, while others prefer to go immediately back to sleep with WILD. Test different timeframes out and see what works best for you personally, adjusting the length of time as needed until you find the right fit. Usually, light sleepers benefit from shorter timeframes, whereas heavier sleepers tend to do better with longer timeframes.

Relaxation

Relaxation is an important first step for WILD, especially if you are not doing it with WBTB (sometimes it can be skipped with WBTB, but other times it may still be helpful). The goal is to relax both physically and mentally so that you can fall asleep more easily.

If you find yourself restless, itchy, swallowing, or otherwise unable to settle, scratch those itches, swallow, and relax your body. Make yourself comfortable however you please, which is usually in whatever position you normally fall asleep in. Whatever sleeping position is most comfortable for you is best for WILD. Prepare to go to sleep like you would any other night and wind down. If you have trouble winding down, slowing your breathing may help you to physically relax. The goal is to prepare to go to sleep normally on the physical level.

Once you're physically relaxed, turn your attention to your mind and relax your thoughts next. If you have an active/racing mind before bed, such as thinking about stress, daytime activities, or neat ideas popping into your head, make peace with those thoughts and let them go for now. Turn your attention to the dreams you would like to have tonight. Any other form of positive relaxing thoughts can also work if you don't have any dream ideas yet. Meditation may help. Get yourself to a point where you can clear your mind, which does two things to help you perform WILD:
A) You're intent is to exit waking life and enter dreams, so turning your attention to dreams right now will set the stage for your intended reality.
B) grasping and aversion are powerful components of dream formation. By clearing them from your mind, you are creating a clean canvas from which to start your dream (which will make conscious dream formation easier).

Once your body and mind are relaxed, you can begin the next step.

Anchoring

Use an anchor of your choice to maintain awareness while falling asleep. This is the heart of WILD, and usually the part where WILD techniques vary (but are fundamentally the same). An anchor can be any physical or mental perception, such as a physical fan that makes some noise or an imagined visual in your mind's eye.

Defining Awareness: Awareness refers to conscious perception. For example, you are currently aware of this guide and the spelling of the words written in it. You may be focusing on the contents of the guide, but the spelling of the letters is a low-level type of awareness in the back of your mind. For WILD, try to use more low levels of awareness rather than heavy focus.

Falling asleep is a low energy activity. When low level awareness is maintained while falling asleep, successful WILD is achieved! This is the magic behind WILD. Using as little brain power as possible allows your mind to slip through the barrier of sleep.

Training yourself to do WILD effectively is all about being aware at a low energy level:
- If you find yourself staying awake for too long, you may be over-focusing. Reduce your awareness level.
- If you fall asleep unconsciously too easily, increase your awareness level.

Why Use Anchors?
Anchors are not required for WILD, but recommended for beginners. They help you maintain a low level of awareness by giving you something simple to be aware of

Note: You don't have to stick with the same anchor throughout the whole WILD process. Following as your thoughts as they wander in a relaxed state is an effective strategy to progress through WILD, as this is also how dreams flow naturally.

WILD is the transition from physical perceptions to dreamed perception. In the beginning stage of WILD (before you start to fall asleep), your perceptions are of the physical world. As you progress into sleep, you transition off of your physical perceptions and onto mental/dreamed perceptions instead.

Likewise, there are two main types of anchors (physical and mental).

1. Physical anchors are perceptions in your physical environment. For example:
- The sound of a fan, music, noise machine, or other sound in your bedroom (anything you can fall asleep to).
- The tactile feeling of a blanket or other object you can feel as you fall asleep.
- A visual you can watch as you fall asleep, such as a light in the room.

2. Mental anchors, which are internal perceptions in your mind. For example:
- An imaginary sound or music in your head that's easy to follow without heavy focus.
- An imagined tactile sense, or sense of movement/motion that you imagine in your mind, like imagining yourself swimming or swaying back and fourth gently in a hammock
- A visual that you perceive/think about in your mind's eye such as a flame, lights, or symbols (if you have aphantasia, you can use any other senses or a physical anchor).

Here are different ways an anchor can transition as you fall asleep:
A) An anchor may change as it progresses into a dream. For example, the light may increase or decrease in brightness or change color. Objects can morph and transform into other objects. Things may move or change position. Sounds can become louder, quieter, or change pitch/rhythm/melody.
B) An anchor (especially physical ones) may fade out or shut off completely from your perception as it's replaced by a dream. If this happens, there's no need to hold onto the anchor that vanishes. Simply turn your attention to the dream. This is especially common with physical anchors because the process of falling asleep is that of the shutting off your physical senses to replace with dreams.
C) Your perception of an anchor may follow you into a dream without changing. For example, if you're watching a light in the corner of your bedroom, that light may eventually become a dream, but still appear the same. If it's a physical light and someone in your household turns the real light off, you might not notice—because your dreamed perception of the light has replaced the real thing! Cool, huh?
D) An anchor (especially mental ones) may increase in vividness as you fall asleep. Physical perception are normally more vivid when we are awake, but mental perceptions are more vivid in dreams. Therefore, a mental anchor is likely to become more and more realistic until it's just as vivid as waking experiences. Note: this also applies to sound, touch, etc. and not just visuals.

As you start to fall asleep with your anchor, you may notice some subtle changes in your body and mind. One of the easiest ways to accomplish WILD is to simply notice the signs that you are about to enter physical asleep. These can vary from person to person, but here are some common signs of upcoming sleep onset:
- Your thoughts may start to wander more than usual, become more abstract/bizarre, and you might notice brief moments of amnesia.
- Your breathing and/or heart rate may slow down naturally.
- You may feel a jerking motion in your hand or other part of your body (referred to as a hypnic jerk).
- You might make a small involuntary sound, like a mumble.
- Your might suddenly feel cold and need to pull up a blanket (body temperature decrease).
- You may start to hear sounds, see visuals, or feel sensations that aren't really there (hypnagogia and dream formation).

If you experience these signs, it means you're in the process of falling asleep and may even technically be asleep already! Noticing these signs also means you were aware, which is successful WILD.

Sleep Onset

If you're experiencing hypnagogia or dream formation already, you might not notice sleep onset, but if your mind is clear and there is no dream formation yet, it may be more noticeable. Your body may become completely weightless without usual sensation, body temperature will drop, and any physical senses may disappear completely from your perception. For example, sounds in the room may suddenly turn off. Most or all of these things combined means you have fully fallen asleep.

Once you've recognized that you've fallen asleep, you've succeeded! But wait, what if there's no dream yet? Or what if you're still laying in bed? Since dreams can mimic physical reality, it's common for WILDers to dream about laying in bed still trying to do WILD after sleep onset.

WILD is a dream formation technique. At some point during the process, you will form a dream that has not been formed yet. This may start as hypnagogia (which is a dream in the beginning stage of formation), or it may start after sleep onset. If dream formation doesn't start on its own, you can kickstart it consciously. You don't have to create the entire dream, though—your mind will do that automatically for once you get it started.

If you've reached sleep onset without dreams, or you're not sure whether you've reached sleep onset, you can use dissociation to start your dream. To dissociate, imagine the tactile sensation of what it will be like to float up out of your body towards the ceiling or other direction. If you do this after sleep onset, it will take effect immediately or within seconds. Keep imagining the sensation until it becomes your reality. You will soon start flying in the direction you chose, and can exit through a window or door to begin your dream!

You can also kickstart dream formation using dream control. Some easy ways include:
- Imagining your non-physical (dream body) rolling out of your physical body.
- Imagining yourself climbing a rope into a dream.
- Imagining vibrating sensations and entry into another universe (even with the understanding that it's a dream, imagining a quasi-supernatural experience can help with dream entry).
- Imagining that a light is a portal into your dream. It could also be the light at the end of a tunnel into a dream.
- If you feel tingling sensations, imagine yourself being carried into a dream by these sensations. Maybe they're fairies, waves, or electrical impulses leading you through a conduit—whatever it is, you're going into the dream.
- If you feel wind, you can imagine flying or swinging in a hammock into a dream.

Using schemas like this is a great way to get a dream started because it naturally follows dream formation mechanics.

There are many other ways dream entry can be imagined. Pick one that makes sense and seems appealing to you!
Note: If you have aphantasia, you can use non-visual sensations based on other senses.

Here's some additional tips that can help you become fully immersed in your dream:
- Instead of waiting for a dream in the future, pretend it is presently happening and hold that feeling (usually within a few seconds of sleep onset, it will take effect). Orienting your mindset to be dreaming in the present instead of the future is a powerful component of dream formation (because time doesn't exist in dreams). Make 'dream entry' a present tense perspective for yourself during steps 2 & 3 of WILD, rather than an upcoming event. Assume that you have already entered a dream and that it is your present reality, rather than a future outcome. You're not trying to enter a dream anymore. Rather, you are presently in a dream. This mindset makes a difference because it will trigger dream formation.

Take an interest in your dream and start interacting with it in your mind if you notice any dream sensations. If you aren't yet aware of any dream sensations, imagine that your bedroom is an identical dreamed replica of your bedroom. Let yourself become fully immersed in the idea that you are already dreaming in the present moment. Attempt to dissociate out of your body even if you're not sure you're dreaming yet—fake it until you make it.
- 100% of your attention should eventually be turned to the dream. Sometimes letting go of your physical bodily sensations can help you progress through WILD. If you were listening to a fan in your room, you can let it go—as long as you still have a mental anchor, you don't need physical ones too. Anchors aren't supposed to be permanent. As long as you engage with a dream, you will remain conscious. Allowing your attention to shift off of old anchors and onto new ones can trigger dream formation.
- Imagine yourself going through a literal gateway, doorway, or window. Other symbols work too! Pick one that appeals to you and is easy to imagine (if you have aphantasia, you can use non-visual symbols such as the sensation of a hammock swinging you into a dream, or energy flowing through your body as you dissolve into a dream). The symbolism of travel initiates progression past WILD and into a fully formed dreamscape.