Before I start: this is a very good technique. It’s easy, simple, and successful. If you’re going to try a technique, start with this one.
The SSILD technique is one that is relatively new to the lucid dreaming world. It was first introduced in 2011 to help beginners learn to lucid dream in an easy and simple way. It was posted on a Chinese forum and the very first title given to it was “A Very Mysterious Technique” which was certainly fitting, because at the time no one could understand how it worked; even to this day there is only a basic understanding of it. Despite this, the feedback for it was extremely positive, and within a few months hundreds of success stories were collected.
The tutorial went through many revisions and was first introduced in English in 2012 with the new name “Senses Induced Lucid Dream,” or SSILD. Its approach was very successful because it was as simple and easy as it could be and it usually showed results within the first few days. These achievements showed no signs of slowing, as many people were experiencing lucid dreams and even Out of Body Experiences (OBEs) every night using this technique, with very little effort.
One of the best parts of this technique is that it has nothing to do with Sleep Paralysis, the rollover signal, the swallow reflex, or staying still. If you want to roll over or move around, the technique will not be disturbed, and the whole point of it is to let the mind fall asleep quickly, not the other way around. This is a large benefit if you are too frightened to go through Sleep Paralysis, or if you do not have enough willpower to withstand the rollover signal.
SSILD is designed with aspects taken from both DILD and WILD; it is like a hybrid, but it is induced from the waking state, although you fall asleep normally. SSILD does not use difficult techniques like relaxation or visualization and removes the need for tedious mental challenges. It’s so basic and simple that if you tried to use it with another technique (like MILD) it is likely it wouldn’t work, so it is best if you just follow the steps outlined here.
THE “CYCLE”
The foundation of the SSILD technique is called the cycle, and it consists of three steps:
1. Focus on your sight. Close your eyes and pay attention to the darkness behind your eyelids. Do not strain your eye muscles or try too hard to look for something; your eyeball should be relaxed. If you do not see anything, that is completely normal. Do not attempt to look at anything you do see by moving your eyes around.
2. Focus on your hearing. Relax your eyes and turn your attention to your ears and what you are hearing. You can listen to external sounds if they are loud enough, like dogs walking around, a television, or an air conditioner, or you can listen to the sound of your heartbeat or your breathing.
3. Focus on your touch. Now, direct your attention to your body. Feel your body and its sensations; try to look for unusual sensations such as spinning, heaviness, floating, tingling, or lightness. If you can’t feel any of these, feel things like your heart beating, the weight of your blanket on you, the air temperature, etc. Pay attention to the head, hands, fingers, feet, toes, and abdomen the most.
Constantly stimulating these sensations conditions our body and mind into a state that is optimal for natural lucid dreams. While doing this, do not try too hard, just relax. You may feel like you want to see things, hear things, and feel things, but this will usually not happen. Do not expect anything to happen as it is better to expect nothing to happen so that you are not disappointed.
WHAT TO DO
Here are the steps of how to carry out the technique properly:
1. Go to sleep. Try do this around 9:00 to 11:00 PM. You can’t try SSILD as you are going to bed at your usual time because it won’t work. The technique relies on you falling into REM sleep, and when you start off in the night you start with NREM sleep. You could do this during an afternoon nap, because you would immediately enter into REM sleep.
2. Wake up. You should do this at around 4 to 5 hours after you fell asleep, and, as always, see what works best for you. The goal is to wake up in your REM cycle.
3. Get out of bed and stay awake for 5 to 10 minutes. Walk around, visit the bathroom, and stretch out a little bit. Make sure you don’t wake yourself up too much though.
4. Go back to bed and lie down in a comfortable position, but it should be one you’re not used to, to prevent you from falling asleep early. If you have a hard time doing this, you can use your usual position.
5. Quickly perform the cycle 4 to 6 times. Each step of the cycle should be short, only a few seconds long. This is a warm-up for step 6.
6. Slowly perform the cycle 3 to 4 times. Be sure to not do this too many times, but a couple extra times is okay. Each step should be no fewer than 30 seconds, but the time you want to do it for is up to you. This is very important, and you should take extra time during each step of the cycles. You will most likely be relaxed at this point, and you may see lights, colors, or movements or hear sounds, but if this does not happen you are fine. If it does, do not get too excited, just stay relaxed. At this point, you might become distracted by random thoughts. This is good, as it means you are close to falling asleep. Accept these thoughts, and let them gently wash over you. If you find you have lost your place in the exercise, it is no problem, just start from the beginning of a cycle and you will be fine.
7. Return to your most comfortable position and fall asleep as quickly as possible. The quicker you fall asleep the more likely it will work. Do not think about it too much, and do not worry if you think that it will not work.
Do exactly this, and do not try to add any MILD, mediation, breathing, visualization, or relaxation. You are free to try these once you have mastered the technique, but it will usually hinder beginner’s progress. You could combine this with the WBTB technique, but I also recommend you wait to do this.
Also remember that you can move, roll around, and itch yourself while doing this. You do not need to try to avoid the rollover signal and you need to be as comfortable as possible. If you spend a lot of time rolling and moving around, you can add on one or two extra cycles to compensate for it. It is okay if the mind falls asleep before the body—that is what is supposed to happen; just remember to do the cycles just before you drift to sleep.
Another very important part of this is when I said “do exactly this” that wasn’t exactly true. The amount of seconds you should do each cycle and each part of the cycle for is just there for reference, do not count it in your head. Go through these steps relaxed and lazy—do not focus on them. Try to stay thoughtless, but when random thoughts do come, do not push them away, just go with the flow.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN
There are several possibilities of what could happen next. Among these are:
1. Hypnogogic hallucinations. You may feel various sensations, such as the feeling of falling, floating, flashing colors, loud sounds, and many more. When you have these sensations, you are likely in a dream or approaching one. This could also happen while you are awake doing the cycles. When you do find odd things happening, it is a good idea to do a reality check.
2. False Awakening. The SSILD technique is known to cause many False Awakenings, especially realistic ones. This can be annoying, but easily taken care of by getting in the habit of performing a reality check whenever you wake up, even if you are positive you are not dreaming. You could also find yourself immediately taken into a False Awakening, so it seems as though you can’t get to sleep, when really you already are asleep and dreaming.
3. DILD. When entering a dream, it is common for spontaneous lucid dreams to occur as you will have heightened awareness in the dream, which will allow you to spot out oddities much more effectively and perform reality checks, therefore becoming lucid.
4. True/Real Awakening. You wake up after trying this and find, after a reality check, that this is the real life. Do not get too concerned about this, and just relax, go back to the cycles, and try again. This time, you should do more of the longer cycles. If you relax your head and allow it to sink into the pillow, you could enter vibrations which could lead to an OBE, or you could fall asleep.
5. OBE (Out of Body Experience). You will know you are having an OBE if you feel wide awake and weightless and you can do strange things, like float or pass through walls. You could also wake up with vibrations or strange sensations which will lead you to an OBE if you hang onto them.
