Wake Back To Bed Technique (WBTB)

Rather than a method in it's own right, this technique is all about helping you to increase your awareness in your final REM sleep session. This can be helpful in combination with other lucid dreaming techniques such as DreamInitiatedLucidDreams (DILD).

Background

When we sleep we cycle through a number of stages including deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is where we dream. Each cycle lasts about 90 minutes. Our first cycle includes more deep sleep and less REM sleep. Our final cycle includes less deep sleep and more REM sleep.

Our first dream of the night will be our shortest and we have the rest of the night to forget it. Additionally in our first sleep cycle we will spend more time in a deep sleep before entering the REM stage; this means that any preparation we have done in terms of conditioning our mind to think about lucid dreaming may be forgotten before we get to the REM stage.

The WBTB technique

• Set your alarm for about 2 hours before you are due to wake up. This means your last 90 minute cycle has yet to start.
• Use RealityChecking to ensure this is not a false awakening (i.e. check you are not still dreaming).
• Try to remember your last dream and update TheDreamJournal
• Get out of bed (otherwise you will fall back to sleep) and spend about 30 minutes thinking about lucid dreaming, planning what you will do in your next lucid dream etc.
• Go back to bed and make use of any techniques that you use to help induce a lucid dream, e.g. repeatedly tell yourself "I Am Lucid Dreaming" as you fall back to sleep. See MnemonicInductionOfLucidDreams for more details.

You will now enter REM sleep (maybe after a shorter session of deep sleep) and you will be much more likely to be aware of lucid dreaming during your dreams and open to any other techniques you have conditioned your mind with as you fell back to sleep.

We Are All Different

The times in bold above are only guidelines. Different people will have their own sleep patterns and will need to adjust the times accordingly. Some people find the technique works better if they stay up longer after waking. Personally, if I stay up more that 30 minutes I risk not getting back to sleep which will disrupt my routine and reduce my chance of further lucid dreams. Experiment, keep a log and find out what works best for you. Add a comment to this page to let us know your findings.

Other Tips For The WBTB method

1. Ensure you still get your optimum amount of sleep. You may need to go to bed earlier to make up for the time you spend reading about lucid dreaming when you first wake.
2. Use a different alarm sound than the one you use to wake for work or school, preferably a relaxing tone or melody. Your first alarm is one that you want to associate with lucid dreaming preparation. This is a positive wake up call, unlike your final alarm which may make you immediately think about the stresses of the day ahead.
3. Get a toilet break. You don't want your final sleep cycle to be further interrupted by having to go and pee!
4. Don't allow yourself to become too stimulated by food, drink, TV, energetic music, games consoles etc. Don't do anything that may stop you getting back to sleep.
5. Don't allow yourself to be distracted by other jobs that need doing when you first wake up. Don't check your emails etc. Only use the time for lucid dream related activities.
6. Visit our website to read the latest forum entries and articles.

The WBTB method of helping to induce lucid dreams is proven to improve your chances and comes highly recommend.

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