So there’s been a lot of talk about this new technique called CANWILD, which is a sort of modified version of the normal wake induced lucid dreaming method. I just thought I’d summarize the technique here and provide some of my insights and tips for making it work better for you.
What is the CANWILD?
The CANWILD technique is a lucid dreaming induction technique designed to get you to lucid dream by encouraging noises and sound effects to trigger your brain to become lucid fro the waking world. IT’s a very effective technique but only when done right, and there are lots of ways to do this wrong.
Before you start the CANWILD
Before trying this method, you need to be able to perform a regular WILD otherwise there’s not much point trying this method. Bookmark this page and come back when you’re sure you can lucid dream using the WILD technique and then you’ll have the best chance for success. We teach the WILD method in the bootcamp.
CANWILD technique tutorial
So to start with you’re going to need to download an app or find a way of getting your alarm to turn itself off after a certain length of time has gone past. The ideal app or setting will let your alarm turn itself off after a few seconds, just long enough to get the sound effect to enter your brain and the dream. Like in Inception, you’re using the sound effect as a ‘kick’ but to trigger the start of a lucid dream, not the end.
There are several apps that can do this out there, and the best one for you really depends on what phone you have, but I’d suggest starting with the ‘Alarm Xtreme Free’ app which can be found on the app store.
1: Set your alarm to go off after 5 hours
Much like the normal WILD method you’re going to target your REM sleep and wake yourself up at the perfect time to have lucid dreams. Set a relaxing alarm tone to go off ONLY for a few seconds. Just long enough to let you hear it, and then turn itself off. This is why you need to use the app or special settings.
2: Listen to the alarm but don’t move anything
So the goal here is to HEAR the alarm and realise that you’re supposed to be dreaming, but don’t move any muscles. Don’t even open your eyes. This requires training in the waking world so over the course of a few weeks, spend some time practicing. To practice, simply lay down with your eyes closed and set the alarm to go off every 10 minutes or so. Every time it goes off, don’t move, and don’t open your eyes.
You want to try and get to the point where you can hear the alarm go off, but NOT become aroused in any way, and remain completely relaxed and about to go to sleep. This is KEY for when you hear this sound later and if you haven’t practiced being relaxed when you hear it, it probably won’t do anything for you.
3: Enter the lucid dream
This is the part where if you’ve properly trained yourself to recognise the sound, you should enter a lucid dream fairly easily. Again, this isn’t really for beginners and people who’ve not had any lucid dreams, because you need to be able to reality check and enter a lucid dream much like how you do with the normal WILD method. If you can’t do the normal WILD technique, go and learn that, then come back here and try this.
4: Use the alarm app to dream chain for the rest of the morning
This is the fun stage, because you’ve trained yourself to ask yourself if you’re dreaming when you hear the sound, you can enjoy the alarm going off again and again every few minutes, and ride a long ‘chain of lucid dreams’ through the morning. That is providing any one alarm tone sounding doesn’t actually wake you up too much. I find that the BEST interval is to set the alarm tone to go off about every 11 minutes or so.
Tips for making the CANWILD work better for you
There are some things you can do to make this method work better for you, and they mainly involve just training your mind to react to the specific sound that the alarm makes. I’ve experimented with this and found that certain sounds or melodies carry through much better than others. Anything that sounds like an actual alarm tone didn’t work for me at all and either woke me up, or did nothing at all.
The best sound I’ve found for using this with is an excerpt from the start of a very cool trap track, Sky Cathedral. This dreamy sort of other worldly sound tends to carry through really well in my dreams and always makes me lucid if I hear it. I have also trained my mind to react to the sound and do a reality check however. try it out!
More importantly than anything else though, is just to try and train yourself to ALWAYS ask yourself if you’re dreaming when you hear your chosen sound. It works better if you almost never change the sound as well, because you really want to embed your REACTION to the sound in your mind and if it’s always changing your mind doesn’t have a chance to learn the behaviour properly.
It can work really well, and I think although this technique is suited more to experienced lucid dreamers who sort of know what they’re doing, it’s a really nice idea and I do use it from time to time with great results.
Warnings about the CANWILD
Much like any technique that involves an alarm or interuption of your sleep, long term it could make you feel fatigued or groggy. I know this technique doesn’t involve PROPERLY waking yourself up but it comes pretty close, and you’ll certainly notice the sound if you’re a light sleeper like me.
I would advise adding this technique to your list of tools but don’t rely on it all of the time. I’d always suggest trying new things out but having your MAIN lucid dreaming techniques as the natural ones like the DILD or MILD.
