deild stands for dream-exit-initiated lucid dream, sometimes called dream chaining. when you wake from a dream, especially a lucid one, you stay perfectly still, keep your eyes closed, and let yourself slip back into the dream you just left, now knowing it is a dream. it is the easiest wake-initiated method to attempt and the hardest to time, and like the others it is a community technique without controlled research.
the steps
- when you wake from a dream, do not move. do not open your eyes. do not check the time. the first two seconds decide it.
- hold the dream in mind: the last scene, the place, the feeling. keep it as vivid as you can.
- let your body stay asleep. you may feel the paralysis of rem sleep still present, or sensations of drifting. that is the door.
- imagine yourself back in the scene, looking around, touching something in it. when it holds, you are in, and lucid.
- if you find yourself in bed in the dream instead, that is a false awakening: do a reality check and carry on.
timing
deild works because a wake at the end of a rem period is often brief, and the rem can resume if you do not fully surface. the window is seconds. it works best in the second half of the night, when rem periods are long and close together, and it works best after a lucid dream, because you already know the scene is a dream. a gentle alarm timed to a late rem period is sometimes used to create the wake; the natural wake is better. the setup is described in wbtb.
how it relates to the other methods
deild is a wake-initiated technique, described alongside its cousins in the wild technique. it is also the natural way to extend a lucid dream: when one ends and you surface, you go straight back. it depends on recall and on stillness, both of which the basics build. if you are new, start with how to lucid dream and use deild as the thing you do when a dream ends too soon.
questions people ask
is deild the same as dream chaining?
yes. chaining is the common name for re-entering one dream after another with brief wakes between them, which is what deild describes.
why does deild fail?
movement. opening your eyes, shifting, or reaching for a phone surfaces you fully and the rem period ends. the technique is mostly the discipline of not moving in the first two seconds.