WBTB means Wake Back To Bed and refers to, waking up in the middle of the night to increase the chance of becoming lucid. WBTB is a fundamental technique that can be performed in multiple ways to give a boost to your lucid dreaming goals.
How can I perform a WBTB?
As I said before, a WBTB can be performed in multiple ways and I will explain every option and what the advantages of using that method are, and what the negatives are from using that method.
A WBTB could be performed every night, and to get its full effect it is better to try to wake up in the middle of a REM period.
Rapid Eye Movement (REM), happens every night after approximately 3 hours asleep after every 90 minutes. REM is a state where your brain is more active and it is easier to induce a lucid dream. Dreams are often more vivid in this state and easier to remember. However, becoming lucid outside a REM period may be harder, but it is not impossible.
As you can see there are also awakenings during the night. At this moment you probably wake up for a brief amount of time. You are probably not aware of this happening, and I will go over on how you can abuse it to do a WBTB.
How to perform a WBTB with an alarm?
This is the most common WBTB method. However, I personally dislike using an alarm when you are more skilled as a lucid dreamer because there are other options out there that may be more powerful than this one.
Using an alarm can lead to some issues such as:
- Unable to fall asleep again.
- Waking others up.
- Can be loud.
That is why there are options to prevent this.
My recommendation is to use a phone alarm. You don’t have to download any apps and every phone has one. The best alarm setup should be using vibration mode and not using sound, putting the alarm at least 3 hours later and when your goal is to lucid dream quickly you may want to put your alarm every hour after 3 hours. This will guarantee to hit a REM period that even increases the chance of becoming lucid. The best way to prevent you from not waking up from this alarm or preventing you from falling asleep directly is to put your phone under your pillow. When your phone is under your pillow you need to grab it to turn it off and it will make you go out of your sleeping position what makes it harder to fall asleep directly again.
How to perform a WBTB with Intention?
This is by far my go-to technique with lucid dreaming. Intentions are strong and guarantee to be effective. An intention is setting an intention that makes you able to remember to do that task.
To set the WBTB you say to yourself that you wake up in the middle of the night. You may not succeed directly, and sometimes it requires some tries. If it still is not working, you can set a couple alarms during the night, and use intention the second night to wake up during those times.
The advantage of using intention is that you are able to wake up during the night without an alarm. This does not only make you less tired when you wake up, but you also don’t need any tools to perform a WBTB.
However, some people struggle with believing what they are saying to themself, and that is why there is another method. That method is called mantra’s.
How to perform a WBTB with Mantra’s?
Mantra’s are great for beginners who are struggling with believing themselves with what they say. It is an alternative method of Intention. The reason why this is working well is, that you are pushing the sentence in your head, and is basically learning quickly what you want to do.
The best way to perform a mantra is by doing it before you are going to sleep. Say to yourself in your head or out loud that you are going to wake up during the night. Do this for a minute or two until you are satisfied with the results.
When you wake up during the night you got time to do your lucid dreaming techniques, but you also have to plan ahead and try to wake up another time. This is possible by doing your mantra again during this awakening. This will make you wake up another time and you can try to do it again.
The earlier you wake up the better the results will be after the first awakening because you can extend this to multiple WBTBs.
What should I do in a WBTB?
In a WBTB you have to do your lucid dreaming technique. This can be a Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (WILD) technique or a Dream Induced Lucid Dream (DILD) technique. The best thing to do first is to try to stay awake for a little while and not try to directly do your technique. Instead, try to read a book for 5 minutes or watch a YouTube video with a blue filter on. Without a blue filter, your eyes will be hurting and make it a lot harder to fall asleep again.
There is one alternative you can do when you are using Intention or Mantra’s. That is trying out the technique Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dreaming (DEILD). DEILD is achieved by not moving while you wake up and wait until you become lucid. You can read my article about DEILD here: How to do DEILD the right way.
The length of the WBTB should not matter too much, but some people find that a longer WBTB increased the chance of becoming lucid by a lot. This is why I recommend people to try to stay awake for at least 5minutes.
The best things to spend time in WBTB?
You can spend that time doing a lot of stuff and here is a list of the best things to do:
Writing in your dream journal
You can spend time writing in your dream journal, this way you don’t forget your dreams that you have had. Some people don’t feel like doing this or struggle with writing and that is why I made an article on writing effectively in your dream journal. You can read it here: How to write effectively in your dream journal.
Reading about lucid dreaming
Reading about lucid dreaming techniques or reading a lucid dreaming book, may help you to set an intention to lucid dream. This can increase the chance that you lucid dream or you may dream about lucid dreaming, but don’t become lucid.
Reading your dreams
You can also decide to read some of the dreams you had before. Maybe you find out some cool lucid dreaming goals or extend an old dream with the next part. You can also decide to read dream journals from strangers. You can find a lot of dreams here dreamviews dream journals or you can check out my discord server Night Realm.
Meditation
If you are able to do this without falling asleep, you will increase the chance of becoming lucid. The best way to do this is probably sitting since that has the lowest chance of you falling asleep. You can read more about meditation here: Meditation and Lucid Dreaming.
You may also experience in this meditation session some hypnogogic imagery or visuals (link to Wikipedia). This happens because you close to falling asleep.
Taking a hike
Yes, you can even take a hike. Just walk a block and go back into your bed. If you have a dog, you can bring your dog to join the walk.
Counting
If you struggle to stay awake, you can even try to count to keep your mind focused on the counting. This is also a technique used for WILD and can be beneficial as a lucid dreaming technique.
Final thoughts
You should definitely go out of your way to do WBTBs. Probably by far the most effective technique that doesn’t require the skill to lucid dream. You will see instant results and it is a great chance to become lucid. In my lucid dreaming career, I probably have had most lucid dreams, because of WBTBs.
WBTBs are always recommended and you should at least make use of it in a way. For example, try mantra’s or intention when you want it to do natural and without tools, and if you struggle you can use alarms.
If you don’t know any technique and want to learn a new technique or start with a technique. Here is a list of techniques you can learn:
Beginner-friendly:
- How to do MILD the right way
- What is a reality check, and how do I use it?
- How to do DEILD the right way
- Meditation and Lucid Dreaming
- How to write effectively in your dream journal
Harder, but you should try it:
