RILD – Reward Induced Lucid Dreams

Reward Induced Lucid Dreams, or RILD, are all about motivation. With RILD, your goal isn’t to set up some symbol that makes you become lucid during a dream. Instead, you’ll actually want to combine RILD with other techniques, such as LILD that can help you do frequent reality checks and realize ever more frequently that you are, in fact, dreaming.

Basically, you’re going to set out by setting an intention in your mind to remember that you’re dreaming whenever you find yourself in a dream. Whether you’re having a Dream Initiated Lucid Dream or are trying Wake Initiated Lucid Dreaming, this technique can work for you. Remember, your intentions are very meaningful when it comes to lucid dreaming. Intending to understand you’re dreaming is the first step to becoming lucid, and after that, you can use your intentions to actually change your dreams.

How RILD works

RILD works by simply rewarding yourself when you remember that you are dreaming so that you can have a lucid dream. Rewarding yourself here is a little like rewarding a little kid or a pet. You need to reward yourself immediately after waking from a lucid dream.

What does your reward need to look like? It depends on what you like! Some people keep a special drink or type of food by the bed and treat themselves to a sip or nibble upon waking from a lucid dream. Others might read a beautiful poem on waking, give themselves a foot rub, or do other pleasurable things that are rewarding for them.

Your reward may not look like anyone else’s, and that’s okay. I’m a chocolate lover, so I keep dark chocolate squares by my bedside and use them for RILD. As you progress and become better at lucid dreaming, you might not need to use rewards as often. This is a good thing for me and my waistline!

At first, though, rewarding yourself externally can help your mind lock the intention to become lucid during dreams into place. Using rewards will help you train yourself, essentially, to become lucid during your dreams. For this reason, RILD is great for people who are beginners at lucid dreaming or who just need a little extra boost at some time.

In-dream rewards can work, too

As you advance in lucid dreaming techniques, you may be able to use a form of RILD inside your dream, too. This works particularly well if you’re using lucid dreaming to overcome a fear or solve a problem.

When you’re using lucid dreaming in this way, you’ll manipulate your dreams so you can be exposed to problems or fears. When you solve the problem or take a step toward totally overcoming the fear, you should reward yourself. Once you are a master of your own dreams, you can actually reward yourself within your dream.

Whenever I solve a problem within a dream, which happens quite frequently now, I take myself on a mini vacation to a place I’ve always wanted to go. Sometimes it’s a tropical forest, or a sunny beach, or a place full of history. I know when I’m working through a difficult problem in my dreams that I’ll be rewarded later on for my efforts, so it can keep me going.

Sometimes I wake up before I get to reward myself. If this happens and I probably won’t be able to get into another lucid dream for the night, I reward myself with my standby chocolate. Through the years, though, it’s become less and less important, as I find in-dream rewards even more fulfilling that that smooth, dark chocolate!