Stephen LaBerge, 1980
MILD
Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams.
How to run it
On waking from a dream, rehearse it, then repeat the intention — "next time I am dreaming, I will remember I am dreaming" — while visualising re-entering that dream, and fall back asleep holding the intention.
This one depends on waking at the right point in the night, and “about five hours” is not precise enough to act on. Work out your own alarm times from your bedtime — the calculator uses the 90-minute cycle so you wake between cycles rather than out of REM.
What the evidence says
The best-evidenced technique. In Aspy et al. (2017), MILD combined with reality testing and WBTB produced lucid dreams on 17% of nights overall, rising to 46% among participants who fell asleep within five minutes of the rehearsal.
Context for that number: only 23% of people have a lucid dream in a given month at all, and 55% have ever had one. So a technique landing anywhere in double digits per night is doing something real — and is still not the switch these methods are usually sold as.