Mental mantras

Have you ever tried imagining a certain non-verbal "mantra" when you practice MILD, where you rely on images and feelings instead of words?
I have tried this a couple times now, and it seems to work really well.
Basically, what I do is that when I fall back to sleep after a short awakening I keep imagining that I see one of my dreamsigns, and then imagine myself saying something along the lines "A dreamsign - I'm dreaming!".
I really try to live myself into this imagination as well, so that I trick myself into feeling genuinely amazed, kind of like how actors do when they want to be as convincing as possible.
I try to imagine that I really have entered a dream, then see that dreamsign and react with great surprise.
Then I keep doing this over and over until I fall asleep.

I find this technique very effective for me but I do it a little differently. I imagine the same scene of myself sitting in a blank room as a friend tells me to reality check over and over again.

I haven't tried this in a while. I think I'll try it again tonight.

PS- this is called a VILD