Hi Oxium. MILD is my preferred technique, and I've had my fair share of WBTBs with it.

To answer your question, no it is not necessary to pair WBTB with MILD. Also, when you MILD after a WBTB, do not try to keep up the mantras. The aim of MILD is to do the mantras until you fall asleep. You don't have to really try to stay up just to keep doing the mantras. If you do that, your body will start falling asleep while your mind is still awake, thus it can lead to an actual WILD. This seems to be what is happening to you.

So yeah, if you decide to WBTB+MILD, just do the mantras in your head and once you start drifting off (maybe even forget which words come next), you can go to sleep normally.

Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, ask away! Or you can send me a PM anytime