I'm practicing for WILD each night, and am managing to maintain awareness for longer and longer periods of time, getting lots of weird sensations, auditory, visual and physical. I think I am pretty close to being able to induce SP.
But I always lose consciousness eventually, and just fall asleep. I think the whole process is taking about 20 minutes until I fall under.

My question is about the exact moment when you go from SP to LD.
Is there a period of time, even just for a split second, maybe longer, where you lose consciousness and "black out", then come to awareness again "on the other side", fully lucid and in a dream? Or is the transition completely smooth and conscious?
I'm interested in knowing if I am supposed to black out and fall asleep just for a second or not.

Thanks!