Originally Posted by
sivason
Unfortunately it is an art. In being an art it is not easy to learn. It is easy enough to do, after you have a feel for it and have an understanding for new and foreign ideas. How much you wake yourself up, is going to depend on experience. Some people need to wake up a bit, or they plummet right back into normal sleep, while others can never fall back to any form of sleep if they interrupt their sleep too much. Again, it is an art, not a science.
You must understand that you are attempting to reach a new altered state of awareness. It is weird and new to beginners. By altered state, I mean maintaining some conscious awareness of the mind, while allowing your body to fall asleep. You are trying to fall asleep. Never forget that, you must let your body sleep (perhaps not at advanced levels, but at first) AND you must not loose consciousness.
I wish I could tell you in a couple sentences how to do this, but it is a complex idea. Sageous has taken the time to run an entire class devoted to helping you get your first few WILDs, so check it out. The super brief basic idea is that you need to give your mind something limited to stay aware of, such as repeating a phrase. I use the phrase "Thank You." I repeat "Thank You" (and other things) in my head over and over. If you fail to keep doing this you know you are failing to maintain awareness, and just resume doing it if you notice. This reduces mental noise and distractions that would keep you laying awake. You should never think detailed waking thoughts about work and school or you will not sleep. Mean while you must learn to relax the body and infact stop paying it any awareness. See, complicated...
With that in mind Gab's tutorial is an outline of HOW it is done, and Sageous' class is there to help you with the thought process and mind set.
Good luck, hope that clears it up a tiny bit.