Thread: How can I know which technique to pick?

I'm not Sageous, but I'm going to try to answer as best as I can.

====FIRST====

Maybe your dream was not stable enough causing you to wake up prematurely? You could try stabilizing the dream by either rubbing your hands together or spinning around.
Also try to engage all of your senses in the dream. Smell the air. Feel the ground under your feet. Try to notice the details... stuff like that.

It could also be that your WBTB was improperly timed and you woke up at a sub-optimal time within the sleep cycle. (note: this graph is just an example, everyone's sleep cycle looks a bit different)
Try timing your WBTB a bit earlier, or perhaps even a bit later in order to catch the following REM-cycle. You'll have to experiment a bit and see what works best for you.

You could also make use of a supplement called melatonin. It suppresses REM in the earlier stages of the sleep cycle which causes a rebound effect in the later stages of the sleep cycle.

If you do wake up however, you could try to remain completely motionless and visualize the place that you just woke up from. Either you'll bounce right back into the dreamscape, or you'll have a WILD.

====SECOND====

Try to use mantras, but also set your alarm clock!! Make use of both at the same time.
It might not work immediately, but after a couple of days your body should adjust and start waking itself up naturally before your alarm goes off.
When this happens, I would keep setting the alarm as a backup so your body knows that it's going to wake up no matter what and that it's best to do so naturally. You can always turn the alarm off again each time you naturally wake up.

Those were my 2 cents. Good luck!

Thanks
It couldn't be timed wrong because:
1st - I didn't use WBTB
2nd - I woke up after a dream