Methods to stop "jerking awake" while attempting a WILD?

I've noticed that my dreams are much more vivid and easily remembered when I go directly into REM sleep (usually early in the morning if my alarm clock has gone off and I choose to go back to sleep within a minute, but during the night too sometimes when I wake up), so I thought I'd try WILDing to increase my chances of going directly into REM sleep (and hopefully remaining lucid, though that isn't quite as important to me right now). For the last couple of weeks, I've tried WILDing whenever I go to bed, as well as if I wake up during the night and when I wake up in the morning (if I can remember).

However, I keep getting stuck.

I can get easily to the point where illogical thought patterns and sleep paralysis are beginning, sometimes even past that to hypnagogic hallucinations and the beginning of a dream, but I consistently "jerk awake" (that feeling like you're falling and have suddenly hit the bottom. I'm sure there's a name for it, but I don't know what it is).

Most of the time, it'll be just as illogical thoughts start happening, or just as SP is setting in, and is mostly mental. Sometimes it's a result of me becoming aware of what's happening, but most of the time it's one moment I'm just starting that transition to sleep, and the next I'm fully awake for no apparent reason, and my heart will be racing for a couple of seconds. If I've gotten a bit farther, to where hypnagogic hallucinations are starting, or I am just entering a dream, my whole body will "twitch" suddenly and I'm awake. It usually won't take me more than a minute or two to get back to that transitional state, but I'll jerk awake again and again until I just give up and let myself go to sleep normally.

This type of thing has always happened for as long as I can remember on those rare occasions before I started trying to do a WILD that I would accidentally head straight into REM sleep while still being relatively conscious (which often happens if I am overly tired), but I never really thought anything of it. Now that I am trying to do this on purpose, it is beyond frustrating to get so close, and then have my mind or body spaz for no apparent reason and wake up.

If anyone has any methods to stop constantly jerking awake like this, or has any ideas about why this keeps happening, I would really appreciate hearing them.

What you're experiencing is called a hypagogic (or hypnic) jerk; you've described it perfectly - the feeling that you're falling (as if you'd tripped or something) and then suddenly stopped, which jolts you awake. This occurs when you become very relaxed, to the point where you're almost asleep (or unconscious, whether you're trying to WILD or not at that particular time!). I've heard that it may be caused by irregular sleep schedules and excessive tiredness during the day; I can stand behind this because I only seem to get them if I'm really exhausted and am "willing" myself to fall asleep faster, just from the tiredness.

I'm curious now as to whether there's other solutions to help prevent these "jerks".

I feel like there is no way to stop the hypnic jerks because its so sudden. Its not like the pulling or spinning sensations you get during sleep paralysis because those usually last a lot longer and dont cause you to wake up, unless you get scared. The jerks people get on the other hand are so sudden and quick, that your body almost autimatically wakes you. If someone could find a solution for that, it would be awesome, but I feel like its almost impossible to stop it because its so sudden. Any thoughts on it would be great.

It's not so much stopping it as preventing it, I think. Yes, they'd probably be impossible to "stop" because your mind is often so close to sleep, it isn't clear enough to act that fast. But there's gotta be some effective preventative measures out there.

Puffin, that's what exactly what I'm wanting to know, if there's a way to prevent them (since obviously, once you're aware of it, it's too late to stop it).

Last night, I tried one of the WILD techniques I've been experimenting with, but without making a conscious effort to maintain lucidity. As far as I can tell, I was able to go straight into REM sleep, and then attained lucidity a couple of minutes into the dream (and then a couple of minutes later, when my dream was still "fuzzy" rather than trying to stabilize the dream, for some reason I thought "oh, my eyes are closed" and opened my eyes for real *headdesk*). The same thing happened this morning, where I was able to purposefully go straight to REM sleep, though without maintaining lucidity, and no problems with hypnic jerks.

I'm going to keep experimenting over the next few days, but I'm just finding it odd that it seems like they only happen if I'm still lucid while entering sleep paralysis/dream state.

I think the only way the prevent them is from getting a good nights rest then night before. I find it happens only when I'm pretty tired. But everyone is different, so some might just naturally get them more often.

I for myself never really experienced these jerks myself while being in bed (except for turning awake again without twitching upon noticing I have hypnogogic hallucinations, I'm going to make a thread about something I found out about that in this subforum later though). However I know exactly this jerks from the day, called forth when something is slowly turning me asleep while I myself don't want to sleep (happened in school a lot). I then fight falling asleep, and upon really falling asleep I immediatly have a dream where I either see how I'm falling downstairs or slipping on ice, or the likes, and I'm back fully awake. Given that I think it's at least partially a thing of mind wether these jerks happen, I suppose if you'd find something that would be causing it you could train to avoid it. I suppose for some WILDers trying to maintain minds awakeness while the bady falls asleep falls in this category, so if you could get yourself to feel pulled and completely relaxed by the transition you might be able to cancel out or at least reduce these jerks, since you'd take away the bottom you'd otherwise be hitting. It's just a theory though, so I can't say if it'll possibly work or not.