Thread: 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.