Falling asleep without maintaining awareness

So, last night I was counting down from 100, trying to reach SP. I eventually became so tired and relaxed that I would momentarily drift off around 90, then restart my count at 100. This repeated several times until I drifted off until my WBTB alarm six hours later went off. After staying awake for about ten minutes, I tried getting into SP, but lost awareness and consciousness quickly.

What should have I done when I was on the verge of falling asleep the first time? Should I increase my WBTB time, and what methods should I use to stay aware?
I'd highly appreciate any help on this.
(I do realize that WILDs are much more difficult without any prior sleep, however I figure that it'd be best to have two attempts per night.)

I know you know this, but yes I do have to point out that WILDing is much harder when you first go to bed at night. Your body is wired in such a way that your first few sleep cycles have very little REM sleep. So when you first go to sleep, your body wants to go into that nice deep delta sleep for a long time. It's hard to get it to skip that and go into a long REM period.

As to what you can do....increase your WBTB time, and also do something that stimulates your brain a little, like crosswords, sudoku, etc., before going back to bed. :)

Ahh, so I should just focus on falling asleep normally, as chances are I won't miss much. Thanks for the suggestions!

Yep, there is a low chance that you/me/anyone will succeed before bed repeatedly. There are people who can WILD every night because they use WBTB with it. :)

This post is just going to agree with the ones above, but with a little more detail. When you fall asleep initially at night, your body goes through sleep cycles, starting at Stage 1 sleep and getting deeper to Stage 4 (the deepest sleep). Then you have a tiny period of REM sleep and go into the Stages again. As you continue sleeping, these cycles get less and less deep (no longer reaching Stage 4, then Stage 3) and the amount of REM sleep increases. That's why, if you have to wake up early in the morning, you're more likely to be woken during a dream.
The timing of these cycles vary for everyone; that's why you have to experiment with your alarm times to find what time will wake you up in an REM phase. REM sleep is really the only time you will ever dream, and therefore, the only way you can WILD.
Naps are another good way to WILD because if you're sleep deprived and sleep at a different time from your normal sleep cycles, you will go straight into REM sleep and probably dream.

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Originally Posted by Traumerei

So, last night I was counting down from 100, trying to reach SP. I eventually became so tired and relaxed that I would momentarily drift off around 90, then restart my count at 100. This repeated several times until I drifted off until my WBTB alarm six hours later went off. After staying awake for about ten minutes, I tried getting into SP, but lost awareness and consciousness quickly.

What should have I done when I was on the verge of falling asleep the first time? Should I increase my WBTB time, and what methods should I use to stay aware?
I'd highly appreciate any help on this.
(I do realize that WILDs are much more difficult without any prior sleep, however I figure that it'd be best to have two attempts per night.)

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I dont understand what why are you are torturing yourself with counting. Falling asleep is not about staying concentrated and waiting for something magical to happen. Falling asleep is about shifting from real world into dream world. When you stay mentally in your bed, you will have dreams about being paralysed in your bed.

Just lay still, feel relaxed and try to be observant. Wait till something strange starts to happen. And then try to pretend this strange thing is something normal, but in a dream world.

For example. You hear some ringing sound in your ears. It might be strange, but you may build a story, that that is a train comming towards a train station in a town you are currently visiting. You might feel a pull towards this kind of reality, you might see the images to solidify. It might happen that you are pulled back to your real body, then you wait again. The key is to use every possibility to escape from your real body which is naturally given to you when enterin REM.

So forget counting, forget concentration. Just try to quit from your real focus into dream focus. This is best done in rem, because REM gives you that kind of pull towards dream focus, which you wont get in other stages

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Originally Posted by adraw

Wait till something strange starts to happen. And then try to pretend this strange thing is something normal, but in a dream world.

For example. You hear some ringing sound in your ears. It might be strange, but you may build a story, that that is a train comming towards a train station in a town you are currently visiting. You might feel a pull towards this kind of reality, you might see the images to solidify. It might happen that you are pulled back to your real body, then you wait again. The key is to use every possibility to escape from your real body which is naturally given to you when enterin REM.

So forget counting, forget concentration. Just try to quit from your real focus into dream focus. This is best done in rem, because REM gives you that kind of pull towards dream focus, which you wont get in other stages

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That sounds brilliant. I'll have to try that later -I've been counting because I'm afraid of losing awareness, but what you said seems like it could work for me.

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Originally Posted by Traumerei

That sounds brilliant. I'll have to try that later -I've been counting because I'm afraid of losing awareness, but what you said seems like it could work for me.

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;). Just one more thing. If you do it in the evening, you will not have that kind of pull towards dream state. So in your evening attempt you should not expect you will end in a dream state. Possibly evening attempt could disturb your sleep cycle so much that you will not be able to regenerate over night, and you will not get enough alertness in your second attempt, thus ruining both of them.

I have had a lot of nights, where i simply could not sleep after evening attempt. I thing evening deep sleep is too crucial for regeneration to disturbed.