Quote Originally Posted by MyCooky View Post
On my last (and first) DEILD I didn't remember a dream before,
so my guess was that I didn't wake up form a REM.
You could have simply forgotten it. You don't have to remember the previous dream in order to DEILD. All you need to do is be able to wake up at the beginning or during a REM period and then quickly return to sleep. I don't normally remember my previous dream when I DEILD because as soon as I wake up I'm anticipating the next dream.

Experience will tell you the difference between waking up during REM and waking up after. You will feel different. If you wake up naturally during the night it's most likely after REM since we always wake up after a REM period. If you wake up naturally during REM it's usually because something in the dream caused you to get overexcited and woke you up. Or some outside source caused you to wake up, like a flash of light or an alarm.

So to learn the difference between the two pay close attention to how you feel during your awakenings. A good indicator for me is how strong the hypnagogic imagery is. If I wake up and there is no apparent imagery I know I've woken up after REM so when I return to sleep I'm going to have to go into NREM first making it a bad time for DEILD. If I wake up and see imagery right away then I am still in a REM period and a DEILD is almost guaranteed.