Failed WILD but getting closer, need help.

[lucidro]

I'm getting closer to a successful WILD. What I've been doing is I lay down at the normal time that I go to sleep and keep my eyes close and I eventually start to see images such as colors, shapes, patterns, and I do get sound hallucinations but VERY brief. I usually will hear a few seconds of a song, and it's VERY VIVID. I find that if I focus on the audio hallucinations, they go away. But if I don't focus on them I eventually fall asleep. How do I keep myself aware as I enter the lucid dream? I find that I fall asleep soon after I start seeing patterns and experiencing light sound hallucinations. Now, I know WILD's are easier to do if you wake up then go back to sleep. But whenever I do this, I almost always enter sleep paralysis. I've never been able to turn sleep paralysis into a lucid dream. I think this is because I'm so aware during sleep paralysis (I don't even get hallucinations, just tingling and inability to move). When I get sleep paralysis, I can't go back to sleep after it and I always wake up during sleep paralysis if I stay concious, unless I try to fall back asleep. So my questions are, how do I stay conscious during WILD / how to turn sleep paralysis into a lucid dream? thank you

[Jesslet]

You are most likely not going to enter a dream if you try and WILD at bedtime, even if you are successful at relaxing and keeping your awareness. You experience dreams during REM sleep and your longer REM cycles only occur after 4-6 hours of regular sleep, which is why WBTB is the popular choice for lucid dreaming in general and particularly WILD. Try your attempts then and use sleep paralysis to your advantage. As for going from SP to dreamstate, I have still yet to figure that out. However I've gotten close and it seems like what you should do is be passively aware that you are entering SP and once you have to keep going. Keep focusing on your anchor or doing what you have to to hold onto your awareness but try and keep all of your focus internal rather than on your physical body or any sensations/hallucinations you may be experiencing. When you're in sleep paralysis try to just keep on being relaxed without focusing too hard on your body, and maybe begin to visualize a dream scene. You will certainly have some hypnagogia to speak of while you're in that state so you can either watch that until your dream forms before your eyes or try and actually program it yourself to whatever dream scene you want. Anyway hopefully this was helpful, good luck to you fellow dreamer

[11Greg]

Sleep paralysis is not needed to perform a WILD, it's just a by-product. You don't want to focus on SP, and it is not important. Practice WILD with the wake back to bed technique and only focus on your mantra/keeping a certain level of awareness. Really, take a look over at the DV academy, sageous as written a lot of stuff that covers mostly the problems you are facing and offers great advice. Link: WILD If you can't ignore SP, learn to accept it. It's a sensation you are not used to feeling, but you need to teach yourself, that it is normal. This will help in your wilds.