Halfway there!! So frustrated :(

So here's the thing. I'm not new to this at all and I've been very successfull in the past at my attempts at lucid dreaming. I always used DILD and DEILD but for me those take alot of waking effort and time (reality checks etc.) and who has the time these days:roll:. So recently I've wanted to get back into it. I thought I would take a completely different approach to it this time, so I decided to try WILDing. Here's what happens...
I'll lay there on my back, clear my mind, relax my body and just let my thoughts come to a stand still. Eventually the dream starts to visualize in my head, I can see it forming in front of my eyes but here lies the problem! One of two things will then happen. Some minuscule noise will be made by someone else in the house OR I just slip into the dream without lucidity. So my question is how can I keep the awareness without focusing on keeping it. It seems like as soon as I start to focus on the dream that I'm slipping into I get sucked back to reality. Argh it's so frustrating! Any advice would be greatly appreciated:)

PS Sorry that it's a novel! I wanted to be as detailed as possible ;)

IDK, it is hard from time to time. Just try to focus on the dream that is starting to form. I am sorry I cannot help that much just practice. PS that is nowhere near a novel like some will post.

The problem is that as soon as I focus on the newly forming dream I lose it. It's like my mind goes "whoops, you're still awake!" and it's gone.
And I guess it's not really a novel. TBH it looked like a lot more before I hit post haha

Let me introduce you to my friend the white noise. White noise is a constant soft-sounding noise like rain, AC, or even a radio. If you start to concentrate on it you it, you would be less likely distracted by other noise. It also help you keep focus as you slip into uncontentious.

That is a good idea, I usually listen to relaxing music when falling asleep but I think white noise would work better.

Hmm... Interesting. I think what I'll try is taking my watch off and holding it in my hand as I fall asleep. It should be the same principle right?

I have heard of that technique but never actually tried it.

Well I'll give it a shot tonight and report back tomorrow!!

Ok good. I am interested in trying it but I have never heard but a couple people talking about it.

Ok so here's what happened...
I went to bed around 2am and used my watch and it failed. I think the reason was because I was using something that fit comfortably in my hand and that I wasn't really all that tired so it was difficult to stop my mind racing. I woke up around 4:30 and tried again, this time using a small drip bottle with the lid poking into my hand. That had a weird effect. I actually fell asleep and told one of my DC's that THEY were dreaming but completely failed at realizing that I was odviously dreaming as well. I then woke up again at 7:30 and thought I would try a different method. I used the FILD method (making your mind think you're moving your fingers when in actuality you are just sending the impulse to move) and that almost worked. As the dream formed I could feel my fingers 'moving' and focused on that but it was taking so long I gave up and went back to sleep.

I must say that I had incredibly vivid dreams last night but I failed to become lucid in them. I'll give it another shot tonight. I won't have as much on my mind so it should be easier...

You might want to try different anchors. I also have the problem of falling asleep and not becoming lucid. I had my first two WILDs in one night though, both using anchors. You should also remember to do RCs whenever you wake up to make sure you're not dreaming (this kept me from losing lucidity twice on my second WILD). Also, a big thing that helped me out is getting out of bed before I try to WILD and using the bathroom or something, and just thinking about stuff for a couple of minutes, then going back to bed. I invariably fall back to sleep without having a WILD if I don't do that. I'm still working on WILDing too, so I know how you feel.