I've been trying to LD for over a year, and have become frustrated many times. At least I have 5 short LDs to show for it, but all of just a few seconds.
I've tried all the techniques, staring with WILD (I know, more difficult), then trying DILD, DEILD, MILD, FILD, every xxLD in the book!

My more recent WILD attempts have been after a WBTB, but I found I ended up just ging to sleep all the time.

Last night I thought I would try something a bit different and really keep on the WILD attempt.
I have the Zeo headband and also use the ZILD Android app, and that combination can wake me reliably after a delay of 5 hours, at the start of a REM episode.
So last night it woke me at about 3:15, at the end of a very vivid dream about flying (not lucid though), and I got up briefly, then tried to WBTB WILD.
I tried the technique of SSILD (sight, sound, feel rotations) for a while, then started counting slowly down on each breath.
The difference this time was that I was really determined not to go to sleep. I know, you have to go to sleep to dream, but since I was always falling asleep and not having an LD, I thought I would give tenacity a try.

I continued to count down from 99, and got to 0, so I started again, and again, and again. I then tried counting up.

During this time, I could feel several occasions where was getting close, seeing various imagery, feeling some vibrations and hearing strange sounds, but all the while it felt like I was very awake.

Two hours went by, all the while I was doing this.

At 5:15 ZEO showed that I went into light sleep, and at 5:30 that I was in REM, and this was the first LD I had. I won't bore you with the dream detail, but it started as a vivid dream, and I just suddenly knew I was dreaming. I was falling backwards as I realised, which is probably what woke me up. So this was only a short LD, but after a couple of hours of WILD attempt!

With that success I tried to stay very still and re-enter the dream. I had 15 minutes awake, then 15 minutes of light sleep before going into REM again.
This time I had another vivid dream, but quickly realised I was dreaming. I had perhaps a minute of lucidity, when I decided to interact. My brother was in the dream, and his hair was so lifelike, like I could see every strand of his hair, to I thought I would reach out and touch it, but just as I was about to touch it, he disappeared, and then the dream scene fragmented. I tried desperately to rub my hands together, but I remember being worried that if I moved I would wake. I need to think more about dream stabilisation!

What I think might have happened is that although I am trying to WBTB at the beginning of REM in a sleep cycle, I probably had to wait for the next REM event, so at least 90 minutes later to get another go.
Even so, tenacity seems to have worked!
This may not be a very sustainable method, but it gives me something to work on, and it was 2 successful WILD attempts in one night.

I didn't remember to RC at all, which is a bit annoying, but I suppose if you just know you are dreaming it doesn't matter?
I guess it might help with stabilisation...

I would welcome any comments or suggestions.


I've attached the Zeo plot here for those who are interested;
zeo_night_detail.jpg