Thread: WILD: What am I doing wrong?

So I tried WILD yesterday and here's how it went: I slept at like 2am and woke up at 7:30am because I had to go to my school to pick up something. I went back to bed at around 9am and started to WILD. I just lied there on my back and closed my eyes and tried to WILD. It didn't go so well because I just lied there for a long time with my eyes closed and barely noticed any changes. The only change I noticed was that sometimes when I'm close to falling asleep, I would suddenly inhale really fast and that would wake me up. It happened a few times but that was pretty much it... Also, while doing WILD for a long time, the side of my head itched really bad and I had to scratch it so that's when I stopped WILDing and just went to sleep normally.. Any comments on what I did wrong? Did I try to WILD at a bad time? Am I supposed to wait longer for the Sleep Paralysis to occur?

Also for WILD, am I supposed to just close my eyes, not fall asleep, and wait for my body to feel heavy and paralyzed? I have been reading a lot of WILD tutorials and none of them seem to be specific and detailed. Like one tutorial would just say "You have to stay awake while youi let your body fall asleep". Ok, so what does that specifically mean? I have had two LDs in the past and I still have no idea how I got those LDs. If they were just random LDs, how come I haven't had one for about a year?

It sounds like you had the timing about right. You basically performed a WBTB. Where you went wrong, I imagine, is in your next question. Let me explain.

The main goal for a WILD, as you said, is to keep your mind awake while your body falls asleep. This means relaxing your body, but keeping your mind aware.

• Sleep paralysis may occur, and can be a sign that you're getting close, but it does not always happen, and should definitely NOT be your goal.
• Hypnogogic Hallucinations (sounds or sights that occur as you fall asleep) may occur, and can be a sign that you're getting close, but they do not always happen, and should definitely NOT be your goal.

Your goal, instead, should be to maintain your waking awareness while falling asleep. How can you do this? Usually, by using what's called a lucid anchor. As your body relaxes, your thoughts will start to wander, and if you get caught up in these thoughts, you'll fall asleep normally. A lucid anchor is just something to keep you focused on staying lucid while falling asleep. The best way to do this is to visualize the scene you want to appear in, in as much detail as you can. Visualize yourself performing reality checks, and remind yourself that what you see is a dream. If your thoughts wander, bring them back to the matter at hand. And if your head itches or you feel the urge to swallow, take care of whatever it is you need to take care of without putting too much thought into it, and then go right back to your visualizations. Eventually, the visualizations in your mind will become more convincing and lifelike, and you can then stabilize your now lucid dream.

So as you can see, WILD is a little more that just sitting with your eyes closed while not moving and waiting for a long time for sleep paralysis. If you haven't already, I would recommend reading this tutorial post for more information on WILD.

As for your other 2 lucids, if you don't know what caused them, perhaps they were just DILDs? DILDs can happen spontaneously, even without you trying for them.