Hello everyone! I've known about LD's since 5 years but not put that much effort into learning them properly but now I want to finish doing it. I thought first of opening this thread in the intro zone but think this would be better. I have had few LD's before but they were very short(<1min). In my current try I have started having more dreams and some are more clear. I had a lucid dream and tried to stabilize and increase clarity by looking at my hands and engaging senses but didn't remember anything except my hands and woke up when i tried to smell weakly.

My first and important question is, what would be the best time to do WILDs since I sleep in two shifts of 2-3 hours and would this be sufficient for DILDs? Currently my recalled dreams last around 3-5min. I don't think I've had an LD over a minute.

Second, has anyone had success with putting alarm in brain to attain lucidity in certain circumstances? For eg a lot of my dreams involve old classmates or old homes and sometimes I feel a bit odd but I don't attain lucid. I've been doing reality checks but would like this extra though I don't want to stop having dreams from these places.

Third, how much clarity can we expect in a dream, also from memories we can't remember clearly when awake? I have three things to do in an LD currently - (i)Practice martial arts and try moves (ii)Do stuff with girls, whom I knew years ago or imaginary ones (iii)Visit my old homes and schools that I didn't see since childhood in their states then and with the same people as then. Some of them I can't visualize consciously.
All three of these depend on clarity and realism.

Thanks