Wild troubleshooting

I used timers last night. The idea is to just fall asleep and the timer wakes up you at intervals. So you can skip all the boring parts.
It seems pretty foolproof. The only problem is I didn't actually get into a dream.

I sneezed once and had to swallow once. But I don't know if that would really have an affect on things. Your body would probably think you were just momentarily awake right?

I got a light bit of vibrations etc even after sneezing. And when I gave up over an hour later by body felt like wax for several seconds. Or like I had a lead blanket on top of me. Did I do it right?

Or should I change when I start? This time I did it after 5 hours. Maybe I should do it after 6.

I'm looking for a way to get lucidity every night. So I do MILD during the day/1st half the night. Then I'm gonna try this for the second half the night.

Don't worry about what you're feeling or about sneezing or swallowing. Just try to fall asleep while trying to find the balance of awareness that allows you fall asleep while being aware of the transition from waking to dreaming.

Don't be afraid to lose consciousness. If you're conscious enough of the transition from waking to dreaming, you can lose consciousness but regain it while the transition occurs. I find this is the way I most commonly find the balance of awareness needed to WILD.

Oh the timer beeps every few minutes at first and then the intervals get longer. The idea is that your mind doesn't like to be shocked before the timer goes off so it alerts you. Then when you get into a dream even if you fall asleep it wakes you up to avoid the shock. Except you're in the dream.

That's good that swallowing etc doesn't have a huge effect. I'm gonna play around with how much sleep I get before I try.

Alarms are fine. They create more opportunities to experiment. The critical thing is to become familiar with the feeling of approaching sleep. Normally we just surrender to sleepiness and go to sleep. The trick of WILD is to hook into the transition process, but not interrupt it.

So I think WILD techniques are divided into two phases:

1. Get sleepy. This involves relaxation techniques to get your mind and body back into sleep mode. If you are using a brief alarm, this might be a very short period, so instead focus on the next. Things like hallucinations or paralysis are indicators that you are approaching the next phase. But they might not necessarily occur, so this is where practice and experience take precedence. It might not happen the same way every time, so be prepared to handle several types of transition.

2. Facilitate the transition. When you identify that dreamy state in hypnogogia, it's time to start thinking about where you're going in the dream. It might be a visualization. Or recalling a previous dream or real experience. Or focusing on hallucinations until they manifest. In all these techniques, you're directing your thoughts toward another place. I think it helps to have a plan of what you will do in the dream. Thus, you're not just building a scene but also a narrative for your mind to follow.