Now I ave had a near-LD experience how can I make them more frequent?

Last night may have been the closest I've been to having a LD. I was told by a dream character, a friend I haven't seen in years, that I was dreaming. It was blindingly obvious and thankfully I took him seriously and did a reality check, but that was the extent of it.

I actually stopped trying to LD a week or so ago having never managed it, despite years of practice of different techniques, going through periods of motivation and non-motivation, so I can't put this experience down to any particular technique, it just happened and thankfully it was vivid enough to remember on wakening. My sleep and waking times were no different to normal.

What I would like to know if there was any way of making the most of this experience now that it has happened once. Can I some how use the memory of last night's dream to make the occurrence of realisations more frequent? I know that it was a valuable thing to have remembered on wakening.

It's quite common to spontaneously have an LD after a pause in practice.
Now that you have nearly experienced it, and if you knew you were dreaming, then you did, it should help with the next time.

Just relax and dream!

In a book on NLP I read some time ago there was something that may answer your question.

Anchors in NLP are things, symbols, words, etc, which become linked to particular states of consciousness and feelings.

Pick a symbol you can visualise easily, or a word. Go over the experience of being lucid over and over while holding the new anchor in mind.

If it works, every time you visualise the image or think/say the word, it will invoke the lucid dream state, or remind your subconscious mind of your intention to have a similar experience again.

It could help I think to focus on the anchor before going to sleep, or especially before a WILD attempt.

Also imagined sensory information and memories held in the mind act on the brain in much the same way actual experience does, they call up the same feelings and sensations. So if you went over the lucid dream in as much detail as possible before a WILD, I think it would incline the brain to generate that state again, the simple recollection and immersion in the memory, could lead to the actual thing. The memory of the state, under the right conditions, could lead to the real thing.