Stages of sleep - few questions

Hello..The other night i went to bed after a decently long walk. I usually get to the hypnogogic stage right away when i lay down(does anyone get there about 5 mins just laying there?). It usually starts off as a couple flashes of light and then just light that moves around freely. Then after that i felt myself becoming very aware, becoming a lot more sensitive. i think i was was going into a deep sleep stage but my mind was completely awake, i'm not sure if that was deep sleep or not because my eyes would sometimes naturally open and my mind was very alert. If that was the case how long do you wait through the deep sleep part untill you begin forming a dream? I had a dream that night but couldn't recall it very well and woke up pretty tired, maybe it's because i went to bed at 3 and woke up at 11and i don't have a very good sleep schedule.

Seems like you got into the transitional phase of WILDing. I can't tell you what that's like since I haven't achieved this state yet :(
However, you say you were sometimes randomly opening your eyes while in that state... tried to do a RC to see if you were actually in the dream but didn't realize it? Or what did you see at all then?

Enf0rc3r

was it anything like this. this is what i do at night.

http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22895

alright, are you ever consious when your in the REM period Because.. i've done a test from the hospital for sleeping, and i found myself feeling my eyes move rapidly and also i get that sometimes in Meditation...anyone else feel themselves in this stage or what?

No I never felt my eyes moving rapidly like in REM... either I dream or am just lying there awake.

I had REM eye movents whilst being conscious. It can sometimes be a tedious task to keep your eye closed then, but sometimes you feel that your eyelids are locked into place.
It's usually followed by heat waves, vibrations and HI and sounds.