Starting again..getting ready for lucid

i havnt been trying to lucid dream in a while, and realized the other day that i remember barely any of my dreams, and that lucid dreaming is awesome and why am i not trying hard to do it every night:P
so i decided to start doing everything again to get back into it..
right now ive started to reality check throughout the day (i solely use the finger thru palm, it never fails me). are there any ways to get yourself to remember to do reality checks more often throughout the day and imprint it into your subconcious quicker?
ive also started writing down any dreams i do happen to remember. but i think the main thing would be im trying wbtb again, waking myself up at random times after i fall asleep now. i cant seem to find my rem cycles fully, and it seems totally random trying to guess the time. are there any good ways to wake yourself up in the middle of your rem cycles, or at the start even? and how long does one recommend to stay awake before going back to sleep? any recommended videos about lucid dreaming i can watch while awake? i dont like just going on the forums or doing w/e bc i just go back to sleep in 5 minutes and it doesnt work. but if i had like a half hour video to force myself to watch it and also keep my mind solely on lucid dreaming.
and also, question need only be acknowledged by those who toke, would hitting a bowl help with wbtb inbetween to pass out easier?

im hoping to get lucid soon:) hoping to stumble into one. ive been giving her with the reality checks lately so hope it pays off. then hopefully find the perfect time to wake myself up, then go back to bed and enter a dream and get lucid, or eventually figure out how to properly wild (my ultimate goal).

For reality checks, you could set a digital watch to go off every 30min-to-an hour and check whenever it beeps.

As for the WBTB, to find your REM cycle estimate how long it takes for you fall asleep (10 minutes? 30?) and add an hour and a half (90 minutes). REM happens (roughly) every 90 minutes. You want to hit just before -or at the beginning of- your 4th REM cycle for a good WBTB. So say you go to bed at 10:30, and it takes you 30 minutes to fall asleep, then you'd set you alarm for 5:00am.

At this point, you want to be awake for minimum 15 minutes and maximum an hour. You want to utilize your motor functions as well and encourage activity in the brain. But try to avoid Computer Screens and TV! Read a book or newspaper, go for a light walk or jog. Maybe use your computer to read DV if you really need LDing material, but make sure you move around first!

As for toking, I wouldn't recommend it. It might help you sleep, but the vividness and clarity of any dreams you remember would be severely diminished.