Really high heart rate- Question

I'm brand new to lucid dreaming (believe it or not I found out about it on the TV show Ed)

After alot of research I tried WILD on my first night. After about 5-10 minutes of saying that I'm dreaming (and all the rest) my hands started to tingle and the shapes were twirling and so on, I was getting pretty deep into it but my mouth kept getting dry from talking and I was loosing concentration, so I gave up thinking I had done well for my first try.

Now to the main part, the next two nights I got up to the shapes (and a few drifting scenes) but then my heart rate increased dramatically and got very loud, and totally threw me off.

My questions are,

a: Is this normal? b: Could it just be my hearing going weird because of the WILD process?
c: Is there a way to stop it from happening?

Thanks alot.
(fantastic website btw)

This happens if you're highly concentrated, and I would say that it's a good sign instead of a bad one. I often try to picture where to spawn in my dreams, sometimes I request too many details and then my heartrate increases.

If the heartbeat sound is a little freaky to you, turn around and lay on your right side (heart upwards) and put the duvet under your arm.

I wouldnt be too worried...

Also keep in mind that when things are really quiet, like at night in your room, your HR may just seem louder.

Your high heart beat can be a effect of the transition between a waken and a asleep body. Since your alert of what is happening your noticing processes that takes place and have taken place your whole life. Ive myself have felt my heart beat as it would pop out of my chest any minute, leading to a sleep paralysis some seconds later. It can be the excitment. So if you dont focus on anything else you can try focusing on the heart beats... that can have a calming effect and take your mind of some others maybe unpleasant sensations before the shift to a dream happens.

Btw. what kind of show is Ed?

Thanks alot, so I guess I was getting pretty close,

I'll keep going (nothing could have really stopped me anyway) :P