The only way you're going to know what happens is from trial and error. All of our going to sleep processes are different, so it' s going to be different from person to person.

In a text book world yes, you're correct on wbtb to tired to imagery to sp to REM WILD. But sometimes people may skip all of those and go directly in to it. Sometimes only certain things may happen, and sometimes there may be a cycle of them all several times before it happens. The fact that you're actually paying attention to what you're doing right now is confirmation that you're advancing.

Think about all those times when you went to sleep before you knew about all of this stuff. You didn't know jack and so you passed out. Now you're thinking about what phase, what's going to hit....this, that, and the other. That's a good step in the right direction, but in the same time, don't get caught up into it. You may or may not experience any of the things I just mentioned because our bodies are so random when we go to sleep.