Waking up in middle of night?

I'm not the type to wake up in the middle of the night. So why is that since I started to practice lucid dreaming 3 days ago I tend to wake up four or 5 hours after I go to sleep? I put on binaural beats and then repeat in my head "Next time I'm dreaming, I will realize I'm dreaming", until I fall asleep. (I changed my mantra to "I always remember my dreams" to improve my dream recall.) This has happened for the past three days. When it happened before yesterday, I got up around 6 and remembered part of a dream. Yesterday I got up at 6:30, didn't remember any dreams, went back to sleep and remembered 2 different dreams which kind of gave me hope since I feel like my dream recall "may" be getting better. Today I went to sleep at 2 something and got up around 7. I also took a unisom tab last night and the night before which did nothing. What do you think it is? Is it better to have a steady sleep schedule? Could it be the binaural beats or am I over thinking things while in bed? Is it absolutely necessary to visualize before going to bed or can I say my mantra a few times and go to sleep regularly? I only sleep once a day and never take naps. Also I sleep with a lamp on and usually with my tv playing music as well. I'm going to leave the tv off for now to see how things go. Sorry for all the questions, I don't know what else I should do. Thanks in advance for any advice.

You're waking up because you're becoming more aware of the natural awakenings we all have at night. These awakenings are good as they give you more chances to recall dreams.

It's better to have a steady sleep schedule.

It's better to think about less as you're falling asleep. Thinking about too much as you're falling asleep can kill your recall.

It's not absolutely necessary to visualize before sleeping but it's better to do so.

Having a regular sleep schedule is very important. Research "sleep hygiene". Don't take Unisom. It's not dangerous, but it suppresses REM sleep and can only hurt your attempts to lucid dream. If you take anything, it should be melatonin.

If you're already used to it, sleeping with a light and music isn't necessarily bad. However, it would still be an improvement to sleep in darkness and silence. You can experiment with a sleep mask and earplugs if you like. If you prefer some sound, try a fan, white noise, or rain sounds instead of music. If you have trouble falling asleep, then you need to look at your whole lifestyle and daily habits, like eating, caffeine, stress, watching TV too late, etc. That's where researching sleep hygiene might help. It will help with LD, but also it can benefit your whole life.

As for waking, mantras, and visualization, here's what I recommend. When you initially go to sleep, this is not the best time for visualization. At this time you should just be relaxing to start a good night's rest. So first, you should review your plan and affirm some positive thoughts, possibly writing down your goals or summarizing your daily activities. Then set all that stuff aside and let yourself sleep. If you do anything at this time, it should be relaxation and breathing exercises to relieve tension and promote sleep.

Then, when you wake in the middle of the night, that's the time for mantras and visualization. Ideally, if you continue the practice, you'll be waking up about every 90 minutes (at the end of each sleep cycle). This isn't bad if it happens naturally. You're most likely to have LDs toward the end of the night/morning, so you want to prepare your mind close to that time. This is also the time to combine with WBTB or WILD techniques.

I tend to agree that it's pretty normal to wake up but we usually just go right back to sleep and don't realize it. I've always been one to roll over during the night, I used to assume I did it "while I was sleeping" but now that I'm paying more attention I don't think that's even possible, I think I wake up each time even if it's only long enough for the other side of my face to touch the pillow. Now I try to use the times I wake up to put down some notes on my dreams, if I remember any.