Offer and request of advice

Greetings,

I have been a member of this site for a few months or so now, but have dropped my attempts for lucid dreaming. I am back and trying it all again. But thats enough of my background.

I have tried a few things over the past week or two, and have some advice, even though it probally has been posted before.

I myself sleep on my stomach or side most of the time, but in some experiments, I have came to find that for a more successful lucid dream, you should be laying on your back with your arms and hands extended, palms facing up.
This also helps greatly with dream recall. Pretty much every night I sleep like this, I recall four or five dreams.

What else may have contribuated to this is because I did not drink coffee or soft drink, it was usually cordial (US: kool aid?). My lack of caffiene was most likely a factor in the success.

Relieving myself right before I get into bed always keeps me from waking up in the middle of th night to answer natures' call. One night I did actually wake up on one of these calls, doing so, I remembered a few more dreams than usual, and it was far more vivid. Needless to say, even though I didn't attempt becoming lucid upon my re-arrival to bed, I did remember more dreams when I finally woke in the morning.

I just thought some of that information may help some dreamers :)

Now, moving forward to my lucid attempts, I am one that goes to bed reasonably late, anywhere from 12AM - 1AM.
At this time, I don't ever really bother getting up to do WBTB, I just try WILDing when first going to bed. I lay on my back, as I described above, with my eyes close, lights and sound minimum to nil.

I lay there for a bit, usually keeping my mind blank. Some nights I either feel a very small tingle in my lower body (in or near my legs) and some other nights, with the tingle, or without it, I may get a blood pumping sensation in some parts of my body (usually head), as like you get when hang upside down too long.

I never do get the images or sounds though.
Is there any possible way to help keep myself awake? After a while, I fall asleep, but I never do feel myself falling asleep. One minute I'm laying there, next minute I'm awake eight hours later.

I also did try doing this with my eyes open, as suggested in another thread. I had my eyes open for god knows how long, laying there. From memory I closed by eyes because of some reason (not sure, believe it was from some kind of feeling). After laying there for a period of time, I felt like I saw something, like black and greyish images. I prevented myself from thinking and kept laying there, barely taking notice of what I was seeing.

My eyes then felt like they were slightly open, and that it was like I saw a figure moving past me. As it passed me, another figure would pass by the exact same way the first was going. It continued. I knew the figure was just my imagination/optical dillusion, so I didn't get a sense of fear. I layed there watching it go by for a while. In the end, I think I eventually opened my eyes and could not get back to that state that night.

Was this a HI or anything that may have led to a lucid dream?

There are a few other things, but I won't congest this thread any further.

I hope I didn't bore you, if you actually read all of this. :)

Thanks.