I learned this method from a friend a few nights ago and have been using it every time I go to sleep. It seems to work quite well for me and I hope others will find it useful as well.
Normally, I try to have DILDs but those have been very unsuccessful for me... they are too random and inconsistent and I have to get really lucky with the reality check. But DILDs were the only ones I could get as rare as they are.
I have also been actively trying to astral project, which is how I learned this technique and I find that it resembles a WILD method a lot. It has vastly decreased the amount of time for me to get in that "trance" stage. Oh, and this technique is also mentioned in Robert Bruce's book on OBEs/Astral projection/lucid dreaming.
To understand this technique, first realize, your hands are intimately aware of each part of your body. If you had your eyes closed, and I said touch your knee... touch your nose... you would be able to point it out easily. When you want to touch a part of your body... your "awareness" immediately focuses on that part of the body.
To do the meditation exercise, as you are trying to fall asleep, pretend you have imaginary hands. They can be located anywhere... if it helps, they can be detached. It doesn't matter either way. You will IMAGINE that your hands are going to touch a part of the body, but don't actually touch it.
The main point of this is to have you be aware of your body physically and to keep your mind from wandering and having 'emotional' thoughts. Do this part by part... imagine your hands are touching your toes... go up to your feet, legs, thighs, butt, etc, all the way up to your head... try to feel your hands going into your armpits... your neck... just try to feel awareness in every part of the body the best you can. "Touch" each part of your body. Feel it being touched. Anticipate the location that is going to be touched. Do this exercise while taking deep breaths... it helps if you also try to imagine that with each inhale, you are sucking in pure white energy that is cleansing your body... and with each exhale, negativity and black gunk is coming out. Visualize it the best you can. Try to believe it.
With practice, it will become easier. Try to block out any other thoughts and just focus on the touching exercise and don't move your body at all, except breathing. Eventually, you will feel your body becoming deeply relaxed.... becoming numb... falling asleep... deeper and deeper... you may realize that your body is starting to go through the natural process of falling asleep. At this point, it is easy to lose your concentration and actually fall asleep, which you will if you stop thinking. If you can maintain your "awareness" while your body is falling asleep, you will consciously experience sleep paralysis and I'll stop here because I'm sure you guys know the rest.
Normally for me, this rapidly puts me in a trance stage and I will start to get the hypnagogic hallucinations (usually consists of random orbs of light, swirls, crackly and zappy sounds for me), followed by an intense falling sensation. I'm not a very experienced lucid dreamer, as I tend to get impatient with things like these and break my concentration, but it's improving!
Good luck and happy dreams!
