Was this a near-hit?

Alright, so in the time I've been gone here, I pretty much gave up on lucid dreaming for a while, since my school schedule just didn't permit me to disrupt my sleep cycle so much. But more recently things have slowed down and now I can afford to do so, so I've tried every now and then.

One morning I woke up from a dream. Instead of deciding to fall back asleep and continue on with the dream like I usually do, I attempted a WILD. Then something odd happened after a while... I "saw" this white-and-teal colored static and heard what to me sounded like a loud mains hum (about 60 Hz, kinda like as if my guitar amp had suddenly kicked to life... if you don't know what I'm talking about look up mains hum on Wikipedia and listen to the sound file).

Then I sort of snapped back to consciousness abruptly, like "What the hell just happened?"

Was this a near-hit? What "sights" and "sounds" do other people here experience while becoming lucid through WILD?

Actually a hum is what I hear most of the time douring a WILD/WILD like situation.

What you heard was probably HH (hypnogogic hallucination) which means you were incredibly close to reaching the dream state. People hear all kinds of things while trying to WILD or DEILD: static, voices, loud noises, music, etc.

To me it sounds like you may have actually been trying to DEILD, or Dream Exit Initiated Lucid Dream, which is very similar to WILD. To DEILD you wakeup as a dream ends (which you did) and then follow the basic steps of a WILD. Many people (myself among them) find DEILD vastly easier than WILD. Many also find they experience reduced or no SP, HI, or HH. I almost never do.

Good luck! You were SO close! Next time just relax.