HELP please.

my 4th day here, and I have a few clarifying questions. First off here is what I did:

I exhausted my body playing sports with a friend, I decided to work extra hard as it could make my nap easier. I took a two hour nap with no dreams when I got home.

I woke up and my father told me I missed dinner but it was awesome and he described it, then said they saved some. I relaxed for a longtime and eventually my body went numb. I got excited but decided to break off whatever progress there was on the count of me missing food.

When I finished eating I got back after reading SEEKER's guide and tried again. I laid all still like to what I later discovered was 30 minutes 11:11-11:39. I was waiting for the numbing. First I got really dizzy though, and it was fun. Then my body felt like it was turning is space. THEN I went numb. after a few seconds o both those I started REM.

I could feel it which was cool. I got a little excited but not enough to stop anything. Eventually, for whatever reason (possible excitement) the REM stopped and I began something else.

My eyes would focus in and out in the beat of a somewhat strobe light, but when I'd picture strobe lights (because it was kinda fun) they'd stop. I'd stop and they'd continue.

I waited for whatever dream for a few minutes before giving up for whatever. BIG mistake. In all the WILD guides, at least the ones I read, they told me to wake up in the middle of the night. I didn't.

By the time I ended up quitting :( it was 11:39. but because of whatever reason. ((probably excitement) I didn't sleep. Like at all. at 5:30 I ended up taking allergy pills that I fall asleep to. I woke up at 1 and wrote this :)


so the questions are:

Why wake up in the middle of the night?
and
What do you to transition after REM.

thanks!

ok, so the reason you wake up during the middle of the night is to try your best to 'wake out of' an REM period. Odds are, if you achieve waking yourself out of REM, you'll have a fresh, dreamy, REM feel going on. Your brainwaves are also PRIME for getting into a lucid. (When you REM you go into delta waves)

So, the general rule is to wake yourself up late into the sleep, (rem happens every 90 mins-ish,) and to remember a crapload of dreams from your dream session you just had. From this point, it's incredibly important to know that it's way easier to get into SP, have HI, all that jazz.
Also, key note: When you wake out of REM, and go back to sleep, your brain continues where it left off, and instead of trying to go through stage 1-2-3-4 of sleep, your brain picks up where it left off and goes into the previous REM stage. Very interesting stuff. It's easy to pull off a dream re-entry with this. Your brain has longer REM periods during the LATER parts of your sleep, that's why it's recommended to wake yourself up in the morning, making odds of waking DURING an REM period higher.

Now, when you wake, here's the thing: You can decide whether or not you want to wake up, move around, write down all those dreams, think about lucids, and then try to (M?/W?)ILD back to sleep, OR, wake, lie still in bed, and try to do a dream-exit, dream-re-entry wbtb thing.

The 2 options are a little different.
With the first option, your brain will still be in delta, or theta, maybe even beta(but generally not alpha) waves. This makes it easier to slip into SP, but you also have to consider that it will take you a little bit longer to fall asleep. BUT, you get to write down all your dreams. I've had tons of times where I forget all my dreams that I had b/c i didn't write them after waking out of REM.

With the second option, your brain WILL be in delta basically. VERY easy to get into SP and have HI. I've had incredible experiences with SP, HI, entering lucid dreams instantly, OBE type stuff, so cool. This happens a lot when I set my alarm on my phone to this 'Ding' alarm, and when I wake up.. I just ignore my alarm... and my phone snoozes it for me for 10 mins... I just listen to it.... and know that it's going to go away, and that some crazy stuff's gonna go down. It's fun. With this option you run the risk of forgetting your dreams though, but I've got tons of memorable LDs this way. I've had incredible success with this method.
I also found a topic on it: http://dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=87710


It's really your choice. Both are hit or miss, I recommend trying both and figuring out which works best for you. I wish you luck and please post any updates :) Your doing it right.

Oh, and to answer your second question: Wait. Just wait it out. Just know that your body WILL fall asleep and you WILL dream. When you lie down and try to WILD for the night, you are going into a fresh REM state, stages 1-2-3-4. You don't really dream til stage 3/4.. You have to wait it out to get to the dreaming part. You're being conscious through the experience, so that's good. You're doing it right. Stick with it.

My advice: Try listening to the high pitched, whine/frequency/sound thing in your ear. Almost like static. I find focusing on that gets me into a dream a lot. I also think it helps you relax your eyes and helps put you into a 'detached, transitional' state because its like you're imagining where this sound is, almost feels like it's focusing on this imaginary point in space, the noise is all around you but.. i dunno. I find when I do the 'sleep through the alarm' trick, I'll wake up in SP, focus INTENTLY on that sound, and like... grit my teeth/jaws, and have CRAZY vibrations and 10 seconds later i'm rolling out of my bed into a lucid dream. so fun. Anyway Have fun man

Oh and I'm not sure if that was REM per-say. your eyes WERE moving and vibrating at a crazy speed involuntarily right though? that happens to me too. I dunno, i think it's your body's way of relaxing the eyes, it's just some involuntary thing it does involving sleep and not really REM. you DO have 'Rapid Eye Movement' FAIRLY often (not always) during REM stage, that's why it's called that.
REM stage of Sleep and REM both exist :)

Oh and I hear holding your breath for a little bit when you think you're about to slip into a dream works... like, just a deeep breath, hold it in, then sloooowly exhale. i dunno if it works. I know doing that gets me spinny in certain stages of my sleep, haven't really tried it out during sleep-to-dream transitioning