Last night I went to bed at about 11:30 PM hoping to lucid dream. As I lay down in the dark I practiced awareness: feeling the texture and warmth of my blanket and the creases in the sheets under me; feeling every part of my body, the occasional muscle spasms, the slight aches in both of my big toes; feeling my lungs expand and the air being sucked into my nose and down my throat into my chest; feeling where the edge of the pillow pressed into my neck; listening to the rhythmic tick of the clock and the sound of my blind softly hitting the window frame as the draft tried to suck it outside; the whispering sound of my breath. At the same time I began forming a visualisation of what I wanted to dream about. I imagined streets, houses, a train on a raised track, a river running next to the road, an empty school building and all the rooms laid out inside that I wanted to explore. I told myself what I would do, where I would go, what I'd find there and who I might meet. And while feeling and imagining I told myself, slowly and repeatedly: 'I will lucid dream tonight'.

Of course I was mixing together elements of both DILD and MILD techniques. I'm not sure if I had the right idea or not, though. I also tried out the 'still eye' trick from https://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/lucid-wannabe/unintentional-almost-wild-96489/ since it really interested me when I read it. Maybe I went too far trying to incorporate all those things at once? I continued with the awareness and affirmations but finished the visualisation, and focused on trying to keep my eyes still.

After some time I felt my upper body begin to vibrate. I've read about this happening when entering a WILD, so I was fine with it. But it stopped shortly. This happened a couple more times. Several thin, fragmented dreams entered my mind while I was trying to keep my eyes still. One I remember particularly:

While trying to keep my eyes from moving, I imagined a woman with long, curly greenish-black hair leaning over me, her hair was falling down onto my chest. Her name was something like 'Jacha' (though that wasn't it). I was trying to comb my fingers through her hair and straighten it out - which I see as sort of a reflection of my efforts to keep my eyes in one place. This lasted for just a few seconds before I thought, 'Wait, who's she?' and the visual went away.

Even as I saw all these, they were like faint images appearing briefly in the blackness and fading away. All the time I could feel my body and the bed and my breath, so I know I wasn't dreaming or asleep. Perhaps I would have fallen asleep if I leant into the visions. But I shooed them all away thinking I had to clear my mind. I was probably wrong about that. I kept trying for more than an hour, but couldn't fall asleep or relax. So I gave up and tossed and turned for a while more. I don't remember when I fell asleep but I woke up at 6:30 and couldn't remember any dream.

I think I'll try the still eye a couple more times - I think it has potential. If I get no results I'll give up on it and just focus on DILD.