I can't WILD

Whenever I try to WILD, I feel as if I am floating and when I open my eyes, things turn sort of white and misty, and the only thing I can see clearly is my smoke detector light. I get some hynogogic imagery , but after about 45 min I gave up. What should I do? Also I'm trying this right as I go to bed (about 9)

Hypnagogic imagery is the beginnings of SP; it means you're close. Try relaxing as much as you can into the HI, and passively observe everything. After a while, try to imagine a dream scenario, it can help you enter a dream once you actually hit SP.

The only problem is, it's very difficult for most people to get SP right when they get into bed, unless they're very, very tired or relaxed. You don't enter REM until you sleep for a few hours, which is why it's much easier to try WILDing during a WBTB.

Hope that helped. :)

I agree with Puffin, trying a WILD right before bed will never yield results for someone who is just starting, I don't even understand how an expert could do it. Try waking up a couple hours before you normally do and get up and walk around. Use the bathroom, eat a snack, read a book, whatever. Then go back to bed and meditate on the hypnagogic imagery. And when you feel like you've floated out of your body don't try to open your eyes! Simply float around feeling what it feels like to float and let the dream scape simply appear; don't force it. This morning I had success spinning as soon as I floated out. Just spinning like a bottle on its side without any visuals and then suddenly my room appeared and i floated around before deciding to float out into my front yard. Let your eyes open on their own don't force it or it will cause you to wake up. And if you can already feel like your floating and you are trying before sleep you're doing really well! Keep it up.

What other sensations do you experience? What signals make you think it is a good idea to open your eyes?

cool- you are going really well to have HI at 9 in the evening! have a little more patience and you will certainly succed!