Hey DV community,
This is my first post after recently discovering the forum, and it seems like a wonderful resource! Ive been writing down my dreams on and off for years, and started doing so specifically for lucid dreaming in August after reading "Exploring the world of Lucid Dreaming." I've had a few lucid dreams since then but progress is slow and kindof discouraging. I recently strarting trying the MILD induction technique, and have some questions.

1. While practicing MILD, do any of you find that repeating a mantra or visualizing yourself becoming lucid in a dream keeps you awake? How do you deal with it? It took me about 3 hours to fall asleep last night, and after waking up and recording a dream, I tried to get back to sleep but couldn't. Lucid dreaming is also pretty cool so I think I'm having the "I want to sleep therefore I can't" problem.

2. Do you keep doing reality checks during the day if you are using MILD? How often? Ive been reading some posts that you should do it regularly, others that you should do it only when you encounter a dreamlike situation, and others that its a general awareness and not reality checking that is important.

3. In one of the DV tutorials, it mentioned the pros and cons of MILD and WILD. One of the pros of MILD was that you don't have to wake up and lose sleep making it great for students and jobs..very appealing..I've also been reading that its best to WBTB for all techniques, if not necessary for many people. Should I just skip right to WILD if I need to wake up in the middle of the night anyway?

Sorry if that's a longish few questions, all comments will be much appreciated.

McDreamy