Well I attempted my first WILD early this morning, hoping to at least get up to sleep paralysis if not a full fledged LD. I slept for about 5 hours and got up and was awake for about half an hour, reviewing how to WILD.

I tried to relax and eventually did after some time. I began counting: 1, I am dreaming, 2, I am dreaming, etc. I got up to past 100, sort of losing my concentration several times. I started over counting several times (not wanting to include "1 hundred and..." every count). Again I lost concentration several times.

It seemed as though there were two places I could place my attention while counting. The first was directly on the blackness of my eyelids, which displayed the normal kind of blur of faint colors one sees when one closes his/her eyes. The second place for me to focus my attention was sort of past the screen of my eyelids, where it was easier to fall into short visualizations and distractions. That's where I looked most of the time. Anyways, this cycle lasted for about 40 minutes and I eventually realized I wasn't getting anywhere and my time was running out (school day).

I'm not particularly disappointed that I wasn't able to LD, but I am frustrated that I wasn't able to relax/"fall asleep" properly.

So a few questions here:

Where should I focus my attention when counting?

Is there a method to prevent me from distracting thoughts/visualizations?

Also, it's been indicated that you can WILD in any sleeping position. This morning I was lying on my stomach with my arms around my pillow (my usual sleeping position), but it seemed much harder to relax and let go than sleeping on my back. I've found it's easier for me to visualize things in general when I'm lying on my back. Well, I guess this a no brainer - I should probably try WILDing on my back from now on.

Thoughts? Comments? Answers?

Thanks for reading!