Hello! (and a weird experience?)

[Penumbra]

I have been familiar with the concept of Lucid Dreaming for a few years, but I have only really began trying to do any of the techniques with in the last week (I started my dream journal last Wednesday and have started reality checking fairly frequently). I seem to have pretty good recall, getting at least 3 dreams down a night, and I generally was waking up to go to the bathroom anyways. I have not had any lucid dreams yet, and am not too disappointed with that seeing as I have only been trying to for less than a week. I did, however, have a weird experience last night. I was practicing the MILD technique as I have read about, but I had some trouble going to sleep. I tossed and turned a little bit and I started noticing what I believe were hypnagogic hallucinations (I was able to exert limited control over some of them, but I could never shape my own). I was not really in to the whole WILD idea (I experienced the Stranger thing as a kid and never really wanted to risk that again) but I decided to focus on them anyways. I kept my eyes closed, and I felt like I was spinning, or my bed was, at least. I didn't experience sleep paralysis but my body did feel really strange, and moving it was weird. I opened my eyes and the spinning feeling stopped, but continued again to a lesser degree once I closed my eyes again. I did a vision reality check too (my eyesight is really poor in real life but perfect in dreams). I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up during the night as I normally do, I didn't recall any dream, or even a scene from one. I went back to sleep and recalled a single fairly disjointed dream after my actual wake up. Does anybody know what I experienced? Was it getting close to a WILD? How should I have proceeded? And on an unrelated note, are there any general tips that people could spare?

[Arch]

Hey Penumbra, welcome to dreamviews! I'm glad to see that you aren't bothered about having a lucid dream in a week, for the most part people don't have success with a technique without trying for about a month. It sounded to me like HH from a WILD, I also experience this after jolting awake when drifting off for when sleeping. I can't be sure if you were close to a lucid dream, but you certainly were on your way there. To proceed you could have just relaxed and allowed the HH to intensify, or attempt to visualise the HH intensifying untill you entered the dream. Tips? Did you try Wake back to bed? That way you can be in REM when you attempt. What do you mean by the stranger thing? Well done!