Hi Daniel,

Welcome to the DV community!

I haven't heard of CSA before so I'm not sure if this would completely prevent you from going into REM sleep. The best way to remember your dreams is to have a dream journal, which you said you have started so that's great. Don't be disheartened with this and if you can't remember anything be sure to just put "nothing recalled" down so that you do get into the habit of journaling.

With what you have mentioned - about being woken up possibly in REM - It sounds to me that you may be focusing on the wrong technique. WILD is a very useful and really fun technique when you are successful (although I would say there are no un-successful WILD attempts) but it is hard to get right and can royally screw with your sleep pattern if you find it difficult to actually get to sleep (I recall you saying it took 1.5 - 2 hours before you gave up).

That got me thinking, If you are waking up during the night, then maybe you should try the DEILD (Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream) technique as this seems to be more personalised to how you sleep. There are plenty of guides on how to do this on the forum. The idea is that you are dreaming and wake up for whatever reason, but remain completely still, and visualise being back in a dream while holding onto your awareness. I assume it would work or feel similar to a WILD and you could learn to slip back into a dream and hopefully be Lucid.

I hope this helps a little - If you do have any more questions, ask away!

Nito.