Hello everyone, I have just started learning about lucid dreaming, but I'm extremely interested. I'm fascinated with the idea of lucid dreaming, and I'm excited to start attaining lucidity during dreams. I've started my dream journal (this week I made my first entry), and I occasionally do reality checks during the day, especially when I notice something especially odd. For the last couple of weeks, I've read quite a lot about lucid dreaming, and the different methods for inducing a lucid dream. I was extremely happy to find this forum among the various lucid dreaming sites out there.

I have a few questions that I haven't seen answers for while browsing the site. (I apologize, if there are some that have already been answered)

1) In reading about WILD, I saw that one must wake up after 6-7 hours of sleep (or something close to that) before attempting. My question is, is it possible to try a WILD as soon as one goes to bed (after relaxing of course), rather than having to wake up later? If not, is DILD the only method in which this is possible?

2) All the resources that I've read say that reality checks must be done often throughout the day. I was wondering whether this could be dangerous, in that it would be hard to separate reality from dreaming. It seems to me that if one is always reality checking, it would make it harder for them to keep the two apart. Is it possible to lucid dream without doing frequent reality checking during the day?

3) Are there any other suggestions for improving dream recall, besides keeping a dream journal? I haven't seen any other methods of increasing it besides keeping a journal.

4) Finally, is it possible to jump straight into lucid dreaming inducing methods? I tried WILD the last three nights, even though I knew I did not have very good dream recall. The last two nights, I got to a stage where my arms and legs were numb, and I saw swirls of color, but I stalled after that, finally getting sleepy and drifting to unconsciousness. Is it possible that I haven't done enough preparation yet, and that is holding me back? Perhaps it is because I'm trying it without the aforementioned 6-7 hours of sleep? Or should I just keep at it?

Sorry for the long post, and I appreciate any feedback.