Thanks for the warm welcomes! I came to realize something last night.. And this has happened multiple times before while trying to WILD... Whenever I feel a sense of success, I smile and it's gone. For example, last night I was trying to WILD using the technique that's posted somewhere in the forum with pain as an anchor, and I could feel my body numbing, I could feel everything slowing down as I prepared for dream mode. Then, I began to hear loud noises in the otherwise quiet room, as if the slight creaks of my floor and windows were amplified to maximum volume. As that happened, I had a tiny thought in my brain "Oh God I'm finally going to do this!" and I could feel myself wanting to smile. I smiled, unfortunately, and I felt all chance of getting into dream state go away. Was quite disappointing.

Basically, in short, any tips as how to just calm down and not smile (or get out of the WILD) while on the very verge of Sleep Paralysis or dream state?

Honestly I don't know how far I was from the state, but as I said, my body was completely relaxed and I was only passively focusing on the slight pain in my arm. My heartrate was noticeably lower and I think I was beginning to hear "Audible hallucinations"(I've heard about them on this forum, I'm only making conjectures now as to what they really are since I didn't actually read about them yet); it was several loud noises in my room in quick succession.

Sorry for the rambling post, and thanks for any bit of advice or any comments as to how close I might have been to lucidity.

(P.S> I noticed in the first post I failed to mention that I never had a WILD, I only had occasions where I realized I was dreaming. If anyone could give me the term for that, I'd like to know. Thanks!)