Hey everyone, I've been browsing these forums over the past week or so after a resparked interest in lucid dreaming and have been finding this place great and extremely helpful.

I decided to sign up to discuss/seek help over lucid dreaming as I get better at it as everyone around here is friendly.

I recently started a dream journal and it has proved useful so far to spot trends and improve my recall. The first technique I was drawn to was the WILD. I understand that it requires dedication, patience and practice but I like the sound of it better than DILDs as they can be quite tricky (and random) to get the hold of.

Becoming a little long-winded, but I'll get to the point.

Over the past few nights I have been tweaking my technique at attempting WILD and things are getting progressively better. I read tutorials by Clarity and KingYoshi, as well as one on Reverse Blinking.

I flex muscles, reverse blink whilst saying mantras to keep myself conscious and quite soon I find myself in sleep paralysis which, surprisingly, I find extremely relaxing rather than intimidating. Last night I felt I was closest to getting to a WILD 'cause my body was completely knocked out and I rarely thought about it whilst HI was becoming increasingly stronger.

However what I wanted to ask was: During HI I see fast moving colours and (far in to SP) the occasional faint image, but whilst focusing on these I find that my eyes slightly open for some reason and when I was literally on the edge of a WILD (I thought I could see the dream forming around me) it faded out and for some reason I had opened my eyes. Was I actually close and just wake up? Guess I just gotta work on that.

I tried lying on my back a few times (and I like how Yoshi advises to change position) but I found I got the furthest on my side (most comfortable to me). I don't get itches but so far the main problem with lying completely still is that my arm can become very strained and is quite painful (when I only have it under my pillow) and sometimes the urge to...gulp is maddening. When I get the breathing perfect I have a really dry mouth and the breathing sounds pretty raspy.

The sensation of literally falling into your bed and the butterflies-in-your-stomach feel has so far been really awesome during SP.

Has anyone got any advice or experiences to share? Thanks (sorry about the long opening post).