Hi. I'm only starting the process to have lucid dreams and am trying to gain dream recall. However, all the methods I've tried to wake up during my dreams have failed. When I repeat "I will wake up during and completely remember my dreams" to myself every time a different thaught pops into my head before I go to sleep I don't fall asleep for a really long time. While I'm repeating this to myself I can feel myself drifting in and out of sleep and I have little mini dreams. I remember one where I knew I was having a "mini-dream" and I was concentrating on not waking up and controling what was happening in the dream at the same time. I don't know weather these "mini-dreams" count as REM dreams or not. Anyway, It feels like repeating that phrase is keeping me up. And once I feel like I'm too it's too late and I'm too tired to keep repeating the phrase, I let myself fall asleep. I remember waking up about an hour after I fell asleep last time I tried this, looking at the clock, trying to remember if I had any dreams, but then falling back asleep. When I wake up in the morning at my usual wake-up time I don't remember any of my dreams and I'm either very tired or I sleep for another 4 hours or so. One other time I tried setting my alarm for 4 hours after I would fall asleep, but I slept through it for about 2 hours, and when I woke up I looked at the clock, tried to remember if I had any dreams, and, again, fell back asleep.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Also, does anyone think that my "mini-dreams" are actual REM dreams or not?