VILD dreaming, am I doing it right?

[benzoe590]

This is kinda long, tl;dr version at the bottom. So... I decided to try and do a VILD last night as I went to sleep. The plan was to wake up one REM before I normally get up, record it, and go back to bed and have another, then record that. So as I was trying to visualize everything using a tutorial I found on here, I kept scaring myself thinking I was going into sleep paralyses. In the world I visualized, I was at school, and after getting everything down. This was maybe ten minutes in, and I was not yet dreaming, I know (also after a few times of scaring myself with an image of some scary clown or something popping into my head). I went into a teachers class and noticed the walls were blank. In real life they aren't, so I told her to put something on them. Boom, clocks, like ten of them, on the wall. I wasn't fully dreaming, but I did not decide to put clocks there. I gave up, and went to bed, then when I woke back up I tried again (But I had to turn of my alarm and set it)... I also gave up, because it was taking too long. At either this point or the time earlier, my dream kept getting interrupted, once with a small "vision" I guess of my mom walking out of a room with what looked like a giant headcrab (From Half life 2). Was I close to going into a dream? Also is VILD likely to cause SP? tl;dr version: I was trying VILD and although not asleep, some things happened or popped into my head without me doing so. Was I close to doing a VILD and is VILD likely to cause Sleep Paralysis, as that's what scares me about it. (But I want Lucid dreams) Thanks in advance! EDIT: I also at one point when I first tried, experienced a slight falling sensation. It wasn't scary, just weird.

[DinoSawr]

It sounds to me like you were very close to a dream. SP always happens, but you might not feel the sensations if you're focused on the dream (seems like the right thing to do in my opinion.) From my understanding, the sensations during SP are caused when your mind is switching over to your dream body rather than your physical body. For example, your mind is still receiving external stimuli, but your mind just tunes those out and focuses on the dream.

[benzoe590]

Thanks for the advice. I think for now I'm just going to try DILD and MILD. If I do try VILD again, I think it would be on a weekend, when I could sleep in and go back to bed in the daytime.