My experience with MILD had been that it was most effective if I state my intentions after I awake from about 4 or so hours of sleep, and not right before bed. It worked a lot better in the beginning of my LD experiences.

As for putting pressure on oneself, it depends on a person's psychology how they'll react to it. I'm something of a control freak and I put too much pressure on myself through MILD. I tried very intense focus -- "I WILL recognize my dreamsigns. I WILL LD. I WILL do this and that during the LD." Well, I LD'd but didn't achieve my goals and woke up with a 'bad feeling' that persisted for about 2 days. Then I went LD-less for about 3 weeks. I had to back off and do something more like self-suggestion to get my LDs to resume.