Things I learned from my first WILD

So, last night I had my first WILD, and while it was neither long nor very complex in nature, I feel like I learned a few things that will help me replicate it whenever I feel like it.

#1 There is a specific timeframe between being awake and being extremley tired that a WILD should be attempted. You should be experiencing a mix of two feelings at the same time: A tired body and a wakeful mind. You should FEEL like you want to sleep, but you should think that you don't REALLY need it just yet. If you get to a point where your mental dexterity is compromised (you complete tasks slower or less sucesfully) then you should either sleep normally or try a few exercises to waken your mind more (play a mental game, do some execise to get the blood flowing, or if you just woke get up and do something).

#2 Listen to everyone when they say that there is specific times when attempting a WILD is pointless. Like right when you first try to fall asleep for the night. They were right.

#3 And more personally for people like me: I'm a very heavy sleeper and I constantly fell asleep during my prevous WILD attempts. I learned that I must be very strong and persistant in my attempts to keep my mind awake. What worked extremely well for me was to run through a kind of checklist:
-STAY FOCUSED
-This is a Dream
-clear your mind
These are ordered in level of importance. As well, I didn't just repeat the list mindlessly, I felt and understood each item when I said it. Particularily "stay focused", whenever I said this I focused my eyes and my mind and tried to focus on the blackness around me.

After doing these things, I found that once I hit SP I was transported very quickly into a dream, with little trouble to speak of.

Now I just need to learn some anchoring techniques!

Thanks for sharing :D
*still ignores #2* :lol:

As a self-proclaimed experienced WILDer, I agree with this. You have to wake up at the right time, and you'll feel like if you put your head back down on your pillow you will fall asleep in under five seconds. This is the ideal time for a WILD. Then you get into your most comfortable position, and just generally try not to focus too much on anything, and let your body fall back asleep. I don't really do anything with my mind (counting, etc), I just let my thoughts wander but keep reminding myself that I'm about to go into a dream. As I start to feel really relaxed and HI starts happening, I literally yell out in my head "YOU ARE IN A DREAM" until the dream forms (at that point, you have little chance of falling out of HI and waking up unless you consciously move your real body).

Awesome advice guys.

This is probably why I fail at so many WILD's. I gotta find the right time for me to get up.