NEW and having some trouble

SO.... I recently tried getting myself into a lucid dream. I have been trying WILD but have had no success yet. (I've been doing this only for about 5 days) I've tried a technique where you have an alarm ring only once so that you don't have to turn the alarm off and then without opening your eyes or moving, you go right back to sleep. If I do this, it also means I wouldn't be writing in a journal as soon as I wake up. Also, I still have not been able to go through full SP. I do feel tingling through my body and it does feel like I almost lose my body, but if I try hard enough I can move my body. Because the custom alarm to ring once is on my computer, that means my computer has to be on, and it does make a small humming sound. Also I usually see bright lights when I try going to enter a lucid dream. Could these be hurting my chance of lucid dreaming? I heard some people wear masks to cover the light. Or maybe there is a different technique you recomend? This one seemed to be the most effective and something I could do every night if I mastered it.

First of all, welcome to DV!

5 days would be very quick for anyone to master the WILD, I'm sure (I know I still haven't!), so keep at it. The point of sleep paralysis isn't to become frozen so that no matter hard you try you can't move! In fact, sleep paralysis is simply a transition stage, and you should just allow it to take hold without trying to test it - otherwise you're likely to think about it too much, wake your body up, and lose your stride.

The humming sound shouldn't be a problem, unless it keeps you up/distracts your attention, which it shouldn't. If you're seeing bright lights THAT'S A GOOD THING! These are referred to as hypnogogic hallucinations, and tend to form the base for your lucid dream. Don't wish them away; let them manifest and they may just turn into a dream.

WILD is best to do with WBTB, when you stay up anywhere from 5min -1 hour and you need to get out of bed.

I'm not telling you to ditch WILD, but that's not the easiest method to start out with. Have you looked into MILD?

thanks for the responses! I have heard of MILD, although I have never really tried it. should I continue to practice WILD or do you think it would be best to switch to something like MILD and maybe go back to WILD when I'm more expierienced?

I would recommend trying out MILD for a while like gab said. WILD can be tricky at first so maybe try another technique in the meantime before choosing one which you will 'master'. Also if the light you saw wasn't coming from an external source it is a good sign like mosh said :)

Moved to the WILD subsection

ive seen a flash at the bottom corner of my right eye, could that be a hypnogogic image? it was only a flash and only happened once