Can't fall back asleep when attempting to WBTB

Hey guys. I have been experimenting with WBTB and WILD recently. I have been having a lot of trouble falling back asleep after my alarm wakes me up for WBTB. I believe I have found my personal REM time, which is ~5 hours. This isn't too late, so I don't think the problem is that it is too late in the morning.
When I first started trying WBTB, I stayed up for about 20 minutes, like recommended in most tutorials. I have never been able to fall back asleep quickly after that, so I have been shortening the amount of time that I stay awake. I am now down to the point where when I attempt WBTB, all I do when my alarm wakes me up is go to the bathroom, and then go back to my room and attempt to WILD. I still feel like I am just too awake already.
Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to make myself fall asleep quicker, or to not become so awake so quickly?
Thanks!

Your timing does seem right. I personally feel 20 minutes can be too long, if the dreamer does not sleep easily. I also do not recommend turning off the alarmand instantly falling back asleep, unless you are unconcerned with suceeding.

Itis a balancing act. the more awake you become, the better the chance of a WILD that has a high level of waking awareness, but then you may have trouble falling asleep. I iften go straight back to sleep, and it is not bad. The LDs may not be as aware, and my sucess rate drops, due to falling into true unconciousness.

My perfered method is exactly they way you are doing it. Get up and use the rest room, then try to WILD. You can train yourself to fall asleep easier. If you are allowing your mind to dwell on anything, it will keep you awake. Use a simple short mantra (I use "Thank You" often) to both be an anchor, and also to prevent you from thinking about real life issues. You may also try 25 mg of diphenhydramine (benadryl) at bedtime. It lasts 6 hours and by the time you WBTB, it will just barely effect your sleep. It is not mind altering, and is a common anti-histamine used to promote sleep.

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Originally Posted by ber5897

When I first started trying WBTB, I stayed up for about 20 minutes, like recommended in most tutorials.

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Ah, so you've discovered that a lot of tutorials on this site are misleading or just plain wrong (*cough* jeff777 *cough*). I personally consider WBTB to be a method used by heavy sleepers who wake up and they're still half asleep. If you have any trouble at all getting back to sleep after waking up in the night, I would say that your WBTB should be as short as possible, or even just don't do it.

The "real" WBTB stay up time or atleast Stephen LaBerge version, is actually 2-3 hours, kind of extreme, or you can just call it "having a nap" :)

So if you want to do the WBTB the traditional way, and not the quick fix that is described on most forums. You can try that.

I believe it would be more effective because of REM-rebound and some other factors, (that I will not describe now). ^-^

Instead I would like to help you tackle the falling back to sleep problem.

Since you want to help to fall asleep in order to WILD, I would just say that if you relax your body as much as you can, your mind will slowly get relaxed as well.
And if you lay still and have closed eyes, just consider yourself as you are sleeping consciously already! And find a way to deal with the obstacles that will appear, like emotions "I hate this, I don't want to do this" and just observe it and don't get affected by it. Or sensations "Something might itch" what I usually do is to just see it as "challenge accepted!", put all my awareness on the itch and not get disturbed by it, and it usually just fades away as fast as it appeared. Or just go ahead and itch carefuly and return to the attempt, it does more harm if it disturbs you than if you itch it and return to your relaxed state of mind.

Imagine that you are monitoring another person's body and just observe what he is doing "Ok now he is a little angry and feels a little frustrated", "Ok now his left foot is itching". But the difference is that you are observing your own body! And you shouldn't let it affect you just like you wouldn't get affected by another person's sensations or emotions. :)

No state of mind is limited, you can be fully awake and if you just relax your mind you will eventually enter an alpha state (relaxation) and later on a theta state (hypnagogia can occur) which you can use to entertain yourself for a while, and last but not leas the delta state where dreaming occurs!

Sleep consciously and be in control of your mind and the attempt will flow like water. :meditate:

Good stuff MasterMind!