Question about WILD and FILD

First off (I'm putting this here instead of introductions because this isn't really the main point of this thread) I'm eager to learn more about dreaming here at Dream Views, and am happy to be here!

So I've been Lucid Dreaming for a while now. I thoroughly enjoyed the experiences. However, I've always been confined to DILD's and the occasional MILD. I've never been able to WILD or FILD (the latter being the one I focused on due to the lack of / lessened SP). I always set my alarm to 5-6 hours after I go to sleep. After it wakes me up, I immediately turn it off and focus on FILDing. At first my heart was pumping out of excitement but recently I have gotten that under control. Also, I have only been able to lessen my thoughts to an occasional blip about 4 days ago. However, I have still not gotten any results :(. Note, I tried FILD in these attempts, not WILD. However, not too long ago, when I was initially trying to fall asleep to FILD later that night, I began to feel tingling in my arms and saw the green-purple dots on the back of my eyelids form into the shape of a man sitting at a bank desk (I know it sounds random). I recognized them as HI's, but because I didn't know much about WILD or SP I brought myself out of it (something I now regret). None of my FILD attempts before or after that have succeeded.

To be specific on how I FILDed, when I woke up, I turned off my alarm clock, and relaxed. After about a minute passed I began to move my index and middle fingers slightly. I did this for 30 seconds then did a RC and got nothing :(. I tried it again about 5 min later, failed once more, and went to sleep. This has been happening for over a week.

Any help or suggestions, including if I should just abandon FILD, are appreciated. Also, any confirmation on exactly what those supposed HI's were (as I previously thought you could only WILD after waking up during REM) is appreciated as well. Thanks a lot :).

Firstly, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If a technique works, I'd stick with it. If you're dead set on WILD and FILD, the first thing you need to do is realize that 30 seconds may not be long enough to go into the dream. The HI is a sure sign that you're on the right path, though, and if you kept with it, you would have lucid dreamed. And what you describe as sleep paralysis is actually a perfectly natural occurrence that holds no danger and is experienced every night.

That's the problem though. I haven't been able to get them to work after about 7 nights of attempting (perhaps that's less time than I think it is and I was thrown off by some FILD 1st try success stories?), besides that almost-WILD I described and one FA that may or may not have been directly after a FILD attempt. Also, the HI's were only in that one almost-WILD, the most I've ever really gotten from a FILD attempt is a few swirls or dots that don't really turn into anything. As for sleep paralysis, I know about what it is and its safety, but I thought "Hey if I can just skip it or experience it in a lesser way then that's great!"

Lastly, I had thought you could only WILD after waking from REM? My experience seemed to contradict that... so I'm rather confused.

Again, your help is very appreciated!

Hmmmm... You might just need to give it more time. At least, you're seeing HI, so you're on the right path. With regards to REM cycles, we try to wake up immediately before one starts, as it is easier and gives us more time to enjoy ourselves. You can technically WILD at any time, but it gets unnecessarily difficult at certain times,so 5-6 hours after you first go to sleep is best.

Thanks for your help, I tried FILDing again last night and although I didn't get a LD I believe that I've found at least one of the major problems. I had a mechanical clock in my room (just for show, not for telling time) and I found that as I FILDed the ticking really hurt the concentration, so today I put it where I couldn't hear it. I'm going to keep trying, if I do succeed I'll post it. Thanks again!

Last night, the techniques didn't appear to work directly, BUT I do distinctly remembering doing a RC at some point and it coming up positive (as in it confirmed I was in a dream). Unfortunately I don't remember the resulting LD... I suppose all that's left now is to work on Dream Recall and refine how I'm performing these techniques. Thanks again!