WBTB but no REM? What did I miss?

[creedence]

So this morning I attempted a WILD. I woke up about 5 hours after going to sleep, used the bathroom and got back to bad. I laid on my back and tensed and relaxed my body until it was pretty relaxed and I had a soft tingling feeling. I relaxed deeper and started to count. Slowly the tingling feeling intensified, and I felt my body starting to fall asleep. I relaxed deeper and kept counting, and then I felt as if my perception of size and shape was distorted. It felt like I was sort of floating in a vast space(much much bigger than my room) and my body was changing size. It felt so weird. I hoped it meant I was going to enter a dream soon, so I relaxed as much as I could (swallowing as little as I could manage). And I waited. After a short time the sensations stopped, and I thought I lost it. I tried to relax into it again, another wave came and I felt like I was slightly spinning, but after a few seconds it also stopped. I was disappointed and rolled over to tge side, trying (for quite a long time) to just go to sleep normally. What happened? At no point did I see any hypnogogic imagery, and I felt like I wasn't really getting anywhere. What did I miss? *Note:* I've tried to WILD a few times right when I went to bed as "practice", and I got the same sensations, which probably means they were NREM sensations. But why did I get them without any HI when I tried it this morning, after a couple hours of sleep? Why didn't I get into REM sleep?

[dolphin]

Unless these sensations signal that you're dreaming, they don't really mean very much. If you're not sure whether the sensations mean that you're dreaming or not, try to do a motionless reality check, such as using your thoughts alone to move your body or bed, to intensify the sensations, or to make the dream form in front of your closed eyelids. If you're dreaming, great! If not, then forget about and keep trying to fall asleep.

[creedence]

Thank you for your response! I tried to focus on my closed eyelids to divert my attention away from my body, but I didn't see anything. Only this vast emptiness. I didn't really know what to do, and the physical sensations were definitely there, so I just waited.. nothing seemed to happen so I tried to relax and just "float". That also didn't seem to go anywhere, so I imagined myself rolling over to my side(I also had an annoying rollover signal), and tried to "feel" it physically, the pillow and blanket and everything. This started the spinning sensation. Again I didn't know where to go from there because not much had happened and I still didn't see any HI. At that point almost an hour had passed, so I just gave up.. I had a hard time knowing what stage of the WILD process I'm in. I think that was part of the problem. From the looks of it, to which part of the WILD do you think I got? And from that point, what is the best thing to focus my attention on?

[dolphin]

It's impossible to say for certain, but from the looks of it, I would guess you were close to a dream if not inside of one. At this point the best thing to focus your attention on is checking whether you're in a dream. You should be actively engaged in this, otherwise you might not get anywhere. For example, when you're looking at your closed eyelids to check reality, rather than just looking at the blackness, try to create something to see by willing it, or try to see your room through your closed eyelids. If you see HI, try to make it more vivid until the dream pops in view. Imagining yourself floating and rolling over was a good thing to do. It's a shame it didn't work. If you're spinning, there's a good chance that you're dreaming, even if you can't see anything. When I'm spinning, I'm usually confident enough to get out of bed and open my eyes to enter the dream. If you're not that confident, you could try to spin faster if you need extra proof that you're dreaming. There isn't any guarantee that you'll see any imagery when transitioning into a dream.

[nordinloves]

It's impossible to say for certain, but from the looks of it, I would guess you were close to a dream if not inside of one. At this point the best thing to focus your attention on is checking whether you're in a dream. You should be actively engaged in this, otherwise you might not get anywhere. For example, when you're looking at your closed eyelids to check reality, rather than just looking at the blackness, try to create something to see by willing it, or try to see your room through your closed eyelids. If you see HI, try to make it more vivid until the dream pops in view. Imagining yourself floating and rolling over was a good thing to do. It's a shame it didn't work. If you're spinning, there's a good chance that you're dreaming, even if you can't see anything. When I'm spinning, I'm usually confident enough to get out of bed and open my eyes to enter the dream. If you're not that confident, you could try to spin faster if you need extra proof that you're dreaming. There isn't any guarantee that you'll see any imagery when transitioning into a dream. i have the same problem, so as soon as i feel these sensations I should just focus on checking if im dreaming or not? ( and keep relaxing ofcourse)

[dolphin]

yes