New to Lucid Dreaming - but questions about WILD technique and my experience.

*SORRY FOR THE LENGTH - JUST WANTED TO PUT IN AS MUCH INFO AS I COULD*

From the time I was old enough to remember, I always had a hard time going to sleep. I am in my mid 30s today, and still remember being 5 or 6 laying in bed relaxing myself and eventually having the same image pop up in my head, behind my eyes, like i was looking at a house at night with snow all around it, and me and somebody else were standing behind a tree, I wasnt lucid, but when the image started to become more clear it would suddenly start to shake rappidly back and forth (not like an earthquake in a dream more like an image being moved back and forth very quickly in front of my eyes) and I knew i was about to fall asleep. I had that same image in my head for years when I fell asleep.

As I grew older i could still cause it to happen, rarely with the same image, but only on those nights I KNEW i had to go to sleep, it was just something I mentally was able to do to help me fall asleep. The funny thing is that, even now, when I KNOW i have to go to sleep, I can be in a state like that within 5 minutes given the right conditions (dark, my husband asleep beside me not moving etc)

Abt 8 yrs ago, I experienced my first lucid dream ever, in this dream I remember being in a room, surrounded by large computers, and I remember the cat I had at the time was IN the screen of one of the computer talking to me and I was thinking "this is a crazy dream" and the next thing I know I'm THERE, and realizing I AM DREAMING... It didnt last a long time, but at one point, I walked over to a window and started to open it, as I opened it i slowly began to see things around me that were in my ACUTUAL room, my arm as it hung off the side of the bed (i was laying on my side) and my dresser in front of me, even my cat who was curled up next to me... I didnt open the window the entire way because I just KNEW if i did, I was going to wake up, so I slammed the window shut, got about another 2 or 3 minutes and then I woke up, laying in the exact position I had been in when I had opened that window. And I realized what had happened, I got excited and wanted to learn more.

I had alot of things going on in my life at that point, and while I was very interested in the idea of lucid dreaming, I gave up on it about a month into it, and even then it was more "listening to hypnotic sounds to fall asleep" or "tell yourself your dreaming remember to do reality checks". But it only happened one more time, and when it did I got super excited and woke myself up. At that point, with everything else going on I just said to heck with it and gave up.

Recently, a friend and I were talking about dreams, and I mentioned lucid dreaming and the one time I had fallen into an "accidental" lucid dream and the friend suggested I try again, because if I could do it without trying, I should be able to do it WHILE trying. So I began to dig more then I ever did years ago. I started learning more about the techniques and was quite stunned by the WILD technique. Because, as I said it was the way I had fallen to sleep for YEARS, relaxing my body, my breathing even my heartbeat. Getting images swirling around till it almost made complete sense... then I'd end up asleep.

Last night, I decided I was going to see what could happen. I laid down, turned all the lights off, patiently waited for my husband to fall asleep and not be tossing and turning, and i closed my eyes. When I do this, sometimes it feels like what is behind my eyelids are almost brighter then what is in my room, almost to the point of making me feel like i need to squint. My body is able to immediately go into relax mode, because again this is what i have done forever to sleep, so that was again nothing. My eyes are closed and i realized something, while every other part of my body is relaxed, my eyes dont feel very relaxed... no matter how i try to position them behind my eyelids. Unfortunately during this time my husband decided to roll over, and I was brought out of it fast. So I rolled onto my other side and immediately felt the relaxation hit me again, and was able to get back into it again, this time the images were more " dream catcher" or "kaleidoscope" like with very warm colors. But my eyes were still trying to adjust almost and i couldnt relax them, or was staring at a bright light. While I am attempting to find a way to relax my eyes, I started to FEEL them going back and forth very quickly behind my eyelids. and somehow, even tho its now a much more exaggerated movement, they felt relaxed, and i realized that even tho my eyes are darting back and forth, the images are still staying in the same place, not moving back and forth or shaking like they did when I was little, so i just went with it. It almost felt like i lifted up a little because somewhere along the way i realized I wasnt seeing this behind my eyes, i was seeing this all in my head. And it felt like I litterally lifted my vision up and was now seeing everything in my MIND, not with my eyes, tho I could feel my eyes still darting behind my eyelids. I even managed to bring myself back and forth a few times because it was kind of cool how i was able to float from my eyes to my mind and bak (i am not really explaining this well I am sure - but it feels very difficult to explain, I applogize) But i was still very much in my bed, still very much aware of everything else. I have embraced the images a few times, but never to the point i felt myself go into my mind like that and away from my own eyes. Unfortuately, I guess because I was so excited because of being able to reach this level that I tried too hard to make something occur or feel more or push deeper, and as hard as I TRIED not to concentrate on things and let them wash over me, it was difficult and the next thing I know I have fallen asleep, no dreams, and I wake up partially irritated cause it didnt work, but partially excited because of what I was able to experience.

This leads to my question, has anyone else ever used part of the WILD technique as a way just to fall asleep? Have you ever had that shaky image? the shaky eyes? The feeling of floating up into your mind? Are you able to experience this so quickly? I would love any and all feedback!

Thank you all in advance!!