Unable to transition into a dream fully when performing WILD

Greetings.
It has been some months since I've been able to achieve WILD with satisfying consistency, but lately I cannot seem to enter dreams properly most of the time.

My routine when performing WILD has always been the same: I'd usually wake up after about 5-6 hours and stay up for a few minutes before going back to bed (since it takes me a while to fall back asleep.) I'd then begin to feel the hypnagogic state usually after around an hour.

The issue happens when I'm transitioning: I can make out that the dream is about to begin in my room, but it's dark and blurry. The unstable scene in front of me will then disappear, only to reappear shortly after in the same unstable state. This loop of exiting and re-entering the dream happens quite a few times before I just give up since I'm not making any progress.

I believe this is happening due to me not falling asleep into the REM state completely, but if that is so, then I'm left clueless as to how to achieve that.
Just waiting for the dream state to become more stable, which worked in my old attempts, does not yield any results now.

Any help would be appreciated!

Just because a dream scene hasn't fully formed doesn't necessarily mean you're not dreaming. If you're not dreaming, then doing a reality check other than forming a dream scene won't necessarily affect your chances of entering a dream, even if the reality check requires moving your body, like in the case of a nose plug reality check. If you want to do a reality check without moving your body, you could try imagining your body or bed moving, or you could imagine having your dream body phase through your sleeping body, or you could imagine sounds, among other things. If a reality check determines that you are dreaming, then that can give you more confidence to move your dream body in case you weren't confident before, which opens up more options to you in terms of ways to form a dream scene, such as getting out of bed and walking around.

Hi Dolphin,
I appreciate the time you've taken to write this post, but I have a hard time understanding your advice since I don't believe it pertains to the issue I have.
Perhaps I have not explained myself properly, and I apologize in advance if that was the case.

My issue is not related to understanding whether I'm dreaming or not, since I do realize when I'm dreaming in every WILD attempt, even if the dream begins in my room. This is because, apart from having the scene materialize in front of me despite making sure I keep my eyes closed, my body also initially moves on its own to get me out of the dream bed, which is enough indication that I am dreaming.

The problem is that, when the WILD begins, it's hard to make out what I'm looking at since everything appears dark and foggy/blurry, which makes me believe the dream is unstable. I don't have this issue with DILDs (and I think that's because the dream has already fully formed by then) so I don't think it's about poor dream control. And while the dream eventually got more stable in my past old attempts, it is not the case now anymore: I keep exiting (involuntarily) and re-entering the dream in the same unstable state, as if I were stuck in some sort of limbo and couldn't progress any further.

I also apologize for forgetting to mention this, but I can actually move and interact with the dream, even if I can't see much. This is something I try to do in an attempt to stabilize the dream more, but as you can guess, it's not working.
However, something I thought up after writing my previous post is to actually do the opposite and not move at all instead, in an attempt to let the dream fully form itself first so I can see clearly.

I have not had the chance to try this yet, but I'll post my results once I can. Of course, I'm open to more suggestions as well.

Hi LucidAce.

If you have a scene and if you feel your senses fully in it (no connection to the real world, no sensory inputs from your real body), you are fully dreaming and fully in REM.
The fact that the scene is blurry and dark doesn't have to mean that it is unstable. Dreams can play these mind games with us, even more, if we expect some instability in the newly formed dreams and if, in our minds, instability and poor visuals are connected.
You haven't mentioned what you do for stabilization. Have you tried all the usual things? Have you tried to just continue, going out of your room, doing something, simply assuming that the dream is stable and that the visuals will get better soon?
When you exit the scene, do you go back to bed (real sensory inputs, feeling your real body) or to the black void or something else?

Hi IndigoRose.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IndigoRose

If you have a scene and if you feel your senses fully in it (no connection to the real world, no sensory inputs from your real body), you are fully dreaming and fully in REM.
The fact that the scene is blurry and dark doesn't have to mean that it is unstable. Dreams can play these mind games with us, even more, if we expect some instability in the newly formed dreams and if, in our minds, instability and poor visuals are connected.

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You bring up a good point. I have not really been paying attention to expectations, so it may indeed be that I'm setting myself up for failure without even knowing it. It's something that I'll definitely have to watch out for next time, so thank you for making me realize.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IndigoRose

You haven't mentioned what you do for stabilization.

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I mainly go and touch things in order to ground myself in the dream. I also sometimes try to be as calm as possible.
It may not be much, but it's what usually works for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IndigoRose

Have you tried all the usual things? Have you tried to just continue, going out of your room, doing something, simply assuming that the dream is stable and that the visuals will get better soon?

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This is indeed what I used to do in my old previous attempts. The dream would get better as I continued the session, despite some initial forced exits. In my recent attempts however, I barely have any time to do anything before the scene just vanishes, comes back and vanishes again just as quickly as before. This goes on multiple times before I give up entirely.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IndigoRose

When you exit the scene, do you go back to bed (real sensory inputs, feeling your real body) or to the black void or something else?

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I feel my body resting on the bed, but unfortunately I've not been able to confirm whether I've truly woken up momentarily or if I'm still dreaming.

Popping in and out of the dream is quite normal, as is having reduced visibility upon entering. I think it could be an expectation issue you’re having as IndigoRose has said. You need to forget about your physical body completely and not worry about waking up. I’ve only had a handful of WILDs though and all of them have been very different so I haven’t had much experience with this issue. When the visuals in a lucid dream collapse but I can still feel the environment I tend to just keep moving and interacting with the dream and eventually the visuals return if I’m patient.

Also, it’s entirely possible that you’re having a false awakening when you find yourself back in bed. It happens.