I've been trying to WILD right when going to bed for quite some time now and have
been making a lot of progress lately.
Every so often I also try it in the afternoon when I have time and feel tired.
I'm now able to "more-than-once-a-decade" keep my awareness long enough for my body to completely relax and my mind to focus.
What I currently do is just trying to stay awake for a long time - which I know is wrong,
for LDs you have to fall asleep, but I've also happened to be in these situations where
my awareness was "fading away" and I was able to observe myself going into a trance like
state of mind. (You know these situations where you suddenly become aware that you have
totally drifted off in your mind? Usually you just realize when it ends, but it's possible to
also observe the whole situation. It's like putting yourself aside and observe yourself, and for me
I then totally slow down, and during that time I have a hard time to remember what I'm actually
trying to do, but I can willingly force me to wake up. Well - it doesn't always work, but I'm
getting better.)

Anyway, last night I have been lying in bed for about 4 hours until I decided that I should actually
have some "normal" sleep too. In that whole time I had no HI - no sounds, no flashes, nothing.
After about 2 hours I was able consciously watch myself enter sleep paralysis. It was like I have
been sucked into a black hole - not being able to move, but still feeling it when trying to move (like
ghost hands). But still everything was black. And it only lasted for a minute or two because
I "moved around" too much... it's just so awesome! For the rest of the time I wasn't able to get
back into that state.

Now I'm not here asking for what I did wrong, because I know that already. It's just not that easy
when you want to do it right from the beginning of sleep. It's just that without the ability to focus
for a long time, it's reaaaallly hard to get anywhere without sleeping first. So the next thing to do
is training the "wandering off" part (observing the trance state I've described above).

Still, I've also entered this state a few times when a LD had faded away, and once I was able to
"force" myself into a dream scene somehow - well, I was trying to wake up and the paralysis didn't
break, so I made the getting-up movements in a "wtf LEMME GO" kinda way and ended up standing
in my room (dream scene) but already fading back to black... lame! I was able to wake up using
some tips I found on this forum, like changing my breathing and constantly trying to move around.

Still, I was wondering if anyone has any comments, or any useful tips&tricks to quickly enter a dream
from such a state?

Anyway, time to share something actually useful:
So, maybe some of you still wonder how hard it is to WILD right from the beginning of sleep.
Well, hard. If you don't have some relaxation or meditation technique which can help you pass
the time without falling asleep, it's nearly impossible. Now I've tried the 61-point relaxation
for example, but either I did it quickly and well... not enough time passed, or I did it slowly and
kept losing my awareness.
(Although now I think it could be useful to start that after about an
hour or so, since with that technique it's kinda easy for me to catch myself wandering off.
It's like this, I move on to a point, and concentrate on it, and then my awareness starts fading away,
yet I remember having to move on to the next point and then realize that I've been trancing out.
So when I get to such a point I could stop the technique and try observing my mind wandering off.)

What I do now to pass the time is first feel my whole body at once and try to relax it, just for a
short time, then I actively think about being self-aware so that I become lucid (not LD, just completely
self-aware), and then I listen to the tinnitus sounds. And I repeat those 3 steps, and every so often
do some of them at the same time. Splitting your focus to multiple things feels like it occupies more
"resources" in your brain (but only for a short time, so I also do it for a short time). And I always
go back to listening to the tinnitus sounds because it not only is something I can focus on, but it also
helps me relaxing.

If you've made it this far you must love reading (or you skipped to the "share somthing useful" part )