Thread: Frustrating WILD blackout

I hope I'm posting this in the right spot.

I've been working on lucid dreaming for a while with some very modest success. My dream recall is around 4-5 dreams a night (as long as I'm not stressed out, in which case it's more like 2-3 if I'm lucky). I have had some very brief DILDs, probably maybe 10 seconds for the first 2, and I have at least one dream per night with low-level lucidity, but lately I've been having some "accidental" WILDs. I'm classifying them as such because even though I "wake up" into them, they involve obvious sleep paralysis and I'm fully conscious as I enter the dream. I'm not surprised by them, I've regularly had bouts of plain old SP in the past that terrified me before I realized what they were.

So here's the heart of the matter. The problem is... the dream.

Basically, these WILDs essentially end up like OBEs, where I sit up/roll out of my body. The problem is that what I sit up/roll out into is pitch black! I think part of it is because I keep my room absolutely pitch black, because I'm worried I won't get good sleep otherwise, and maybe my mind is recreating this. That's not really the only problem.

The first time this happened was after a WBTB. I lay down and attempted to WILD. I actually fell asleep instead, but woke up a brief time later straight into sleep paralysis. I heard booming/wind sounds and wind chimes that turned into music. I took a very deep breath, which successfully "disconnected" me from my body, and heard what sounded like a whole bunch of doors (hundreds) being knocked on. I sat up out of my body and opened my eyes, and there was pitch blackness. I tried spinning while concentrating on where I wanted to be, and it completely failed. I was walking across my room to try to turn the light on when I lost lucidity.

The second time was last night. I woke up at approx. 11:30 a.m. and decided that I would try to WILD a little bit before I had to really get up for work. I lay back, on my back, and attempted to do so. Instead, again, I fell asleep. I "woke up" on my side, and the familiar deep booming/wind chimes were present.

• I take a deep breath. It kind of halfway works. I'm able to sit up and 'get out of my body' (so to speak) but it's very dark, almost pitch-black, and I can only move extremely slowly. I float toward the ceiling, knowing that once I make it past the ceiling, it'll be light in the livingroom/kitchen, and I'll have more to work with.

• When I move through the ceiling, instead of ending up in the kitchen, I end back up in my body. I'm a little frustrated.

• The wind sound and chimes again. I focus on them, worried they'll "end" like they do sometimes (and I'm left fully awake and pissed over my failed attempt). This time, I try to "roll out" of my body. I roll, and successfully do so, sort of. I'm still moving really slowly. This entire time, the "electricity" feeling hasn't gone away.

• I spin, focusing on where I'd like to be, or at least a change of scenery. Problem is, my idea of where I want to be isn't very sharp in my mind. When I stop spinning, I'm still floating around in the dark. I think 'maybe my eyes are closed?' and try opening my dream-eyes. When I do that, though, my real eyes (in my body, in bed) open, and I have a brief sensation of being in 2 places at once (in bed, and standing in my room in the dark). My bed is shaking under my body.

• Eventually, I end back up in my real body, hearing the sounds again. Still frustrated! I focus on the sounds again, and try opening my eyes, trying to convince myself that when I open them I'll be standing somewhere else. It's not working. Everything's still black.

• I take another deep breath, which seems to "halfway" work, and then I "roll out". This time, I leave through my bedroom door (by just floating through it). I'm flying, but it's more like floating, and it's very slow. But I'm making progress! I can see things now, because there's light in the hallway. Interestingly, it's as if it's still night, because the hall light is on. I don't think about this at the time, but I recall it now and it's kind of amusing. I get halfway up the hall stairs before I find myself back in my body again.

• This time, I try visualizing. Forcing it doesn't seem to be working, and in my past (failed) WILD attempts, forcing it actually ends in the SP abating and me just lying there wide awake and frustrated. So now, I wait, hoping something will materialize. I'm hoping for a grassy field or something. Nothing seems to be working, and I'm getting more bored and frustrated with this (being in this state isn't pleasant, it's noisy and kind of frightening). I let my mind wander and I guess I lose lucidity because I wake up again at around 11:50-something, and this time I just give up and haul myself out of bed.

So this "blackout" has happened twice, and it's frustrating. I can't spin to change the scenery, I can't seem to let myself get sucked into any visuals, and if I wait too long to do anything then the SP ends and I'm just awake again. Has anybody dealt with this before? What did you do? Is it just a common 'newbie' issue that will go away on its own, eventually? It's not like I'm not making any progress at all - the second attempt lasted way longer than the first, and I lost lucidity more out of frustration than anything else. I've never really had this happen in my DILDs, which were completely different. It's also very hard to stabilize when I really have nothing to stabilize with.

Should I just give up and start sleeping with my lights on?

Edit:
In case this comes up, I should mention now -
The sleep-related supplements I'm taking include:
- some days, if I'm really tired, a 5000mcg B12 sublingual (gives you a burst of energy)
- a B-50 (1 hr before bedtime)
- liquid calcium-magnesium (before bed, makes me sleepy)
- chamomile tea
- a little bit of water with 1 mL (which would be 500 mg) of passionflower in it 1 hour before bedtime (also to make me sleepy; I have trouble falling asleep).

Could any of these be possible culprits?