Specific Advice for WILDing Needed

[Boadicea]

Ok it's almost 1:50am. I went to bed at 12:30am, and tried to WILD. I used the relaxation technique of tensing up certain muscle groups for 10-15 seconds and then releasing them. The first time I tried this a few days ago, I got super relaxed and felt all floaty. I lost my awareness however and just fell asleep.
This time though, I didn't feel floaty at all. I felt very heavy, actually. I tried to find HI and it kept fading in and out. I don't have it normally so that doesn't bother me much. Eventually, after waiting and waiting and telling myself to relax and sink/melt into the bed, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. As if my muscles were tensing, except they weren't. It almost hurt. I tried to ignore it and just push on, no matter how much I wanted to give up, but I just couldn't sink any deeper or relax any more. This happened three times, in short waves, and then I finally couldn't take it anymore and just gave up. I tried to just fall asleep there, but I was too uncomfortable. It was as if I couldn't fall asleep.
So I rolled over. Suddenly the mosquito bites on my ankles were extremely itchy. I feel like this is because I somehow became super-aware of my body when trying to WILD. I had to get up and put anti-itch cream on. And of course, I did reality checks, hoping that I had somehow succeeded and was dreaming. But nope.
I looked at the clock and it had been just over an hour since I had started attempting WILD. This surprises me because it didn't feel like an hour at all. It felt like fifteen-twenty minutes.

Now that I'm sitting up writing, I realize that I was definitely in a different state of mind during my attempt than I am as totally awake. This gives me hope, but I always, always get stuck there. I feel restless and tense and never manage to get past that. And I think that I actually become too aware of my body. I'm doing everything right, but still no luck. Also my HI never really manifests itself visually. I will get the impression of shapes or will see what seems like colorless shapes, but it never gets much past that. If it does it only lasts a few seconds.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Has anyone else experienced similar trouble when trying to WILD?
Help! 

[DrTechnical]

Egads, you're actually writing this at 2:00 am  .

Well, first of all, this muscle relaxation technique does not seem like its for you. No big deal. Don't try it again. There are lots of ways to induce WILDs. But first ...

How many lucids have you had thus far? Seems like a few. WILDs by and large are a much more advanced method than DILDs. Really, you want to master DILDs first. Bear in mind, that some people have a natural neurotransmitter balance that will really never facilitate WILDs. But anyone can learn to have DILDs. I think you're trying to run before learning to walk, as it were.

With that said, Acetylcholine impacting supps will radically increase the likelihood of having a WILD.

My 2 cents. Relax the body and focus on the third eye region while your eyes are closed. This is the region about 2-3 feet away at a slight angle upwards from the eyes. This allows you an imaginary target to focus on, and you can then decouple your body from awareness and perhaps slip into sleep while not losing awareness. But again, bear in mind and every one is different. What happens next varies. You might get vibrations, you might feel like you're falling, you might get images, you might get sleep paralysis, etc ... This is one reason why WILDs are a real crap shoot. They require much more subtle interaction and more of an individualized learning process.

[Boadicea]

Egads, you're actually writing this at 2:00 am  .

Well, first of all, this muscle relaxation technique does not seem like its for you. No big deal. Don't try it again. There are lots of ways to induce WILDs. But first ...

How many lucids have you had thus far? Seems like a few. WILDs by and large are a much more advanced method than DILDs. Really, you want to master DILDs first. Bear in mind, that some people have a natural neurotransmitter balance that will really never facilitate WILDs. But anyone can learn to have DILDs. I think you're trying to run before learning to walk, as it were.

With that said, Acetylcholine impacting supps will radically increase the likelihood of having a WILD.

My 2 cents. Relax the body and focus on the third eye region while your eyes are closed. This is the region about 2-3 feet away at a slight angle upwards from the eyes. This allows you an imaginary target to focus on, and you can then decouple your body from awareness and perhaps slip into sleep while not losing awareness. But again, bear in mind and every one is different. What happens next varies. You might get vibrations, you might feel like you're falling, you might get images, you might get sleep paralysis, etc ... This is one reason why WILDs are a real crap shoot. They require much more subtle interaction and more of an individualized learning process.

First of all, yes, it was 2am. I wanted to write this down before I forgot possibly important details.

And I also realize that it's a bit early in my LDing "Career" you might say, to try WILDing. But I like to try it just as I'm falling asleep at night anyway just to perhaps further my progress and increase my chances of having a DILD anyway. It's just that I hit that barrier and couldn't get past it. I'm also a high-energy, slightly impatient type person. I try not to be impatient, of course, but some things I just want NOW. 

Thank you very much for the help. I'll myself some of them supplements when I have the money, but for now I'll focus on DILD's. And that third-eye thing as well. The first time I tried that relaxation technique, it went perfectly and I felt all floaty and everything. I just wasn't prepared for that though and just fell asleep completely. What confuses me is that I can't duplicate that situation.

But again, thank you. I guess I just needed a reality check... In every sense of the phrase.

[Vex]

DrT's advice is the best, as usual.

I just wanted to add I can WILD but not very reliably. I've had to vary my techniques over the years as it seems a method stops working after a couple of years.
I used to use sleep paralysis to get WILDs when I had it all the time. Then the SP disappeared so I had to try something else.
I latched onto the Hypnogogic Imagry Technique and that took a while to get a handle on it. It was hard for me to relax enough to WILD too. I had to use a a few things when starting this out. If I had a nearly sleepless night I'd use the sleep dep to my advantage. Sleep Dep helped my body to fall asleep way faster the next night, it provided very vivid and stable HI which I, in turn, used to WILD.  That technique petered out on me too after a couple of years and I had to work on something new.
I started using the counting backward/alternating lucid intentions to WILD. I guess it's a variation of the relaxation thing. I also get decent HI with it sometimes.It worked for a bit but not as well as the HIT did. I'm ready to try something new.
I guess, after all that blabbing, what I'm trying to say is that if one technique doesn't work out for you, simply try another. Or a combination of them, or a combo of them with supplements. It'll take some time and experimentation but once you find your method it'll all be worth it.

[Luminous]

From your post, it seems that you're trying to WILD when you first go to bed. This is a bad idea, because you won't fall into REM sleep until around 90 minutes of sleep, and the first REM cycle is short anyway (5-10 minutes or so). Because you won't fall into REM sleep right away, you also won't be experiencing SP right away, as that only happens when you're in a REM cycle. However, you can experience HI that can feel similar to SP.

Keep in mind that it's possible to dream, and lucid dream, in other sleep cycles than REM, but they are generally much less vivid, and not worth the WILD effort.

It's generally advised to sleep for at least 4,5 hours until trying to WILD. Because of this, WBTB is commonly combined with WILD, but not required. Some people (like me) just do it in the mornings when you can sleep in.

Good luck, and follow the rest of the advice in this thread!

[natsy]

Ok it's almost 1:50am. I went to bed at 12:30am, and tried to WILD. I used the relaxation technique of tensing up certain muscle groups for 10-15 seconds and then releasing them. The first time I tried this a few days ago, I got super relaxed and felt all floaty. I lost my awareness however and just fell asleep.
This time though, I didn't feel floaty at all. I felt very heavy, actually. I tried to find HI and it kept fading in and out. I don't have it normally so that doesn't bother me much. Eventually, after waiting and waiting and telling myself to relax and sink/melt into the bed, I suddenly felt very uncomfortable. As if my muscles were tensing, except they weren't. It almost hurt. I tried to ignore it and just push on, no matter how much I wanted to give up, but I just couldn't sink any deeper or relax any more. This happened three times, in short waves, and then I finally couldn't take it anymore and just gave up. I tried to just fall asleep there, but I was too uncomfortable. It was as if I couldn't fall asleep.
So I rolled over. Suddenly the mosquito bites on my ankles were extremely itchy. I feel like this is because I somehow became super-aware of my body when trying to WILD. I had to get up and put anti-itch cream on. And of course, I did reality checks, hoping that I had somehow succeeded and was dreaming. But nope.
I looked at the clock and it had been just over an hour since I had started attempting WILD. This surprises me because it didn't feel like an hour at all. It felt like fifteen-twenty minutes.

Now that I'm sitting up writing, I realize that I was definitely in a different state of mind during my attempt than I am as totally awake. This gives me hope, but I always, always get stuck there. I feel restless and tense and never manage to get past that. And I think that I actually become too aware of my body. I'm doing everything right, but still no luck. Also my HI never really manifests itself visually. I will get the impression of shapes or will see what seems like colorless shapes, but it never gets much past that. If it does it only lasts a few seconds.
Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Has anyone else experienced similar trouble when trying to WILD?
Help! 

ill keep it nice a simple--- there's relaxing------there's thinking about trying to relax-----then there's you, stop trying to hard and just relax, iv been naturally lucid for the best of 20 years and there's one thing iv learnt about all of it ,some times you cant see the woods for the trees, in other words don't think too much and the rest will follow???

[iadr]

It's generally advised to sleep for at least 4,5 hours until trying to WILD. Because of this, WBTB is commonly combined with WILD, but not required. Some people (like me) just do it in the mornings when you can sleep in.

Excellent advice from Luminous! It is almost always easier to enter a WILD after having slept for 4 to 5 hours or more, and having already had several dreams, as your rem cycles will be much closer then, which will allow the dream images to come sooner. In fact, the easiest time for us to WILD is after about 7 hours of sleep, as we tend to just fall back asleep before that time.

We tried all of the counting and breathing techniques to no avail, as we would lay there for hours without receiving a single dream image. For that reason we began using visualizations to relax our body and distract our mind, which allows us to enter WILDs effortlessly.

[natsy]

It's generally advised to sleep for at least 4,5 hours until trying to WILD. Because of this, WBTB is commonly combined with WILD, but not required. Some people (like me) just do it in the mornings when you can sleep in.

Excellent advice from Luminous! It is almost always easier to enter a WILD after having slept for 4 to 5 hours or more, and having already had several dreams, as your rem cycles will be much closer then, which will allow the dream images to come sooner. In fact, the easiest time for us to WILD is after about 7 hours of sleep, as we tend to just fall back asleep before that time.

We tried all of the counting and breathing techniques to no avail, as we would lay there for hours without receiving a single dream image. For that reason we began using visualizations to relax our body and distract our mind, which allows us to enter WILDs effortlessly.

sometimes less is more, as is the same in a dream , doing less once in a while instead of loads of task gets you intouch with my your thoughts and inner self, which every body knows can run away with you from time to time****** DONT BE AFRAID****love natsy

[Boadicea]

Thank you all so much! I have taken all this advice to heart. I have of course read tutorials and all but it's better to hear it from people and their personal ways of WILDing.