This is a little forum for people to share their methods and tips, based on personal experience, of what works best for them to enter a lucid dream directly from awake.
WILD was very difficult for me to learn initially and still evades me sometimes.
When I was learning I did WBTB using a REM cycle calculator similar to this targeting my longest REM cycle staying up 30 minutes and waking myself up completely during that period.
Then I get myself completely comfortable in bed. This step is very important because when your body is trying to fall asleep it sends signals to your brain that it needs to move or there is an itch or any various other things. Itās crucial to ignore these. Knowing your body is perfectly positioned for sleep is important here, it makes ignoring these signals easier.
Thinking is fine while your completely still but meditation outs the body to sleep faster.
When I reach the point of hypnagogia i stop active thinking and let passive thinking take over. Active thinking here will stop the transition into a dream and this is the hardest part.
A tightrope has to be walked at this stage in which you allow your mind to goto sleep while carrying awareness. From my experience this usually takes ~1-2 minutes.
Usually at this stage as I enter my REM cycle there will be a feeling of falling through my bed or being pulled into the air. Iāve experienced pulling from various other directions and even spiral shaped falling here.
Once the feeling of falling etcetera happens active thinking can be used again and you can even use it here to influence the forming of your dream. For example a lot of times I say something like āroman bathsā or something like that.
Then it is important to keep your heart rate low and stabilize the dream. Once you have it stable enjoy!
If you wake your self up, stay perfectly still. Dream re-entry will happen within a couple minutes.
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I have not had any success with WILDs before.
The onlyntechnique that came close to being successful was when I was extremely sleep deprived, (which is not healthy, and I do not recommend people do):
I did not sleep well, got about 2 hours of sleep. Woke the following morning to do Dream Sangha. Because I was so tired, but did not want to drink coffee, I took 3 (4mg) galantamine pills to stay awake for the meeting. āPerfumingā my mind with thoughts of lucid dreaming while in the group, and then reading a book about it after, allowed me to fall alseep for an afternoon nap, in which I was able to have a short LD.
I had a quiet confidence before going to bed that the conditions were right, and I was going to have a LD. Not sure if it was intuition, or a self forfilling prophecy, but I think that sentiment helped āgrease the skidsā.
Before that day WILDs with galantamine failed, because I was too sensitive to the drug, and it kept me awake.
One member here recommended putting half the pill in a glass of water and letting it dissove, and only drinking a portion of the water. I have not tried this method yet, but think its a brilliant idea.
I heard Andrew say in one video some monks will purposely stay awake for 48 or 72 hours, in order to practice doing WILDs. Not for the faint of heart, make sure you are not driving or flying, and have plenty of time for make up sleep of you are attempting that high risk method.
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Okay lots of info already to take in here which, in parts, I can relate to quite a lot.
I will share my experience slowly and elaborate bit by bit.
Ensure that the body is tired whilst the mind is moderatly alert. That means no chance of going lucid when first going to bed and unlikely when its near the usual time to wake up.
I have never set an alarm to purposely wake to then have a lucid dream, but thanks to the beauty of beer and age, I sometimes (often 
) need to go to the toilet in the night.
If this happens to be between 2am and 4:30, and I am am not too worried about sleep deprivation, after relieving myself, I position myself for lucid preparation.
More to come.
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From my experience this is one of the best techniques too. In the past I would set the intention to wake up after each dream to journal which worked amazingly well for me.
Iād then do something similar to what you said, just get comfortable, be still and wait for the REM cycle. I find this style involves a small portion of sleep yoga, my body sometimes would go into sleep paralysis before my REM cycle would start so it is an excellent method to train sleep yoga and WILD at the same time.
During the peak of my success with WILDs I was averaging four a night this way. Sometimes even more due to dream re-entry.
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Regarding position in bed:
I normally sleep on my side. So if I am planning wild then I avoid this position as its more likely to lead to normal sleep than a lucid state.
There is very little chance that I will drift to sleep of any kind if I am lying on my back, although this is a position that I use to meditate, if my mind is active in the night, so it can be used to prepare for lucid dreaming.
So that only leaves one option to lie on my front with my head to one side. I use a pillow under my hips to relieve the lumber and another under my upper chest to stop my neck from being twisted too much.
More to come
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When in position and with the good timing I wait.
Sometimes there is an earworm of a song that isnāt helping to calm the mind, so I turn to Annieās song to replace any annoyance on that front.
So here is my trickā¦ as I observe the borderline between waking and dreaming, I push my straight arms down into the bed. Of course this isnāt possible in a non dream state, so if it happens I instantly know I am dreaming and can take it from there.
I am more and more in the habit of falling backwards at this point and experiencing energy flowing through me whilst descending through blackness. Relaxing into the moment rather than worrying about falling and not knowing what will happen when I get to the bottom.
Thatās another scenario / experience in its own right.
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Wanted to add a little bit here about sleeping positions in regards to WILDs.
Iām also a side sleeper. I rarely fall asleep on my back because I tend to snore in that position, which can be quite amusing during sleep yoga. Iāve had a couple of strong WILDs while lying on my back, so I know that the advice youāre giving about the back position is accurate. However, I wanted to mention that about 95% of the WILDs Iāve experienced occur when Iām sleeping on my side.
For me, being in the position that allows me to fall asleep easiest puts my body into sleep paralysis the quickest. If you ever find your falling asleep to easily and need to delay it for WILD, Iād recommend a form of self induced insomnia. Actively engage your mind by repeating mantras or counting to 10 while saying āI am dreamingā after each number to keep your mind awake.
Using this method, there comes a point where your thoughts become nonsensical, which is the threshold of entering a dream. Stop active thinking and allow these nonsensical thoughts to take over. This transition phase can be the most challenging part of WILD, the analogy for this I always like to use is that it is like walking a tightrope. If you donāt maintain enough awareness, youāll wake up a couple of hours later. On the other hand, if youāre too aware, you may disrupt the bodyās attempt to enter sleep paralysis, and youāll need to wait 5-15+ minutes for the next opportunity.
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Had one memorable WILD experience. Very tired and when I hit the pillow I soon realized I was dreaming. "Iām in! I remember thinking and proceeded to prove it by flying, doing superman stunts and more. I have never been able to recreate that, but it was exhilarating! I hope this current focus will spur on more such experiences.
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I love your insights Matthew and I already feel that I am getting to know you somehow.
The thing is that, for me, I often just dont want to go lucid and worry that if I start to go in from a side position then I am taking away that decision. I am kind of joking / not being serious by saying thatā¦ but maybe you get where I am coming from.
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The superman stuff is really amazing Barry (Iron man was always my favourite). If its not the case already, I hope that it evolves to being more of a spiritual experience for you (sorry I dont mean to be patronising).
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Great technique, thank you for sharing this!
Need to start workimg on elongating my liminal states. I think this bed technique would be a really great reality check for while in bed.
Will practice for 2 weeks and let you know how it goes.
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It worked for me again this weekend and used it multiple times after waking. Managed to meditate whilst falling through darkness, which is really profound.
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Congratulations 
. This is my experience with WILDs also. Rarely do they not come with this sensation. Once you feel this sensation you can let your dream unfold naturally or influence the creation of a dream.
Remote viewing is also a concept that can be explored during this. Repeating a name or place etcetera over and over during this phase is the OOBE remote viewing technique from my understanding.
There is a thread covering this here:
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Have you seen this video?
Kind of reminds me of your arm technique, I like your technique better:
FILD - The ULTIMATE Tutorial - How to Lucid Dream For Beginners! (Finger Induced Lucid Dreaming)
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Nope, this is the first video I have ever seen on lucid dreaming. I didnāt think it was all so popular.
My technique mixes the focusing element, with a non reality check, whilst being in a physical position that is setup for a lucid state. So it seems I just evolved into that way of doing it.
Others will evolve other methods that fit those 3 conditions.
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Thanks for sharing this Video 
According to Daniel Love, most of my WILDs are Focus Induced Lucid Dreams. I used to call them āwish induced lucid dreamsā.
After a WBTB, I just repeat my current LD goal in my mind until I fall asleep consciously. Last time, it just was āI am fully lucid in my next dreamā. One could use any mantra, I think.
Normally, I start with āPlease show meā or āPlease let me experienceā while lying on my back.
I used to sleep on my sides and couldnāt fall asleep on my back. But now I learned it, and the technique has become more challenging to achieve for me.
By the way, I found a Michael Raduga Technique that concentrates on moving your hand through your mattress in your mind until it works and you know you are dreaming. I had success with it once or twice.
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Was laying in bed the other night and remembered this technique. Wanted to share.
This is a very good technique to use for WILD and is incredibly good at battling false awakenings.
It is called the anchor technique. This guy explains it very well (in 55 seconds too ) and it is one of the techniques Iāve leaned heavily on in the past so I know it is a solid one.
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