I have been trying to lucid dream for about 3 weeks now. Ive had about 3 lucid dreams each lasting only a minute or two. I know how to prolong dreams, I just need practice. I have been using WILD and not been very succesful… I get to a count of around 500 and i give up. I get up after about 5 hours of sleep and then use the bathroom and go right back to bed to WILD. What can I do to have more WILDs? I have also tried SSILD the last 3 nights. When I finish the cycles I can never fall alseep and it takes me like 30 minutes and I get no lucid dreams or FA/OBE. Can somone help me somehow to fall asleep during these techniques or any technique you think would be more effective for me? Thanks!
It sounds to me like your trying too hard and that is putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. It could also be that your mind is too awake whilst your body (including your brain) is not deep enough in relaxation/trance. Also, it’s worth mentioning that if your trying to hold onto physical reality you will not get anywhere. Keep your mind alert but focused on the dream-state NOT your physical body or room. It’s okay to focus on your dream body just take your awareness deeper within and let the experience guide you.
So I should relax my mind more? How can I do that?
It sounds like WBTB might be handy for you. I talk about it a lot because it’s what works for me, it’s pretty reliable at this point. You can sleep for about 5 hours like you were doing, but then when you get up, stay up longer. Stay up for 15 minutes at the least, 30 minutes is best (for me). Then go back to sleep and tell yourself you are going to sleep and have a lucid dream now, you should slip off pretty easily because you are already nice and tired, but you’ll be more aware because you’ve been awake for a little while.
Something that happens a lot in this stage I’ve found too is SP. If you use your SP hallucinations as a dream sign then you will realize that you are falling asleep, just let yourself drift off and you will know that you are slipping into a dream.
but wouldnt staying up longer make it harder to fall alseep?
I guess it depends on the person! 15-30 is the ideal time span for myself
If you heard about mindfulness meditation. It’s very relaxing and put’s you in specific state of mind, you become aware. It might seem as something that might keep you awake but as I said it puts you in altered state of mind and from there you can easily slip into the dream but as making you aware by default you have more change to become lucid - WILD even.
Also it’s very easy to practice. Just lay down in your bed and let your mind wonder. Every thought that cross your mind acknowledge and let go. So you are thinking about wafels, you acknowledge that and let that thought “go”, do that with every thought even with those like: I’m noticing my breathing pattern - let go… because it will happen, you will become very aware of everything and just let everything go…
Practice it for some time and you will see if it helps you or not… 
that sounds interesting ill try it
Totally agree with the mindfulness practice… it can lead to something better than a LD… a transcendental lucid dream and also help you live a fuller life in reality.
I discovered a trick with it where you can place an outside observer on your own thoughts, and you can take that further by placing another observer on the observer. That’s a little more advanced though but well worth the effort, your thoughts settle completely because they know they are being watched, and the watcher is also being watched again.
That’s what I like about this meditation, it reflects nicely on waking life. Sometimes you don’t even notice until you find yourself being aware of being aware, it’s beautiful…
I’ve tried classical WILD a bunch of times and only have one tiny super short success that I barely feel like counting. But one of the first times I seriously tried to DEILD (“the little WILD”) I succeeded! So I’d say start with DEILD, learn what it feels like to enter the dream while slightly aware, then go to work on classical WILD if you like. The main thing with DEILD is to remain very mentally quiet, don’t move after waking up, and just lightly consider your dream and drift off back to sleep with the intention of being lucid. “Lightly” is key – don’t try to force anything, the primary goal is to fall right back asleep. It is easiest when waking up from lucid dreams, because you’re aware as the dream ends, but you can do it also from NDs. My first DEILD was two days ago in the morning after waking up from a ND: I just lightly considered the dream, and drifted back to sleep, and all of a sudden I saw a clear, bright, stable image of a scene inside a house. I looked at it in wonder for a few seconds, and stepped into the scene, it was a dream! I ran up a flight of stairs exclaiming “IT WORKED!” and turned into a room at the top of the stairs and woke up (noise in my bedroom). It was so cool! And way way easier than WILD.