Jake, as soon as you wake up, don’t move at all or open your eyes. Simply lay still and focus on your breathing. This could trigger dream chaining, which might result in an LD. Hope that helps. 
But isn’t the point to get up for at least ten minutes and do something that is active for the mind as well as is related to lucid dreaming? I’ve been reading books on lucid dreaming when I wake up.
it can take a while to train yourself that you are going to go back to sleep.
I also found that I had to wake up earlier in order to be tired enough to go back to sleep.
Once you figure out how to get back to sleep, you may need to experiment with how long you stay awake. If you are trying to WILD you may need to stay awake for longer in order to hit the start of the next REM cycle. If you are trying to DILD, you don’t need to stay awake as long. You just need to have time to clearer go through your preparation such as MILD.
My best cycle is if I go to sleep at 12:00, wake up at 5:00, back to sleep at 6, then hopefully lucid some time before waking at 7:30.
Well, technically it isn’t WBTB, its more of a technique known as DEILD (Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream) but since it involves waking up during the middle of the night, I consider it a WBTB. A lengthy article on DEILD can be found on dream views: https://www.dreamviews.com/community/showthread.php?t=62769
And the last three days I’ve slept through my alarm! WTF!
We also have a topic on chaining Chaining which is the original topic and a later one in which the DV term was used DEILD - Dream Exit Induced Lucid Dream
You’re probably a bit too tired to wake up in the middle of the night 
. Try going to bed a couple of hours earlier than usual.
Hi,
I am new to this stuff I’ve only been trying WBTB and MILD for two nights and i also have the same problem of not being able to get back to sleep.
The night before last i went to sleep at 12:00pm and set my alarm for 5am ,woke up for 1 hour doing MILD , looking at Lucid Dreaming stuff, getting psyched up and stuff, but then i was not able to get back to sleep at all, so i was tired all day at work and when i got home.
So last night i went to bed at 9:00pm only because i was very tired and set my alarm for 2:00am stayed awake for 1 hour doing the same thing as the night before , and again i was not able to get back to sleep, i just lay there for 5 hours waiting to fall asleep and doing MILD, now im at work and im super tired 
Im happy to try again tonight but i need to find a way to be able to get back to sleep after WBTB or in my case just W 
Is it worth maybe only sleeping for 3 hours then doing WBTB or is that just not enough REM time before waking?
If an hour is too long and wakes you up too much. Try keeping awake for a shorter amount of time. Since you are very tired … maybe try 15 minutes awake tonight.
I am giving it a try this morning at the moment. I woke up after 6 hours of sleep, stayed up 90 minutes, reading part of Stephen LaBerge book and topics on this forum, and now, I am about to go back to bed.
We will see how it goes. Hopefuly, I will enjoy a LD in a few minutes…
Well, no LD this morning, but…
I woke up with very good dream recall of that 90 minutes nap. Unfortunately, I did 2 reality check, which failed and assumed I was not dreaming… I will give it an other try tonight!
I know about the WBTB method, but after how many hours do i wake myself up? Thanks in advance,
-Low.
Merged from topic in General Lucidness. 
The standard time would be 1 hr - 1hr 30 min before waking up normally, you stay up 30 min to 1 hr, then you go to beck for the last period. This works wonders particularly for MILD.
However, if you find it difficult to get back to sleep, or would like to try a faster WILD, then you can wake up sooner in your sleep cycle (as early as 3 hrs after going to bed) and stay up as short as 5 minutes (just to jolt down notes in the DJ and/or getting out of the drowsiness), with the added option of not going out of bed, in order to keep the body relaxed.
Thanks
The standard time would be 1 hr - 1hr 30 min before waking up normally, you stay up 30 min to 1 hr, then you go to beck for the last period. This works wonders particularly for MILD.
However, if you find it difficult to get back to sleep, or would like to try a faster WILD, then you can wake up sooner in your sleep cycle (as early as 3 hrs after going to bed) and stay up as short as 5 minutes (just to jolt down notes in the DJ and/or getting out of the drowsiness), with the added option of not going out of bed, in order to keep the body relaxed.
Well, I looked through here and the previous threads and either the find function is broken, or there has been no mention of music. What kinds of music have you found good to listen to during WBTB?
I used to listen to the Polyphonic Spree 
It’s very energetic and happy and really helped my mind wake up.
I have a question.
Can you do WBTB immediately after waking up from a dream in the middle of the night?
@Mew: I think they call it “chaining”, when you’re just out of a dream and then back again. Anyway, in a related question… is the purpose of WBTB to utilize the numbness from the previous sleep, or should I wake up my body first and THEN try to sleep again?
The purpose is to wake up your mind. 
At least, try not to wake up your body too much, or else you won’t be able to sleep!