I'll start this post off by clarifying that I have never successfully had a lucid dream via the "WILD doorway" before, so I don't have a baseline on what it feels like to enter a dream while already conscious. I have experienced sleep paralysis in the past, and some vivid hypnagogic imagery and slight kinesthetic hallucinations in the past though. I haven't really attempted WILD techniques that often to be honest (although that will be changing very very soon), and instead rely on DILDs, which have worked for me pretty well so far.
Last night, I had a strange experience. I had a DILD that lasted for about 5 minutes. After those 5 minutes, I had a false awakening. The dream totally faded and suddenly I was in another scene, thinking it was the next day. I was even talking about the lucid dream that I had just faded out of mere moments ago, as if I had experienced it the night before. However, some technology wasn't working so I performed the nose pinch test and realized I was still dreaming. This catapulted me into the said strange experience:
I was now laying in bed, and can only describe this as a "reverse WILD" for lack of a better term. I went to perform a reality check but felt my body lying still in bed... but simultaneously felt my "dream arm" reach up and pinch my "dream nose". I could breath through it. I could feel both sensations at once, my real limbs, and dream limbs. It was quite strange. However, I believe I was not fully in a dream, and was instead experiencing the process of waking up while lucid, similar to entering a dream while lucid. I still felt my body in bed, and even could see some aspects of my bedroom overlaid over a hallucination of bright light. Maybe I was squinting I don't remember. Maybe I was in sleep paralysis I can't be sure. (I remember from hours earlier that night not being able to bring my arm down from over my head, but not sure if this was real sleep paralysis or if I had dreamed about sleep paralysis.)
Anyway, I feel like this is the opposite of a dream forming around you whilst having a WILD attempt. The dream was fading around me, as the sensation transferred from being more dominant in feeling the dream limbs to my real limbs, and soon I became wide awake and lost all sensation of any residual dream hallucinations. The sensation of feeling my real body take over was very smooth and as everything faded I was eventually just in bed. Now I could move my real arm and pinched my nose - awake. Alarm clock test - awake. Very hard to put this into words. If this is the case of a "reverse WILD", I am excited - now I know what to expect that is unique to me if I were to experience a WILD, a dream forming around my already conscious mind. This may help me with future WILD attempts! Similar experiences anybody? Thoughts, comments?
Sharing a similar experience based upon what you have typed up, Brandon. I had my first successful nighttime WILD a couple weeks ago (about 10 others were nap/daytime WILDs) ... last night I had what I would call a WILD in reverse . . . I became lucid at the tail end of a dream. Normally when lucid I will "accidentally" be taken out of lucidity. In this situation the dream seemed to end, then I went through the same experience as if entering a WILD but in reverse.
... I had a moment in which the dream/ memory of the dream just seemed to end --> I retained strong lucid awareness of having exited the dream but was not simply just lying in bed. I was somewhat out of body and able to witness the body from the outside --> then the "SHWOOOPing" that is typical of the WILD (some say its a popping or sharp noise) --> and then into deep recognition that I was asleep and "reentered" the body, moreso from a deep contemplative state into typical consciousness rather than an obe...
...usually with WILD it happens the other way around. The closest I could find describing this sensation is termed DEILD which mentions using the dream exit awareness as an opportunity to reenter the dream. I I did try this method naturally and was not able to regain lucidity. Perhaps researching DEILD might give you some ideas of how to reenter into lucidity if this experience happens again.