I was thinking today about a WILD I had once. It involved me realising I was in my bedroom from when I was very very young, one or two, perhaps. Everything seemed so very small to me. Then there were shouts from outside the room, and a loud, repeated banging on the door - like a couple of people trying to knock it down - leaving me scared shitless until the door flung open, I woke up, and my dad was standing there saying he'd made a cup of tea for me.
For the duration, I was up and walking around my room. I was aware it was a dream, but not enough so to force myself into wakefulness. The scariest thing, though, was that I had remembered the room
perfectly. I looked at some old photos later and everything matched up to what it was like in the dream.
I might try that technique again, sometime.
I, for one, lay in bed for maybe 2-3 hours before I go asleep, just staring at the celing, and if I don't think of anything, it is really fucking boring. Because of that, I have little stories that I continue night after night, going back and changing or adding stuff for maybe a week or so until I decide I've milked everything I could possibly get out of that plot, then I go to a new one. Not sure if 'daudreaming' like that before you sleep helps at all, though.
I do this. I usually have several concurrent plotlines that I project myself into on different nights depending on what I've been reading/watching during that day.