I've decided to do sleep interruption twice a week for this month, scheduling them at random times around my work schedule. One thing I've noticed is that I've experimented with staying up for both an hour and 30 minutes; either way, it takes me a long time to fall back asleep and my recall is basically non-existent after I wake up for good!
The several times I've done it already (not just this month) I've always been able to recall some dreams, even if it's just a few fragments, when my alarm wakes me up in the middle of my sleep. But after staying up, it takes me an hour or more to fall back asleep, and it's very shallow sleep; and then I wake up feeling very tired and not remembering anything.
What am I doing wrong?
Hello there! I may not be the best source of information for this, but, I struggle with the same problem of falling back asleep whenever I do decide to attempt a technique with sleep interpretations in it. That being said, I have found some things to be somewhat helpful, and though some may harm your chances of becoming lucid, it may help you with falling back asleep.
I personally don't wait the full 30 minutes because I'll be up for 2 hours after that. I usually stay up for 10 and sometimes do a reality check to put it into my mind. This can help with falling back asleep because you aren't fully thinking about every little thing that has or had happened so far. Another thing is that waiting 30 minutes does give me anxiety that if I don't make it to that amount, my attempt will be for nothing. I would say be easy with the time awake because, even though 30 minutes to an hour has proven to be better, not falling asleep is worse than having a non-lucid dream.
As for falling back asleep if you can't, I sometimes play mediations and follow them. For me they lower my heart rate and put my mind into a relaxed state. They also relax my full body when it's in a comfortable position. If mediations aren't your fancy, try doing something that you wouldn't do if you were trying to fall back asleep (light exercises, drawing, etc.) I usually think about doing these things but often feel too tired to. It's more like reverse psychology more than anything. You want to take away your own thoughts about how sleepy you are so, try and focus on something else. This could be absolute twaddle but, I know when I'm drawing late at night, I sometimes fall asleep with the sketchbook right beside me!
Hope some of this helps! I'm not a professional by any means so, would like to see someone else's input (and because I suffer with these same problems!)