Actually, I can't remember having any dream in black and white right off the bat, but surely I've had a few. Reading Stephen Laberge's "Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming" can give you quite a number of great tips and advices. With what I can recall from reading I think that REM happens in 90 minutes interval. And that is very congruent with Jon's suggestions:
"90+90+90
90
>60 to 60 to... etc."
Lastly, putting the alarm on for every upcoming 60 minutes is also a good one, considering the REM-state happens more often the more you have slept and would probably be reduced from 90 minutes to 60. As Erin Pavlina said this can be different for everyone, but I started off from this standard and I haven't had to switch.
I've also heard that we supposedly dream about 5-8 times during the night, some being shorter and some being longer, if I heard this from Erin's podcast I don't remember - it might have been from Laberge's book or any other source. From whatever source it was I do however know that, after listening to Erin's podcast, I remembered 6 different dreams that night. Telling myself something before I go to sleep has worked great (except for auto-OBE requests), and I'm sad to hear that it hasn't for you. I recommend however waking yourself up at a certain time, try it and tell us how it went.
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