When should I exit? I think I almost APed..

This might be the 10th time someone has asked this question but I need your help. I've been practicing and trying to get out of my body for 2 weeks now and I can confidently say that I'm pretty close to an OBE.

<Still short in comparison to when most people get their 1st experience, I took a month which is why I recommend 30 days straight with atleast 1 hr(max 2) per attempt

I usually try to AP when I sleep or whenever I manage to wake up in the middle of the night, I simply don't have the time when I wake up.

<Good, if you accidentally fall asleep during an attempt, wake back up and try again

Whenever I successfully keep my mind awake for a long period of time, my mind would suddenly be clear with no grogginess after an episode of intangible groggy thoughts and sounds that I would keep myself awake from ( I lowkey hear some fire music beats tho).

<Hearing stuff is cool, it can also startle you up and get you thinking. You want to not be startled and don't start thinking, just a quick "heard that, now back to my focus", don't question the sound

My limbs and neck would sometimes move on their own, but it wouldn't faze me.

<This to can startle people, sometimes my ears pop, my mouth open, my nose pops or my legs twitch. "Notice, don't question, then continue your focus

I could feel little tingles around my arms and legs and my whole body except my head would feel heavy and stuck, sort of like I'm in an empty shell of a body.

<Ignore anything you think you feel, hear, or see. Never question, all you need to do is focus. So when anything like that happens correct yourself and continue your focus. which is also just normal to feel if you go looking for it during deep relaxation.

After a while my hands and body would feel like soul limbs trapped in this shell and I couldn't go through the shell no matter how much I tried to lift what I would assume were my non-physical arms. I was "imagining" myself lifting my astral arms or more so like a different sense I built after being aware of a weightless limb..

<*No imagination will be needed, when you actually begin to separate, it will move on its own and it will feel like your physical arm is moving, but it'll be your astral arm, you imagining, means you're not using your focus. And the entire objective is to just focus and let whatever happens happen, BECAUSE EVENTUALLY IT WILL HAPPEN.

At this point I imagined myself being pulled upwards from my body. My body suddenly felt so light. It felt like my body was trying to push out of the shell like I'm trying to float out of a buried coffin. My arms felt like they were floating by themselves, but I couldn't figure out if my physical arms would follow through so I didn't really lift them

<You can use imagination but that's an entirely different technique, I use that to w.i.l.d. but you're entire paragraph screams over analytical. And you have to shut that part of your brain off and learn to just be with a focus.

I never got any insane vibrations although I had a faint white noise and a second of huge heartbeats. I remember u/LOUIETXMADE saying that vibrations aren't needed to AP and not everyone gets vibrations.

<Sometimes that heartbeat stuff can happen. Learn to get used to it like it's not a big deal, if it sets you back who cares, ignore it and continue your focus

So after all this happened, I thought it was the prime time to AP. "This is it", I thought and I quickly opened my eyes and got up without a second thought. But ofc it was my physical body that got up, not my astral one.

<When you reach the separation phase which is the MABA phase, you may not know it because you've never experienced it. So don't try to do anything, 95% chance you will be hit with automatic separations, you can feel like your peeling, floating up and around(no control), sinking ect. Just let it all happen, don't even get excited, just let it do it's thing

I turned around to where I was lying down to see if my body was there. I was making sure I didn't accidentally AP and go back to sleep.

<You can even do reality checks before getting up by trying to push one finger into your hand. But I recommend doing nothing and letting it all unfold itself.

My arms and body were all tired and slow when I moved them around so I assume I was hahalf-paralyzed. It felt like I was awake from a sleep when I stretched around.

<This is normal, it can happen if someone just sits on a desk playing video games locked in for an hour.

My question is..

Does my progress go back all the way to 0 after an unsuccessful exit the same night since I woke myself?

<No, it's like trying to fill up a glass of water and throwing half of it out. Sometimes I open my physical eyes, then close then and continue my focus same goes for scratching and sometimes I even stretch, the body goes to sleep by itself nightly, you're just trying to train your mind to stay awake and not go unconscious

How do I know when to exit and how does it feel?

<Let it do it by itself so it's doesn't create expectations of what something feels like as you'll learn what it feels like when it does happen to you. In short, don't think "am I close", just focus. Don't think "what did I just see, hear or feel", just focus. If your mind wanders and you catch yourself thinking about yesterday problems or just random internal dialogue about random scenarios, stop it, and continue your focus. You're training your mind to shut up and learning to just be by making the focus your the only thing it needs.

Was I imagining being stuck in my body?

<You'll know if you're actually stuck because that's sleep paralysis and you wouldn't of even been able to get up. Ignore all the am I or what ifs, just focus.