Thread: Staying Lucid: Easier said than done

I've managed to have lucid dreams two nights in a row though that wasn't a terribly rare occurance. However, I've always been struggling to not wake once I found out I was lucid.

Yesterday's:

I was doing some railroad maintenance work high up in the mountains. I was working just outside of this tunnel when I saw and heard a train approach from the distance. Since the tracks outside of the tunnel were in a trench, I tried to climb out but my body moved in slow-motion. Noticing myself move in slow motion prompted me to do a reality check and triggered lucidity. However even though I was lucid, the scenery was extremely lacking in color and I could slightly feel my body in bed. Eventually I climbed out of the trench and that train never came. Then I looked down the tracks away from the tunnel and noticed the tracks ended not that far away at the edge of a cliff. It was a little scary but enough to wake me up, considering that I wasn't sleeping very deeply (could feel my body.)

Today's:

I was on a stopped bus when I looked out the window when it started snowing. Because I live in the SF bay area, snow is an extremely rare occurence and this prompted me to question the reality of what I was seeing. And surely enough, I had been dreaming! So I proceeded to walk up front and get off the bus but I spotted this cute young woman sitting in one of the front seats with (presumably) her boyfriend. I began to talk with her (can't remember what we talked about.) Then I proceeded to try to kiss her (hey, I have the right to do whatever I please in my dreams.) However, her boyfriend blocks me and I struggle to push him away, but the struggle ends up waking me up. darn

---

I haven't been able to prolong a lucid dream past (what seems like) a few minutes; I'd eventually lose lucidity or some exciting or frightening event will wake me up (which rarely wakes me in non-lucid dreams.) Also, it's fairly common for me to feel my body in bed when I achieve lucidity but that often causes me to wake up in a few minutes. Any ideas what to try from now on? I've experimented with spinning but that wakes me up instead of stabilizing the dream environment. Thinking "clairity now" causes me to lose focus and eventually the lucidity.