Third-person uncontrollable?

Often I would take a nap, without really any intention to WILD or anything (just tired and want some rest). I'm not sure if everyone experiences going into sleep the same way, but I usually just think about things, and before I know it, my thoughts go completely random as I drift into sleep.

Now here is where it becomes interesting. If the random thoughts have not been occurring for too long, I can kinda snap my thoughts back into focus and think logically again. If it goes on for too long, I drift into sleep and before I know it, I hear the alarm. However, there's a time span in the middle where I'm in a third-person view of my thoughts--I'm not sure if this can be classified as a dream--viewing some sort of dream. I would think to myself, "hey nice, it's a dream! I'm lucid!" However, I have absolutely not control over it. I feel as if I'm only a spectator watching a movie. Sometimes, my dream body isn't even in the scene, and even if it is, I can't control it from 3rd person. It feels as if I have no limbs at all.

Anything I can do to turn this into a lucid dream where I can go 1st person AND control my dream? Actually, is this even a dream, or just a stray thought?

What you just explained is exactly what happens to me most nights when drifting off into sleep. I'd dealt with the same issues, you think up something and your mind begins to visionalize it and it starts to form and take over and you lose control of it and then you're sort of watching it play out before you. At this point, you either enter the dream (lucid) or fall asleep and begin dreaming (usually after a while and it's something completely different) It's hard to figure out what step to actually take, if you think or focus too hard then you snap out of it all together and are still awake trying to fall asleep all over again. I'm not sure what the best method is to use for this. Maybe somebody else knows and will share it with us. -Chase

Yeah I experience that a lot when I'm taking naps. It's not really controllable because it's only hypnotic imagery, you're not fully in a dream state yet. My thoughts are usually in third person like that during this part. If you can remain conscious through the whole cycle then you can eventually make it into the dream, already lucid. I've done it a few times.

i know right like when im trying to WILD and i would just start counting to keep my self awake i would reach this point where i am still counting but my mind is just all over the place and when i snap my self back im like at 300+ and still counting like my mind was running on auto pilot or something

Like no limbs, that must be the reason you can't control it, since you "feel" that there is nothing, why not try connecting yourself first to a random dream-body and then try to exert control that way?