Difficulty Maintaining Lucidity

Hello all!

So briefly let me describe what happens. I have had many lucid dreams to date (more than it says in my LD count, haven't updated it in a long while) - enough to know what to do when you first come to that realization (stay calm being most important). Recently I had a string of dreams where I'd wake up, fall back asleep directly into an LD. I knew I was dreaming but as soon as I figured out that I was dreaming I almost immediately awoke.

Now this is not something that happens infrequently (unfortunately). Anyways, to the issue: I try everything to maintain lucidity. Feeling everything around me, running my tongue against the roof of my mouth for the tactile sensation, spinning, etc.; I remain extremely calm both in my 'body' and mind. But often what happens is that everything goes black. I'm still asleep, but I know if I open my eyes I'll wake, but I can still hear/feel/etc. everything in the dream world - I just completely lose visualization and as soon as I make the eye-open motion/action my real-life eyes open and I awake (occaisionally I'll 'awake' into another dream - but quickly realize I'm dreaming and awake for real in the same "black-out vision" way).

I was hoping a guru here could give me some tips - I love LDs (who doesn't :P) but this problem has consistently caused me trouble over the years - more so recently. If I can overcome this I'd truly enjoy some awesome LDs. I've done so many things and once lucid am capable of some awesome stuff - but there's so much more I want to try and it's truly difficult seeing as more than half the time what I said above happens :(

Thanks for any help you can give!

Now for dreams ending so fast when you come to realization, this could be because its the end of your rem period. Now the black is a state where your not too awake and when your not too asleep its like one foot in the dream world and another foot in your waking life. "The black" almost always leads you to another dream and they are more likely to be false awakenings so when you go through this black stage as soon as you "wake up" reality check.

Try this. The next time you're in the blackness try and visualize a dreamscape. You could maybe even try and preform a VILD or a FILD.