How to prolong lucid dreams?

I don't know what this technique is called, but it's been successful. In the past five days, for some reason, I've been waking up after 3 hours of sleep. After that, I write down my dreams and do stuff for 30 minutes. Then I masturbate and go to sleep. So far in five days with this method, I have had 4 lucid dreams. But they lasted only for one or two minutes, and I woke up again. I've tried rubbing my hands and spinning, but none of them worked. However, last night, my lucid dream lasted for like 4 minutes. I woke up after trying to fly by jumping off of a roof.

What have I done wrong? I've always been a light sleeper. Maybe, that's the reason. Anyway, does anyone know how I can prolong my lucid dreams?

This probably belongs in "Dream Control".

I'm just tossing that in, I'm afraid I can't offer much because every lucid dream I've had has pretty much ended as soon as it began.

Generally something startles me awake. The realization that I was dreaming in the last one, coupled with the awe-inspiring wonder of the realism of the field before me, shocked me straight awake. My mind was blown just by the fact of what I was seeing before me, how wonderful and real it very much was. And so I woke up.

I believe that technique is called a WBTB (Wake Back To Bed). This is a very effective technique in my opinion and I've had good experiences with it.

As for prolonging lucid dreams, you could try the DEILD Technique. It's where you don't move a muscle on your body as soon as you wake up and go straight into a lucid dream. This is a tricky technique and I've only been able to do it successfully when I wake up from a lucid dream.

You could also try feeling objects in your dream, be aware of your surroundings, notice every little detail, smell the air, taste food, try and use as many senses as possible while your in a lucid dream.