Almost first LD, but some wierd sensations.

[punch145]

I have not been keeping a dream journal, or doing anything else to help me get an LD, just because I guess I have other things to worry about more than dreams. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I unintentionally nearly LD'ed. I was in a dream that I've had several times before, which is probably what made me realize it was a dream. For some reason, it seemed spontaneous, during the dream, the single thought popped into my head: "I'm dreaming this.", and the first thing I thought of after that was "I'll try to go lucid!" I didn't know what to do to take control, it was almost instinctual, I just tried to relax my thoughts so I did not wake myself up. But then it gets weird, because right after that, I started having this weird sensation that I was rapidly going back and forth between conscientiousness and the dream, and then I woke up for good. It was pretty weird, I'm not sure if that was part of the dream, or some other sensation, has it happened to any of you?

[Shift]

Just so you are clear on it, the fact that you knew it was a dream made it a lucid dream. Controlling the dream has nothing to do with the criteria for being lucid. All you need to be lucid is to know that you are dreaming. Dream control is just very delicious icing on the cake I have experienced something similar to the flitting, when you are in a dream and desperately trying to remain calm and stay in the dream. You sort of switch between feeling your sleeping body and dream self, until you either manage to stabilize or end up waking up. I'd recommend next time instead of thinking "I have to stay calm so I don't wake up" and inevitably thinking about your real body (which always makes me wake up), just think to yourself, "I have to stabilize this dream" and do things like talk out loud, look at your dream body, touch things, smell things, listen for sounds, talk to dream characters, etc.