Am I making progress?

I've been trying to Lucid Dream for over 2 weeks now. I've put my attention solely to try and remember my dreams in the morning and have about 9 pages in my little notebook filled with remembered dreams. Now I have noticed that link that everyone says to look for and it was - school. I dreamt about school or something to do with school nearly every dream. If I am going to make this my reality check.. isn't school too general? I'm there everyday and I can't reality check every second of the day can I? What should I do about this.

This morning I had a false awakening, where I woke up in my bed in the lounge. My dad actually walked in and woke me up (in reality as he does every morning at 7:00am) but in the dream I saw blackness and heard his voice. Very faint, but I heard him telling me to wake up. I started hearing my school bell go off, and I panicked. I opened my eyes and my sister gave me toast, vegemite and margarine spread on it. My mother was in the other room on the phone and I was trying to be discrete as I looked at the clock and it was 10:30am. I wanted to get more time off school so I lay down and ate the toast quietly. I could taste it in my mouth. It was weird. I then finally got out of bed and my mum said she'd drop me into school late as she knew I was tired - THIS was when my dad stormed in (in reality) and told me to wake up. The time was 7:30am and we were about it go! 30 mins went bloody quick in this dream.

But it was interesting and is it progress?

I've been getting some vivid dreams and they've been getting better and better but I still feel like I should write for another few weeks so I'm fully ready to try go lucid. Should I try now that I've written for two weeks and have a bit of an idea of my reality checks? Or should I keep writing and finding that specific link?? Also I go to bed quite late (I'm talking 12am-1am every night). Does this effect things?

Keep remembering and writing down your dreams. Try to be aware during your waking hours. Do reality checks often throughout the day even if you aren't seeing any obvious dream signs.

Getting enough sleep is important. You have the longest periods of REM sleep later in your sleep cycle so it is important to get 7 to 9 hours of good sleep per night.

Part of the reason you keep a dream journal is so you can recognize dream signs...but, in my opinion, the greater importance of remembering, recording, and reviewing your normal dreams is so you begin to understand the "feel" of your dreams. This is a very subtle thing. It isn't something you will will be able to explain, but at some point you will be in a dream and just recognize that something isn't right. Then you will do a reality check and become lucid.

Keep doing what you are doing and lucidity will come.