When do you know?

For me I never know Im dreaming until I wake up and remember the dream I had. So my question for all of you lucid dreamers out there is do you wake up and then remember the lucid dream you had or do you know it and recognize it as its happening as well as when you wake up. Im very new to all of this and trying to wrap my head around lucid dreaming and dreaming in general. Thank you

No, you are aware of it as it happens. That's how you're able to control it. It still feels like a dream, but you're aware of that fact, you're not just aimlessly following the storyline of the dream, you become open to other possibilities.

On that note, a warning, you can get very impulsive when lucid. Sometimes it's fun to just go with your first impulse, but if after the first couple you have some specific goals you want to accomplish, have your heart set on one before you go to sleep, so that as soon as you do become lucid you will also remember what it was you wanted to do.

Just like Supernova said. When you get Lucid, you will be able to look around you and do anything. Just like being awake, only you're in a dream.

While your lucid dreaming, you can basically do anything you want and it feels like real life. People do Reality Checks to during the day and if you do them enough, the reality checks that you perform will carry over into your dreams, letting you know if your dreaming or not.

Lucid Dreaming: A dream in which one is aware that one is dreaming.

Reality Checks: A physical or mental action a lucid dreamer uses to test reality.

Here's a question I can answer with the utmost accuracy, seeing as I had my first (sounds like a sex joke) only a day or so ago. This is the best I can describe the entire thing.

I went to sleep that night, thinking of Lucid Dreaming like always. I was twice as confident as usual that night because I had been been up for 21 hours, I could barely stay awake most of the day, and I was going to sleep in a dark, quiet room where I knew I wasn't going to be awaken by outside noise. Enough about the set-up, you want to know the feeling.

You know how when you have a dream, you just do things without will or reason but you don't know it till you wake up and ask, "Why the hell would I be doing that". In fact, you don't even know you had the dream till you wake up. Well, it wasn't like that. I woke up in my bed and instead of the dream just continuing and my body doing whatever it wanted, I had thought process. I could feel myself questioning the reality around me. It was indeed extremely realistic because I know I thought that doing a RC would only result like normal. However, I did do one anyways because it's good practice. I did the nose plug RC and breathed in. I actually did breathe in and wondered if I maybe had my mouth open. So I did it again, more aware of the action and that time I knew I was getting air even though I had my airways blocked. The realization was pretty intense but didn't hit me right away. First, I thought that this is probably a dream. I had to check one last thing to make sure. So, I looked at my hand to notice a finger was missing.

That's when the sensations hit. It's almost indescribable. Have you ever had a revelation of something? When you figure something out that deep down, you knew that you should have figured out a lot sooner? It's kind of like that. Knowing I was dreaming was probably the most intense feeling I've ever had in my life. However, I have dealt with a lot of emotion over my life so controlling them is a talent of mine. Still, it was amazing. It's like being reborn almost or having your eyes opened again.

Let's skip through the actual dream (you can read it if you want in my DJ). The other thing I should explain is when I awoke. The transition from dream to awake was quite vivid. The dream was so real that it took me a moment to gather my thoughts. I laid there for a minute. It actually took me a bit to get used to the physical awareness of my own body. I will say the dream did feel like a dream upon waking. If you know what I mean. It's not easy to explain but I'm sure you know what the memory of what a dream feels like after you wake up. However, the memory of the thoughts I had within the dream are like any other thought I've had. The thoughts I had within the dream are just as strong as ones I have right now.

I don't know if the memory of the dream gets stronger with practice (which I'm assuming it does) but even if it stayed the way is it when I felt it, I'd be more than happy. It's amazing. :)

Lucid dreaming is about knowing your dreaming as it happens. now if you didnt go lucid but you have gd recall that means your close you just have to pick up on certain dream signs or experience the dream events in a wakeful state of mind. namaste

Thanks for the quick and informative responses. Ive been lurking around on this site for the past couple of weeks and Im impressed with the amount of information. I decided to start a DJ when I first began reading and since then I have been remembering 1-3 dreams per night which is a huge step up from my normal 1 every week or so. Im going to continue to work on my recall before attempting to go lucid so in the mean time Im trying to put together the pieces I dont quite understand.