pattern in lucids vs non-lucids

[Waterknight]

Ive noticed a common thing that is in nearly every non lucid dream that I have and is almost never in my lucid dreams. My hometown. Well actually either of two towns that I live on the edge of. Even if things are completely impossible in waking life and I NOTICE that they are impossible I wont become lucid if I am in either of the two towns that I call home. I live in one town and go to school in the other. I will give two examples. One from each town actually. in one dream I was at school and there was a door that I knew in the dream was impossible because of the way it worked. Not only was the door impossible but there was a whale attacking people on land (I dont even live near the coast). Even knowing that one thing was IMPOSSIBLE and another thing highly improbable I didnt even consider that it could have been a dream because i was at school in my own town. In another dream I was at my house and I started walking to a friends house. Along the way I started to glide through the air. I was doing things that I knew can only be done in dreams yet I didnt think for a second that it could have been a dream because I knew exactly where I was. It seems that if my dreams take place in a familiar location even if the situations in them are completely extreme I will not become lucid. However, if I am dreaming and I am not close to home I will often become lucid. Examples of that include a post apocolyptic city, a town that I had no idea where it was, Canada (which I have never been to), and a desert. In all of those locations I was lucid very shortly into the dream with almost no thought to whether or not im dreaming. I just KNOW when im somewhere I dont know in real life. I have had lucid dreams that started out obeying every natural law and showing no signs of dreaming besides being somewhere else and Ive become lucid yet at the same time I have had completely fantastical dreams that take place close to home without any lucidity.

[sanctum]

This is pretty interesting. I've had issues recently with controlling my dreams, though they are all in familiar environments. I'm thinking maybe it's *because* of the familiarity--my brain recognizes how things work, and so doesn't cooperate when I try to mess with things. Familiarity is a powerful thing.

[Woodstock]

Last night I had a dream that I was in what I thought was my house, but it was completely different. It still seemed familiar and completely normal, even though my sister was tied up in a tree in the jungle in the middle of the kitchen. My point is anything could seem familiar in a dream, even if you've never been there or it doesn't even exist. At least that's how it works for me. That's probably why it's hard for me to know when I'm dreaming.