Hi Folks, I'm pretty new to all this and I had an odd experience last night that left me curious as to whether it was common or not.

Last night I woke in the middle of the night, spent some time awake and then returned to sleep/dream after some mantra time etc. Seemed to work in that in my dream I realised I was dreaming (looking out of a train window at a caveman).

So far so good: I had that odd feeling of energy and pleasure at becoming lucid (felt quite pleased with myself). But then, as I recalled after waking, that sense of control dissapated and I just went along with the dream without exerting any control or really any awareness (as per a normal dream) - though at the time I thought I was being lucid. It was only after waking that I realised that I hadn't been lucid, only dreamed that I was (does that make sense?). Not only that, but the quality/vividness of the dream was mundane, not at all like the hyper-realism I'd come to associate with LDs (I've only had a few).

Trying to recall back through the dream (actually more diccifult than usual this time) I got the impression that this was also a dream within a dream: that I had achieved a sort-of fake lucidity within a dream within a dream; and I wondered if this was part of the problem.

So: have other people had these sort of fake lucid dreams? And what can de done to prevent them, or turn them into a real lucid dream? And would the dream-within-a-dream element have led to an increased liklihood of 'losing' dream lucidity (even while thinking you had retained it)?