Hello there! Newbie here!

I found this site after hearing about lucid dreaming and wanting to try it for myself! I just wanted to get some questions out of the way, since I'm actually kind of nervous to even attempt lucid dreaming at this point, but so excited to do it at the same time!

My question is this: Are certain people more or less likely to achieve this, or other, kinds of dreams? I ask because I've had some terrifying dreams in the past that I can't explain and I am nervous that I would encourage those 'nightmares'...

The first happened at a relatives house really, really late at night. I was sleeping in the guest room and woke up for no reason. I opened my eyes and there were tons of HUGE spiders in the guest bed with me so I started screaming and got out of bed only to find the ceiling covered with them too. They all started falling to the floor and I was screaming and slapping at them-- not a pleasant experience, shew! The last thing I remember is seeing the window, wanting to escape and then my sister in law flips on the bedroom light and wakes me up for real, instantly. I was standing in the middle of the room and my screaming had woke the entire house up. The weird thing is, I couldn't remember getting up, I wasn't facing the window as I had been in my dream (it was right behind me) and I couldn't remember screaming or any reason why I would have been screaming. It wasn't until I laid back down and thought about it for a minute that I remembered dreaming about the spiders and all that.

The second experience I'm afraid to go through again happened in my own home, in my own bed. I woke up to find someone standing over top of me and I couldn't move, speak or anything. My blood ran cold and I just laid there and stared at them. The 'person' raised a hand and pointed at my nightstand. Although I don't recall ever having a moment where I realized "oh, hey! I can move now!" I shouted "What?!" and spun my head around to see what 'it' was pointing to. It was my son's baby monitor. I don't remember thinking anything else at that point, I just shot out of bed and ran to my son's room and woke him up. Thinking back, I don't think that 'person' was there after I looked away. (He was fine, in case you're wondering.)

I have no explanation for either of these 'dreams' but I do know that they terrified me enough to stay with me. I was wondering if having dreams like that would mean that it would be easier or harder for me to dream lucid but at the same time, I don't want it to be easier if I'm going to terrify myself all the time!

As I said before, I'm excited about the idea of lucid dreaming and I want to try but I'm nervous that I'll either fail and be disappointed that I can't do it or succeed and dream myself being eaten by a giant tarantula or something.... I think I would literally die in my sleep, purely from fear...

Opinions?