Thread: What is lucid dreaming to you?

I have to ask this, because when reading and seeing videos about Lucid Dreaming I almost always disagree. Well maybe the statements is still true but my take on lucid dreams is still different.
So, almost every time I hear about lucid dreaming, the description says that you become aware about that you are dreaming and able to take control of the dream, gaining consciousness. Well I have had this phenomenon about all my life and never thought much about it, I even had some strange phenomenon being in a sleep paralysis and choosing exactly what I wanted to dream (I was in my teen years and every dream was about girls, obviously), this is probably closer but they still didn't feel at all like lucid dream does.
So my explanation about what a Lucid Dream is this: (this is the explanation I give to someone that doesn't know what a Lucid Dream is) Remember your dreams? They feel like a strong thought of a kind, and they are usually in 3rd person and can't remember most senses like smell or able to feel things. Well a Lucid Dream you see everything with your eyes (1st person of course), you have full control of your every limb, being able to use all senses. They (for me) also are extremely hard to maintain and most of my lucid dreams are usually 3-30 seconds.

So more about my lucid dreaming. Once about 4 years ago I remember a very short lived dream, I woke up at a table with orange light, a kind of light I remember having at a gym hall, kind of cheap. This dream lived on for about 1 second, then I woke up. But I remember that dream to this day, because it wasn't like all other dreams that feels like a thought, I saw everything in great detail, clear as day, I felt everything that second.

So 2 and a half years ago, I started having really strange phenomenons with sleep paralysis. First time was horrifying (I had one state of the ''normal'' paralysis before then, just simply unable to move, and also the one being able to choose my dreams as I said before), I woke up in complete terror, reason unknown, and then I heard a bird/raptor sound behind me, being complete paralyzed shaking, trying my hardest to move until I was finally able to move, being normal awake. Then I had about 10 more experiences with sleep paralysis not being as horrifying, but really annoying. Then 2 years ago I had another lucid dream inside a dream that was way longer than the 1 second one, finding myself on a street, being dark and cold, as I walked forward the Lucid Dream slowly drifted into a normal dream. Same night I had another Lucid Dream, finding myself at my work place, the place covered in carpet, I wasn't really in control of this dream fully, and I rolled around on this carpet, still conscious though I thought to myself if I rolled around on my real life floor, but I wasn't, though this felt very real. Week after I had those dreams, this was all I could think about.

Then I slowly understood that my sleep paralysis was the key to Lucid Dream, if I only got into them deep enough. For myself I get deeper into the sleep paralysis if I repeat the same word as fast as I can in my head, this is what I always did in the beginning after realizing this and still do it as it's the most effective for me. Other thing I realized works to get deeper into the paralysis is to thing of something really ridiculous that you wound not think of otherwise. Tough getting deeper into the sleep paralysis don't guarantee Lucid Dreams and increases chance of hear hallucinations, witch I'm always never happy about, and also phantom pain. I am also able to open my eyes, but my fear of seeing a hallucination (probably my greatest fear) makes me want to keep them closed. Also able to open my mouth, tough unable to say anything. I had over hundred of experiences with sleep paralysis now and about 30 of them led to lucid dreams, right now I'm also able to have a lucid dream when I lie om my side, and able to go from fully awake into sleep paralysis if I'm in that state of mind (I always get that state of mind waking up into the sleep paralysis, mostly by luck)

So this is my experiences with Lucid Dreaming and I want to see what other people consider what Lucid Dreaming is to them and in general. This thread can also be used to discuss what I'm experienced as I'm really eager to know more about them, all my Lucid experiences I know only from first hand, knowing nothing more about them really then what I experienced.
I simply didn't know anything about Lucid Dreams until long after I had many of them, simply stumbled upon it as I was writing in another forum about dreams. And I was simply frustrated when I was reading about them most of the time because it was mostly described as taking control of your dream, this might still be the case that that actually is a Lucid Dream, but then there must be a mile in teams of clarity in a Lucid Dream.

And another thing, this took about 40 minutes to write for me, so please don't bash it saying ''wrong topic, deleted''. I asked for help in my introduction 4 days ago as I have problem navigating through forums and know what to post where, didn't get a answer. Sorry for wall of text, but know this, I could write forever about it.