My experience so far & a question

Hi all. So I just wanna tell you all a little about my experience so far. I have not been doing anything 'on purpose', it happened because it just happened but now I wanna start to learn how to lucid dream so I can try and control my dreams. But that's another part of this thread. So...I would lie if I said I remember my dreams very well. I don't. At all. But there's always something I remember and I remember a bit of this dream I had one time...I think I was surrounded by people and suddenly I said to myself that I was just dreaming and I think I even tried to fly and it worked a little. Can't remember it too well at all but for sure something like this happened. But there's another, similar thing. Many times I had a dream in which I'd tell myself that it's just a dream BUT it'd still feel too real...like, it would be a scary dream and I was running away from something or feeling bad and I told myself it was a dream and tried to wake up real hard. It would never work the first time but eventually I'd wake up. So I basically knew that it was a dream and I'd try to wake up (by saying it, shouting it, or moving my body or something, or closing my eyes) BUT the scary nature of this dream would still make me frightened. So I knew it was a dream and tried to wake up but still was afraid of what was going on in it? Lol was that lucid or partially lucid? I'm confused. Or maybe I was just dreaming, each time, that I was dreaming (?). Therefore idk if I've actually experienced it or not.

Ok second part is, I wake up several times during the night, to go to the bathroom and what not. What would be the best method for me then? As of today I am starting to record my dreams in a journal. I'm not sure which method I should try though. Thanks!

There is no such thing as partially lucid: You either are non-lucid, lucid with dream control, or lucid without it.

To answer the second question, there is a technique that requires you to wake up in the night called "Wake Back To Bed" (WBTB). It increases DILD dream vividness, makes it much easier to WILD (it is so important a mental image of me in the darkness pops up when I think of WILDing), and some other things I barely remember. You need to know when to precisely wake up, though.