Problem: Lucid Dreams are Too Short and Low Level of Awareness?

[neowisdom]

Ever since I started to practice lucid dreaming, I have had a few lucid dreams but they are all short. Another problem is that when I am in a lucid dream, I don't have enough awareness of myself to do what I want. For example, I would like to fly in a lucid dream but when I am lucid I always do other things for some reason. If I could have more awareness (think clearly) while in a lucid dream then I would probably try to fly and do other things that I want. My lucid dreams are always short so maybe if they were longer I would eventually do all the things I want. Does anyone have some advice on how to increase the length of my lucid dreams and increase my awareness of myself? If I just continue doing what I'm currently doing (reality checks and mantras), will the length of my lucid dreams and awareness increase eventually or do I need to do something more?

[Rothgar]

See stabilization techniques. Touch things as soon as you are aware. Look at the ground you stand on. Say "stabilize!"

[Cobalt Storm]

See stabilization techniques. Touch things as soon as you are aware. Look at the ground you stand on. Say "stabilize!" ^

[Ekyu]

In my experience, the big key is not to get too excited and don't think about your real body that's in bed. Simply, because they increase the odds that you're gonna wake up and screw your lucid dream up. I know that this is easy to say, but through experience they are gonna get longer, because you're getting more used to it. It could also be that you're simply at the end of your rem cycle. I think that for 99% of the people here, there first couple of lucid dreams weren't that long eather. Mine were 20 seconds long. So, just keep practicing! For more awareness, I would recommend to do what Rothgar said. But again, experience is the key here! Good luck!

[SinisterDezz]

Typical for beginners. Do some anchoring, and dream stabilization as mentioned before. Verbal commands work great for me, like, "Increase lucidity!" or "Increase awareness!". I can say with confidence that they will get longer eventually. It is a gradual increase.