I know there are several techniques for staying lucid in a dream -- like rubbing hands together, engaging more senses, spinning around etc. But I think these things only tend to be useful when you are already waking up -- to avoid full awakening and to bring the dream back to stability.

The thing I’m really wondering is, what sort of general mindset should you have in the dream so that you don’t easily wake up in the first place? I’ve heard of people who can LD for hours with no threat of waking up -- but I doubt they would have to constantly use techniques like hand-rubbing, dream spinning etc. to maintain the dream for this long. I mean what would be the best way to mentally conduct yourself so as to avoid hitting that “wake switch” so often? Is it simply by not thinking or worrying about waking up? I know from experience that these thoughts tend to inevitably end the dream. But are these thoughts the only threat? Is there perhaps more to it?

Thanks.