Half-lucidity?

I don't know if anyone has had a similar experience yet, but it happens to me a lot an it's really weird, usually in "nightmares". Basically, I'll dreaming normally, and suddenly something scary comes up and turns it into a nightmare. And then, suddenly, I decide to just throw myself at the danger, knowing I will wake up. For example, a dinosaur jumps out at me, and I decide to let it eat me so I can wake up, not even scared.
The weird thing is, how can I be sure that I will wake up, without realizing it is a dream? Whenever this happens, it's like my brain won't think logically enough to realize that I am dreaming, just that I can wake up. It's hard to explain.
Has anyone had a similar experience? And if so, how do I turn the dream into a lucid dream, so I can get rid of the problem and practice dream control?

I've had these dreams too, only because I let the monster eat me because I give up. "Screw this dream!" I think.

I'm trying to get rid of this problem too, but I'm thinking the best thing to do is turn your back to the monster, forget about it, and redirect your attention to a dream goal.

Semi Lucidity is actually very common, particularly for people who practice lucid dreaming a lot. A lot of people new to lucid dreaming think of lucidity as very black and white, either your lucid or you're not. But there are all of these weird little quirks into how lucidity works that are often overlooked. What you had here was one of the most common variants of semi lucidity, where you knew that what was going on had no consequence and that you could stop the experience and wake up, but you didn't grasp that you were dreaming.

There are other variants to semi-lucidity as well. My favorite one is always the one where I dream that I am a character in a movie or book somehow or other. I know that I am just a character, and whatever is happening will have no long term repercussions, (kind of like a dream.) but I don't grasp that it is a dream and don't question why I am accepting the reality of a movie or book.

If you want to learn more about the different levels of lucidity, I'd really recommend these videos. Each one is rather long, and there are five of them, so make some time if you're going to watch them all. But they ARE really informative and helpful to understanding these types of experiences.

Once you get past the first one, you should see part II in the sidebar. If not, message me and I'll link you to the rest of the videos. Don't want to create a lag-fest here by posting 5 vids in the same post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywwlib29LgU

Haha, I think that as well. Waking up, it's both funny and frustrating because I missed an obvious chance to get lucid.
I will try to turn away from the monster next time it happens, but it's sometimes hard because, a) I'm back into a corner or b) I'm simply not aware enough.

Thank you for your explanation! This is actually a very interesting subject, and the videos helped me understand it much better. Before, I couldn't really describe the dreams I was having in "levels of lucidity", but seeing the video reminded me of some dreams I had and how lucid I really was. Again, thank you!

If you're in a corner, you can go through the wall.