Stringing dreams together...help me understand!

Hi all...this is my first time posting in this sub because I have always had normal dreams more or less (1 per night, wake up and it's over...no going back). I'm new, so I'm not sure if this is a gray area of lucid dreaming...if not please move it for me ��

So, here we go...

The past 4 nights I have been getting lucky(?) and I've been having detailed stories in my dreams for about a 1-3 hour period, waking up in a major sweat, going to the bathroom as I consciously think about what just happened in said dream. Crazy thing is, is that when I go back to sleep I am back in relatively the same story with the same characters and it continues...sometimes in ways I want (while i go pee I think about the dream and think of what I want to do next) and sometimes a turn for the worse or other more casual events or place changes I can't control.

Last night for example, I legitimately fell in love and had the good the great and the super ugly of a relationship (with Fiona Gallagher from the TV show Shameless...just did a binge after a surgery haha. Speaking of surgery...maybe its related...2 weeks ago?) all in one night, but split up by 3 or 4 sweat out and bathroom cycles. It's like a 4 act play lol. Craziest part is the detail...i can remember names, how places looked and situations (for example I tried to get Fiona back with me and she brushed me off as I tried to make physical contact and she told me that she was with someone new named Andrew and that he had a daughter named Jenny, then she got into a black SUV and the dream more or less ended).

Im super confused, but not at the same time if that makes sense. What is going on with me...is this or has it happened to anyone else here/is there somewhere that goes into detail about what is happening?

TL;DR
I'm having super detailed and played out dreams that I can influence by waking up and thinking about it and reentering the same story when I fall back asleep.

Also, if any Mods could add tags to help this get noticed more...would to much appreciated!

This is pretty common when you start developing better recall and higher awareness within your dreams. You start having not only very vivid dreams but rather story-driven dreams. During wakings you even get to influence it through intentional or unintentional dream incubation. However, diet and medications can be affecting vividness and recall of your dreams. I have had dreams that continued over 7+ dreams between wakings both lucid via DEILD and regular dreams. Be sure to start journaling your dreams if you aren't already doing so. That way you can boost your dream recall even if it's just diet or medication doing it for you right now. You sound frightened by the experience, don't be. It's where you want to be at if you wanna dabble in lucid dreaming more frequently. Have fun. ^^