Acting Out Physically from Lucid Dream

I'm new to the forum and looking for possible explanations of a lucid dream I had about a year ago. For a little background, I've been having lucid dreams as long as I can remember. It's only been in the past couple of years that I've learned about the techniques mentioned on this sight and that it was anything unusual.

For the most part, I become lucid due to committing an act I consider immoral in a dream (robbing a store for instance) or in response to nightmares. Common dream impairments like being unable to run fast also trigger lucid dreams. In response, I normally just take off flying and start making massive changes to the dream world, and in most cases, I wake up quickly.

The ability to become lucid has come and gone over my life, and it's currently gone. The last lucid dream I had was over a year ago during a time in which I was having a lot of lucid dreams. While I don't remember the content of the dream or why I became lucid, I do remember what I attempted to do. For some reason (keep in mind I knew nothing of sleep paralysis at the time), I attempted to take a physical act during the lucid dream. Specifically, I tried to say Hi to my wife who I knew was laying in bed next to me even though she was asleep and wouldn't hear me.

The only reason I can think I attempted this is that my wife frequently opens her eyes and speaks during dreams. She isn't lucid in her dreams, but I guess I thought it would be interesting to try.

So, the unusual thing is that instead of being able to say something like I had intended, I woke up screaming. The fear I felt upon waking up was so intense that it took 30-45 minutes for me to go back to sleep. Keep in mind that I don't scare easily even with nightmares. Even as a child, I rarely spent more than a couple minutes awake after a bad nightmare.

Anyway, any thoughts or similar experiences would be interesting to read.

hap