For a few years now I've known about lucid dreaming, false awakenings and astral projections and it's always intrigued me. Only until recently I've actually read up on it PROPERLY and I've realised a few things.

When i was younger I was actually lucid dreaming quite a lot and doing false awakenings purposely and frequently. I used to suffer a lot from nightmares and had a thing I used to do to get me out of them. I would press my eyes while they were shut and hope it will wake me up, as I knew when I was having a nightmare. I would then be in a different scenario, there's only one I actually remember, from previously being in a nightmare i squessed my eyes and a woke standing in a Christmas decorated longue with people around me, forgetting anything that happened before I carried on thinking I was in every day life.

I then started to feel uneasy and remembered I was dreaming and pushed on closed eyes and a woke again in a different dream in my grandads garden, I kept doing this till I would wake up properly.

As I was young I thought this was normal and gradually forgot about it as I got older, also I cannot do it now and no longer have this ability to take myself out of a dream or control it. Another thing I remember was jumping up really high in my dreams knowing I could fly because I was dreaming.

Why can't i do it anymore? I've tried and tried read and watched videos about it, and I've been trying to astral project and have got close but just can't do it. I feel when I was younger I could do these things without realising but unfortunately can't remember much.

What can I do to get these things back? Are these things i used to do even what I say they are?