Lucid dream uncertainty

I’m glad to have found this place, this is my first post. I need help with one thing please and I’m sorry if I double post here although I checked.

When I go to sleep at night I can’t figure out if I’m lucid dreaming or if I eventually wake up but still border line asleep and simply imagining things. I’ve pretty much always remembered my dreams, most often several dreams in one night but I’ve been trying to lucid dream for only a month now, practicing various techniques and reading some related books. I might of had 3 lucid dreams so far but I need help confirming. The 1st one I only remember standing up and saying “Am I dreaming, I am dreaming, this is so cool!” and waking up straight after, too much excitement I guess. The 2nd one I remember being in this Egyptian paradise and falling on my back and seeing a bright blue pentagram forming on top of me which reminded me of being lucid. Again I woke up straight after. Last knight I was being chased and suddenly realising I was dreaming, I turned around and slapped the monster’s face, he became so small and afraid, I almost felt sorry. All of those 3 times, I just felt the same uncertainty in the morning, that what if I was just awake (border line sleeping) comfortable in my bed and imagining all this? Are these lucid dreams?

If you had a dream, where you realised you were dreaming, then you've had a lucid-dream. The amount of time, the control and the recall doesn't matter. If you member realising, that you're in a dream, then you've been lucid.

You can eventually start reality-checking, though. It's a simple way of determing, whether you are, or are not dreaming. Check out the tutorial sub-forum, for the Reality-Check tutorial.

I'll try to double check next time although I did became lucid in the first 2 dreams by reality check. Still, I felt unsure of if it was a dream or simply disoriented awakeness imagination. Maybe I shouldn't wonder too much and see what happens next. In any case, I'm just glad to have found out about lucid dreaming. Thanks Marvo.

What reality-checks are you doing? Use the nose-plugging method, if you can breath through your nose, while it's plugged, then you're most definitely dreaming. Remember though, always do 2 reality-checks.

I simply looked twice at something and if it changed I knew I was dreaming. I'll start doing some daily nose plugging reality checks, twice each times. Hope it picks up. thx

If you're borderline sleeping, it sounds like hypnagogic imagery. I find these quite easy to identify as dreams, but I don't really count them as lucid.

They are however a good opportunity to become lucid, as the eventually turn into normal dreams. If you can keep your awareness as you enter as part of the dream, then you're lucid.

I can't reach the hypnagogic state reliably, but for the ones I do remember, in the majority of them I usually know it is some sort of dream.