Short Dream-Related Experiences

First of all, hey forum. I'm glad to become part of this community. :D

I've been contemplating lucid dreaming and dreaming in general, from a pretty young age. I'm 18 now. Before diving into the info that's already here, I'd like to share a few things that popped in my mind, perhaps newbie-ish or not.
I've noticed that I usually remember my dreams when I awake prematurely, like when I forget my alarm clock on, or my phone rings etc. I think we're mostly susceptible to dreaming during REM cycles at night, but still, in spite of the lesser favorable conditions, I've had a few when sleeping for a few hours during the day as well.
I seem to be aware of these dreams, actually 'live' them, if I am to wake up, as stated above, some time later. If I'm unable to remember what I've dreamed, I think it means I just instantly forgot it, which also means I couldn't have been aware of 'living' the dream previously. Twisted, eh? :?
To a small degree, I'm pretty sure I've also experienced lucid dreaming, and some weird sleep paralysis. For example, a thing I've had a few hours ago before my dad decided it was smart to walk in on me and wake me up :roll:, I dreamed some mundane things, had a brief period of lucidity when I was aware that I was dreaming, felt paralyzed and struggled a bit to move, but without very much success. Perhaps I woke up at that point and fell back to sleep afterwards. Can't say for sure. Anyway, after that period of time, I resumed to the usual, people.. places, odd events etc. I'm aware that my brain is supposed to keep my body from moving during a dream, but why would I feel that when actually in the dream? Or was I semi-awake, but still unable to move? :paranoid:
Also, there's another thing that other dreams of mine shared. I found it hard to manipulate small objects or see certain things, because I lost focus very easily.
Lucidity wise, I usually can't stay in control for very long, if at all. My dream sort of shifts afterwards.
Here's another experience I've had when I was little and afraid of vampires, which was a common element in my nightmares, if I can call them this. I was at my grandma's apartment with some familiar people and the atmosphere was like from an old Dracula movie. A group of vampires showed up, singing and doing some kind of strange ritual I think, somehow related to a traditional dance in my country. Anyway, I think they noticed my door, the fact that I was watching and they became hostile and wanted to break in. Then something weird happened, I was in control and appeared by my own side. I practically saw myself there, grabbed my other projection by the collar and dragged myself out of, literally, the frame of the kind of like the motion picture that my dream appeared to be.
I'm not sure to what extent that piece of memory was distorted in time and by recalling it over and over again, but I'm sure of my own 'intervention' and the frame.
I've had moments when things got pretty scary and I told myself 'man, this isn't real. Get a grip on yourself!' and I calmed down.
I didn't really have issues with vampires afterwards because I used to picture myself shattering their obviously breakable fangs with a baseball bat. :lol:
In spite of all this, I've never been able to create scenarios myself and take wild actions such as flying and stuff.
This post didn't really turn out to be short.. Any thoughts? :P

Or was I semi-awake, but still unable to move? :paranoid:

Hey ! :D
I've experienced things similar to you, (I also have been wondering about dreams from a very young age, I used to have lucids, but never really knew what they were, and when i told my friends they used to get annoyed cos i was always telling them "i had this really weird dream last night!" I eventually stopped because i realised they were getting frustrated!! Oops :roll:)
ANYWAY sorry to get off topic, i used to experience that paralysis a lot when I was younger, and sometimes now. What happens is I wake up, I can see my room, but my dream, images from it are still half there and I'm paralysed, I have to fight it to wake up. For example I had a dream that there were vampires (similar to you, but the weird thing is i'm not scared of them, it's zombies for me!!), well in this dream these vampires were trying to kill this other vampire and they took me with them so I wouldn't get attacked by the bad vampire. They chased him off a cliff and i heard his bones crack, then the dream shifted to the vampire being hung. I was pretty scared so i woke myself up, but when i opened my eyes the vampire was hanging from the ceiling in my room and i was paralysed! I tried to move to turn on the light but that didn't work, so then i kept blinking and after a few blinks the dead vampire was replaced my shelves. I thought, how could i mistake my shelves for a dead vampire?? But now I know that I was just half asleep!
Sorry if that was a bit of a ramble, i just found your entry very interesting and relatable :)

Wow, it sounds really scary to have dreams and reality intertwine like that. You must be very brave to manage tackling the frequent paralysis like that. :)
I think I've also experienced the opposite.. found myself running in my own bed. :lol:

Dreams are starange, I'll never fully understand them! Do you ever get that mini dream thing when you suddenly jerk awake? For example I'm riding a bike, then crash into a wall, as I crash I jerk awake! aha it's kind of annoying, doesn't happen too often though XD

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.. even hit the ground once. Kinda freaked out before realizing what happened. :chuckle: