Greetings, wonderful people of dreamviews

I am a newcomer to world of lucid dreaming (part of the new generation of LD enthusiasts created by the awesomeness that is Inception.. but I recalled the term "lucid dream" from Vanilla Sky and that's how I ended up here.. even though it seems like that film got the concept of LD wrong) or any occult field for that matter (LD'ing is considered occult right? correct me if I'm wrong).. I'm 17 and I hail from London

I've had a few DILD's in my life, but they were those extremely short abruptly-ended-by-excitement one's.. I also have average to poor dream recall (in part due to my frequent weed smoking habits.. which I'm willing to partially sacrifice to improve my dreaming escapades, or at least find a way to make both compatible)

so yeah I'm pretty much a noob, but I'm hoping that even just by being here and talking to you guys I can improve drastically and start LD'ing to my hearts content.. of course I'm also taking up serious measures... been reality testing for a few days, starting a dream journal (hopefully tonight gives me something substantial to write in it)

anyways, I have a query... the reason I'm even awake and writing this now is because I seem to be slightly afraid of going to sleep after reading and thinking about LD all day.. I understand that LD is harmless and amazing and all that and I can't wait to be properly immersed in the world of it, but I'm just having a little trouble overcome this "fear of the unknown".. as I said, I've had a few mini-DILD's before.. but now that I'm actually aware of this whole universe where people actively seek out these dreams, I'm getting a little stage fright

is this common? and if so, does anyone have any suggestions to help me move past it asap so I can actually get to some dreaming (or at least some sleep)?

Thanks