Retrospective dreams- I can't achieve lucidity

Hey guys,

I've read alot of lucid dreams, done lots of research and have practiced for a while. My biggest problem is that: 1) I don't dream very often- maybe once a week I'll remember a dream (Even after telling myself i'll dream and keeping a dream journal when I have one).
2) The reason I can't achieve lucidity is because ALL my dreams occur to me in retrospective memory. In other words, when I wake up, I remember my dream. The dream can be murky or vivid with random details but I'm never actually ever in a dream or experiencing it. It feels as if when I wake up, I construct a story based on my dream.

It seems as if you guys who dream, are third person watching whatevers going on while you dream. Then when you see a dream sign, you pick up on it, and enter a lucid state. For me.. I wake up, then recall a few or many facts about my dream, but I NEVER see my dream as its occuring.

Ive achieved lucidity once, after 4-5 months of practice.

I started doing this after I had my first experience with sleep paralysis conjoined with a hallucination. Scary as shit, don't really want to get into it, but I was awake in my room with someone else beside me. This wasn't a dream, I was physically awake. I had to scream out loud before I stopped seeing things. Anyways, thats a quick intro to my dream life, I'll divulge more about that dream if anyone can help me dream more.. :(

I forgot to add, I've realized that my dreams that I can recall pretty well occur after I wake up. I beleive thats called WILD. However, the catch is.. I have to be waking up for something important (usually an exam, or a date) then fall back asleep- yeah dangerous stuff. Then, when I dose off for about 15-20 mins and my snooze goes off, I wake up, drool on the pillow and a cool dream- which again, i'm not a part of, just remember it after I wake.

any help?

thanks!

This kind of thing was happening to me when I first got interested in lucid dreaming - the best advice I got was this - make sure you write in the journal every morning, even if you cant remember 99% of it, remember any details and you can, and make the rest up.

Making it up sparks your imagination and stores it as false memory anyway - Nobody is going to check the journal and make sure you are doing it right, its simply a havbit to increase dream recall!

The other thing is to stay positive, If you say to yourself that you cannot achieve lucidity, you wont.

Accept the fact that you are dreaming a lot more than you think, its simply your recall that needs to be improved, which will, in turn, increase your chances of lucidity!