Never before had an LD till last night.

Because of what happened last night I sought out this website, Looking to gain some pointers and talk with LDers about their experiences.

When I dream regularly I never see myself unless I look into a mirror like real life. I can see my hands, my body and everything else but never ever had a third person view of myself.....

I sleep deprived myself for a couple of days before last night.(had a lot of things to get done) I took a short nap and I woke up. I knew I was dreaming during the nap and I knew my body was so tired I would relapse back into the dream...so with that in mind along with a short plan of what i wanted to do, I fell back into my dream. When I awoke I got on facebook and talked to a friend that I knowingly remember i visited in my LD but I did not tell him. HE TOLD ME he had a dream with me in it and I was on his couch with a remote in my hand (he thought it was a tv remote but I knew better) he said he couldn't remember what i said to him but i disappeared after.
I DID have a remote and this remote helped my mind cope with the fact i had all the power but the remote helped me channel it. (hard to explain)
but yeah, i have a few friends that remember me in their dream and i remember reminding myself while awake of what i wanted to do when i re-entered my dream; one of which was SD. I remember starting to get alil lost with remembering what i wanted to do so near the end it was becoming more like a dream and i forgot i could be in control....

any pointers for next time?

This kind of advice-giving is entirely new to me, but here goes:

Maybe instead of trying to remember what you wanted to do, try exploring your surroundings a little first? If your goal is to control your surroundings, you'd naturally have to understand them first.

Once you adjust to doing that after a moment of dream-realization, it seems only logical that the next step will happen on it's own.

Read the Dream Content tutorial, it explains how things are the way they are in dreams. If you understand that, you can control them easier.

I have a lot to learn about LDs. I tried that sleep paralysis thing the other night after missing one night's rest. I felt the sinking feeling and I felt the whole mind awake body asleep but I had no idea how to snap into an LD...I think my mind was very confused yet excited. I really wish I learned about this earlier, like waayy earlier. If my parents would have told me about LDs and being able to have the ability to control your own dreams...I probably would have been able to sleep after nightmares :)