I just started my "lucid training" night before last. Last night I made great progress. I awoke from 3 dreams without any help -- even though I did set my alarm clock at certain intervals -- and was able to recall them without much trouble at all. I also attempted a WILD after my first awakening on a whim and was able to make it to the transitional phase. It was quite amazing, but I was became distracted by intense physical sensations and slowly lost it. My problem is that my dreams feel like compressed memories. There are some fine details within them, but they don't seem to follow a timeline of events and often jump from one scenerio to another without any bridge I can remember (I know the latter is likely a common experience). I almost feel like I could explain most of my dreaming with just a simple picture. Is this normal to remember your dreams like this?

I also experienced dreams last night where I was a completely different person. One of the was even of the opposite sex. Is this common?

Thanks...and I hope you can understand my main question.