Hi everybody.

I am brand new to the world of lucid dreaming, but I find the subject extremely intriguing. I had my very fist LD this afternoon while napping, but the experience wasn't completely satisfying. Hopefully I can find some advice to make my next LD more complete. Here's how it went down:

I was extremely exhausted and fell asleep immediately, and while doing so I was sucessful in remaining conscious of the fact that I was quickly falling asleep. Next I found myself in a dream that I have experienced before and have recorded in my dream journal. However, this time, I "took control" of the events and made sure to examine my hands. They appeared normal from both sides (palms and backs), but when I went to touch my fingers they shrunk into stubs. I had a friend in the dream check it out and the same thing happened to him when he tried to touch my fingers - they retreated and subsequently re-generated. At this point I was convinced that I was dreaming, and tried to change the course of the dream from the way it had originally happened. In the original, my friend and I opened the door to an office, where we had an interview with an older man. In the lucid version, I said that I wanted something different to be behind the door, but I was disappointed to find that the dream carried on the same way it had originally. I feel that I had lost control of the dream, I was disappointed that the result wasn't different, and that's about the last thing I remember about it.

I'm wondering if there is anything I could have done differently or "better" to fully take control of the dream. For example, instead of "commanding" that there be something different behind the door, should I have instead left the scene or something. I felt that I was definitely aware that I was dreaming, but I had trouble taking the next step and doing what I wanted to do.

Any advice, suggestions, resources, etc that you guys may have I would greatly appreciate.

Kindest regards.