Hi, I only discovered what lucid dreaming was last night, and spent hours researching it.

I decided to try it, using the MILD method:
Maybe it was placebo effect of me trying this all, and thinking about it so much, but I spent an hour or so trying to get to sleep and into a dream a few times. I remember one time everything was black, but I felt like I was dreaming...and I also remember seeing random light and feeling odd/shaky. But as I said, it may have just been placebo effect, and I'm not sure how many times this happened, but I can remembering it happening (I can't separate the occurances). I remember waking up from this, because I wanted to open my eyes and see if I was dreaming, and just being sweaty, with a high pulse. Anyway, I eventually just completely fell asleep...had some dreams, and recorded them in the morning (first time I've done this). One dream was noteworthy, as I was with two girls who I was familiar with, however I don't know who they are, and they handed me a plate, and were saying "You're in a dream" or something along those lines. I took the plate, looked at the plate in my hands, and I think I realised I was in a dream, because I remembered about reality checks at this point, and I couldn't focus on my hand or the plates, I just knew they were there. I had no control, and immediately woke up.

Boring story, yeah, but maybe it was a lucid...everything is so vague about the whole experience (as it often is when dreaming).

Because I was recording my dreams, I recorded 3 in the end, and usually I don't remember any (maybe because I don't think about dreams at all usually). My dreams are usually very vague, and I can't focus much.

I have had dreams recently where I'm in my room panicking, while trying to sleep, and after reading about false awakening, maybe this is what was happening then. Because it's hard to tell whether I'm waking momentarily, panicking, looking around and falling asleep, or whether it's all in my dream.

I some questions:
1) I don't understand how to perform a reality check in a dream if I don't know that I'm there?...I find that whole concept confusing, because in a dream, you think you're just normal, it's not like I KNOW I'm in a dream, and I should check...I can't tell my dream self to do it!
2) I'm a year12 school student, and I don't get loads of sleep (during the weekdays) so is MILD the better method for me to try?
3) Any tips you can give me as experienced lucid dreamers would be realllly welcome. (even if they may seem obvious) Such as stuff you can remember when you were beginning it all which helped.

Thanks guys, this forum looks really helpful.