my first lucid experience!! but it was somewhat disapointing...

I recently had my first lucid dream that I can remember! It was odd, I remember that I figured out that I was dreaming before I did the reality check. I was in my church setting up the sound system. once I realized I was lucid I grabbed my nose and tried to breath through it and I could! I was so excited, I ran into the lobby and jumped about 6 feet off the ground or so. Unfortunately after I left the building I woke up (I did a reality check, and I was really awake this time). I hadn't read about techniques to stay lucid until today, I had no idea I could make myself stay lucid. Anyways, I was only lucid for a few minutes but I've been trying for months now and it feels good to finally experience it!

One thing I'm confused about though, is that it still felt a lot like a dream. It didn't feel realistic like I was thinking/hoping it would be. Will that change as I get more experienced? Are there any techniques I could try to make it feel more real?

what I was expecting it to feel like when I woke up was something like: "wow that felt like I was awake the whole time!"
maybe I need to work on my dream recall some more...

Congrats on your first lucid! Amazing feeling hey?

Your dreams will most likely seem more life-like to you as you become more experienced, as well as by using a few stabilizing techniques such as relaxing, rubbing your hands, touching objects in the dream, etc. Also sometimes the realness of the dream will simply depend on the quality of the dream that has been formed. I still have some that are very fuzzy, as well as some that are just as real as waking life.

Hope that helps, good luck!

yeah it was amazing :)
I've set an alarm on my phone now so that I can practice meditating every night, I hope that helps too

Awesome, and congrats on achieving lucidity. Like sol said, it really depends on the vividness/clarity and stability of the dream. You can, of course, increase these with stabilization techniques and experience. Some dreams tend be very unstable, while others may be crystal clear from the beginning. Just keep practicing and try to be relatively calm upon becoming lucid. If you get overly emotional/excited, it can cause you to wake from the dream. I'm sure this is just the first of many more to come...Good Luck!

Hey hey! Grats on your first lucid dream (P.S. Welcome to the forums. :D )! Always an exciting experience. Lucid dreaming is a skill, and just like any other skill you get better with practice. Dreams can vary a great deal, lucid or not, from extremely hazy and blotchy looking to an almost heightened feeling of reality that isn't possible in the real world. When you get better at lucid dreaming you will learn to control this to some extent. Rubbing your hands and focusing on the feel of the friction and heat has been known to work will with some (never tried that one). The idea to improve clarity is to use all (or many) of your senses.

For example, I had a lucid dream that started off really blotchy. It started fading a little so I ran up to the nearest thing I could find (which happened to be a large pine tree a good 5-6 feet in diameter) and ran my hand over its rough bark. I smelled the sap, felt the bark, and focused on what it looked like. Took roughly 1/2 a second and the dream shifted to clarity that mimicked lifelike realism. Maybe I just go lucky, but using your senses always helps.