I'm trying lucid dreaming again.

Hi everyone, I have a couple of questions about lucid dreaming.

I used to lucid dream about 20 years ago (I learnt to control nightmares) as I remember I picked it up pretty quick but I don't remember how I got the awareness I was dreaming, I'd read a few books on it and I do remember being suprised it was not like any of the techniques in the books, it just happened. Could the intensity of the nightmares shock me into lucidity if I'd been programing myself before sleep? Both the lucid recognition and the nighmares did have a similar sort of shifting intense feel to them. I don't know how to get awareness again because I don't know how I did it before.

I can control my behaviour in my dreams but not anything else, I interact in the dream like I would in real life and my dreams are becoming longer and more vivid, does that mean I'm getting closer? I only want to control by dreams not do the whole create everything from scratch thing.

Also can dreams be too lucid, I had one once where the surroundings changed momentarily as I thought them but I was thinking a lot so things kept changing before I had a chance to fully absorb them and there was no new information, it was all stuff I was expecting, kind of annoying, I asked one of the characters in my dream a question and he said "I don't know, it's your dream", it woke me up. I've also had dreams where I've been lucid only for the dream to take over again right at the end just when I think I'm on the home stretch, it usually results in me dying a horrible death.

I don't feel to content about answering these, but better than no help at all.

Well as to how to get awareness you should go with RCs again. Even though I go with RCs most of the time I achieve my luidity in some odd other way.
As for the control, if your dreams become more vivid that means you are on the right track.
And yes, dreams can be too lucid: look here for reference http://www.dreamviews.com/f11/levels-lucidity-36173/

Hey uplate,

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Could the intensity of the nightmares shock me into lucidity if I'd been programing myself before sleep?

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Yeah, this is how most people have their first lucid dream, it was for me.

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I would in real life and my dreams are becoming longer and more vivid, does that mean I'm getting closer?

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You are having lucid dreams, if you realise you are dreaming, then this is a lucid. It sounds like you are making great progress with your control.
As for the rest, sounds just like you need to improve your dream control, there is no such thing as being 'too lucid', there are many techniques you could try, here are some of my favourite.
Shouting out what you want e.g. "clarify!"
Touching objects in the dream, stimulating senses.
Calm down, relax and take in your surroundings.

Good Luck!

Arch answered your questions, soo..
Welcome to Dreamviews :D I'm sure some stuff from tutorials will seem familiar to you, but it's good to have somewhere to post about your lucid dreams without being insane :P
Hope to see you around~

Thanks everyone.

Yes! I recognise the too lucid dream level mentioned in the link, it did "implode' and wake me up, I didn't have control over how deep I went in my dreams so I don't know what caused it, it was the only time being lucid was unpleasant, fortunately it only happened once.

I haven't had much luck with reality checks so I'm going to try imagining what I want to dream as I'm going to sleep and see if the dream state will pick it up, I get to the REM phase pretty quick if I'm tired enough or going back to sleep.

I've also thought I could try setting a quiet alarm like on my phone as a alert that I'm dreaming, I often sleep through alarms unless they're loud and abrasive enough to wake the neighbours, they usually just get incorporated into my dreams.

I also have a chronic pain condition which complicates things, I'm not sure which is better, taking the pain meds or trying to push through it to get/stay asleep, I'm sure both options are interfering with my ability to become lucid.