Welcome to Dreamviews and thank you for the long post!

What you described as "waking up in a dream within a dream" sounds like False Awakening - FA. Those are non-lucid dreams, in which we dream about waking up and going about our day. Good way to turn them into lucid dreams would be to do Reality checks every time you get up from a bed. That way, you will start doing RC in your dream as well, when you get up from a bed in a dream.

Awareness, which you say you don't always have, is probably the most important part of lucid dreaming practice.

Here is a link to our recommended techniques Induction Methods and Techniques
and here is something to help you navigate our forum Welcome

something extra about awareness http://www.dreamviews.com/wild/13181...prep-part.html

Most of our members are teens and young adults. But we have people from every age category here. And yes, we are very open minded. So look around, and please ask, if there is anything we can help you with. happy dreams