New -- Initial Results and Question

I was actually interested in the idea of Lucid Dreaming before I knew what it was; generally, I figured there was some way to gain more control and awareness over my dreams, but I didn't know how. That's what promted me to do some research and eventually find this site, which I've found to be very explanitory and useful. I started trying the tecniques for Dream Recall three nights ago, and have had mixed results.
My natural recall is about 2 dreams a week of medium clarity. On the first night I set myself up a dream journal, and tried the autosuggestion (correct term?) "I will wake and remember my dreams." I woke twice after REMs and managed to recall a moderate amount of information from the dreams, which had me pretty excited, even though the dreams were really vague and strange. Also, shortly after going back to sleep my mind immediently re-entered REM, and I recall my subconscious triggered a "reality check" by flipping a light switch. Naturally, it launched me right back into the waking world, but I was still excited.
The last two nights have been much less active, and I only have the vaguest of Recall. I'm trying to figure out why -- I think the most likely reason is that I wiped "I will wake" part from my nighly speech (due to the fact that I ended up a bit restless afterwards), but I'll re-add it if waking right after the dreams is important.

Just a question: I've noticed that dreams seem to be appear in a very thrid person view, or tunnel vision. They aren't nescessarily blurry, but it seems like there's always a black outline and limited, close in feild of veiw. It's kind of like watching a movie while half awake. Are lucids like this, or are they generally more clear and first person; ie, does it feel like you're actually in your body? I'm sure either way they're cool, but I'm curious none-the-less.

Ok, that's all, thanks for reading :)

It really depends on your level of lucidity and realism (and recall of the dream as well!). Sometimes when I go lucid things like... radiate and get much more real. It can get as real as how you feel when you are reading this, or can be as fuzzy as you imagining flying right now .

Check this out that I wrote

http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11037

Sometimes it feels to me like a dream's realism is kind of set from the beginning. I've had somewhat real ones and how real it is kind of is consistent throughout. But with certain methods your dreams can become a lot more real!

Thanks, I'm sure that will be very helpful :) I'm really looking forward to my first LD, but I've tried to take the general advice and not rush it.

I was also wondering --- When I wake up I night, I tend to be extremely tired. Flying is pretty much the last thing on my mind :| When an LD occurs, are you tired, or is this avoided by being asleep? ANother just-curious :)