What is this??

Not to long ago I had a strange experience almost a cross between a WILD and a sleep paralyzation experience. The thing is that I had this dream/experience before I knew what lucid dreaming was all about. OKay here goes I will try and it explain it as clear as I can.

I was dreaming and somehow I knew I was dreaming(I had been asleep for roughly 4 hours prior)... but the odd part is that I felt almost as though I was partially awake (at least that is how I felt) I had semi control over this dream.

I woke up completely and attempted to go back to sleep. The dream kept replaying in my head and I slowly fell back to sleep exactly where I left off....well I had assumed that I had fall back to sleep because I was in the dream again...lucky me :) it was a VERY good dream if you know what I mean....but the odd thing was that I was still in this half awake state becuase I could hear outside noise. When I finally did wake up....which I really had to "will" myself awake, I could remember almost every detail of the dream.

Does anyone have any ideas???

what you did was a MILD, good job on that! For more information you should read the tutorial section... they provide better info then I could type here right now.

I know that feeling of half-awakeness, happens to me a lot. Usually during the mornings when I go back to sleep after waking up. It's quite normal, and the best times to get lucid. :)

Yep - I get it with any wake induced method I try - and it disturbs me too much to enjoy it completely.
Dream induced methods suit me better :)