Hey guys and gals, just a little background info and maybe a question or two.

Over the years my friends have been casually talking about lucid dreaming, but I haven't taken a serious approach to it until now. I've visited the Dream Views site before and have read introductions to lucid dreaming and tutorials on the front page, but this is the first time that I've taken an interest in the forums.

What actually made me serious about lucid dreaming was the movie Waking Life. I've watched it once before -under the influence- and thought it was a cool movie but didn't think much of it after. Recently however, I've picked it up, and have been watching it once almost every day, really scrutinizing each scene. For the past few months I've been questioning reality itself, walking the middle path, meditating, and recently I've been reading Ralph Waldo Emerson's essential works. So, watching Waking Life again in this mindset had a radically different effect on me.

I've been keeping a dream journal, which is actually quite fun. My dreams have become more frequent (or maybe I just remember them now) and many times more bizarre than before. But, it seems like I'm still a long way from lucid dreaming, so I have a couple of questions.

When I first started a dream journal, it was in a notebook that I kept beside my bed. I recently purchased a new laptop, and have been keeping my dream journal in files named for each month. Does moving from one medium to another have any adverse effect on dream recall? Would it have been better to stick to the notebook by my bed? I usually keep my laptop beside my bed as well, so both are very accessible.

On to the second question. I've been lurking the forums and reading tips on how to induce a lucid dream (and this is after I've had a few hours of sleep), and one that I discovered and decided to try out was "Tricking your body into falling asleep" by Jeff777. From my experience with meditation, it's easy to lie still for the 20-30 minutes period without moving so that my body can go to sleep, but it seems like I have a problem actually going to sleep.

If that wasn't enough, it seems like I have trouble distinguishing between my thoughts and actual dreams. I let my mind wander and try to relax, and when a situation forms in my mind, sometimes it's so vivid that I believe that it's a dream, and I quickly do reality checks, but I don't obtain lucidity. So, I lie in bed, trying my hardest not to open my eyes and do another reality check, because I've been having a lot of false awakenings lately.

This interchange between very short dreams, my imagination, and lying in bed deciding whether or not to open my eyes and do a reality check lasts for maybe half an hour to an hour, and then I finally let my guard down. Then a real dream commences and I always forget to do reality checks.

So what should I do? Can anyone describe the feeling they get when they finally fall asleep and have a real dream? How can you separate the instances where you just seem to have a vivid imagination, and a dream?

This is probably the lengthiest introduction thread on here, and I apologize for that, but I'm really not the type of person who engages in small talk. Any tips and suggestions are welcome.

Cliffs:
Intro
Does moving between two writing mediums affect dream recall?
How do you distinguish between imagination and dreaming? What are the bodily signs that happen when you are about to fall asleep?