Frustrating First-time Experience

Hey guys! I've been lurking these forums off and on for a while now, but this is my first post.

So here's the story. Quite a while ago I actively tried for about a month to improve my dream recall and achieve lucidity, but despite reading everything I could find on Google, I had little success. I believed (I'm not sure if I still believe this) that I was naturally disadvantaged at this, as I would estimate that on average I only remember one dream fragment per 3 or 4 nights of sleep. During my time when I was actively keeping a dream log, I recall waking up a few times and remembering entire dreams, or most of them, however I often found it difficult to write them down and ended up going back to sleep rather than recording them, and when I finally woke up for good, I would have forgotten. When finals came around, the combination of frustration and decreased sleep time caused me to more or less abandon the endeavor.
But then, out of nowhere and without really trying, I had my first lucid dream 2 nights ago. Sadly, I remember very few things about it, but I do recall an immense sense of gratification when I realized that I was dreaming and, what's more, that this realization had not caused me to wake up (as it did several times in the past). The dream was not a good one, at first, although it certainly was far from nightmarish. I was alone on a very large, perhaps military-type ship. The ship was anchored and I had no way of moving it, and felt I was stranded in the middle of the ocean. I then asked myself how I got into this situation, and realized that since there was absolutely no logical explanation, I must be dreaming. I do not really recall what I did specifically after I achieved lucidity (although I do remember thinking at one point, "I've got to remember this when I wake up!"), but I remember that I was in some manner doing the impossible, just for its own sake- I think specifically that I may have flown around the ship Superman-style, although I am uncertain of this.
Anyways, what I'm getting at is how simultaneously frustrating and fulfilling this experience was! It has given me a great desire to do this again, and while I would certainly prefer to remember my dream next time, the excitement and fulfillment of the moment was in and of itself so great that what I really want most is just the ability to do this again. I had always expected lucid dreaming to be somewhat similar to daydreaming, but with an increased sense of reality. But I was way off! The sense of reality was overwhelming, the experience so lifelike that it felt more like I was simply in control of the real world. I had no idea that my brain was capable of producing such powerful, convincing hallucinations (for lack of a better term)!

In any case, I just felt I had to get this experience out there and have another go at developing my recall and achieving lucid dreams. Look forward to seeing you all around the forums!
-Will

==EDIT==
Forgot to mention the frustrating part: I wonder if I have had more lucid dreams, perhaps even been lucid dreaming on a regular basis, but given my practically nonexistent recall, do not remember them! It seems that asking oneself how they got into whatever situation they're currently in would result in lucidity in a great number of dreams; the fact that in this particular case I thought to do that seems to me to be evidence that I may be doing this regularly, but not remembering it.

Hello! To yourself and everyone else, as this is also my first post, and I have just come across this forum/website. Anyway, I feel it necessary to respond to your experience with frustration, and comment that I had a similar frustrated scenario. Well to begin. I will briefly mention that I have been attempting to achieve lucid dreams for approx. a month now. I even purchased a book by Stephen LaBerge (possibly misspelled, sorry) and got really interested in the concept of lucid dreaming.

Well I've had two lucid dreams as of yet, and have found neither of which compelling beyond the initial realization that I had been dreaming. The first was a dream where I found myself in a bathroom standing in front of the sink looking into the mirror. Perhaps there had been more of a plot preceeding this, but I believe becoming lucid caused me only to remember this particular piece. Well looking into the mirror I noticed the image kept sort of blurring to the point that it turned a frosty glass looking color, and then once again returned to my reflection. Realizing this wasnt possible, I became lucid and began to excite myself awake I grabbed onto the sink trying to retain my lucidity, but was unfortunately pulled back into "conciousness." I had awoken, and found myself lying in bed, with my BF by my side, who had also awoken. I hastily reached over for my notebook and began recording when he asked. "What time is it?" He then reached for the alarm clock and said "Whoa! It's 7:30 (pm)" I freaked and looked out the window wondering how I could have slept the entire day away. It was pitch black outside. I then realized that "on most days" it was nowhere near as dark as this at 7:30 pm, which is usually at early sunset here in Texas at this time of year. Once again (sigh) I realized I was dreaming, freaked myself out, and then woke up... again. Even after having written down all of my dreams, I had to write them down "again." Now that was frustrating! It turns out I really had woken up this time, it was 1:30 PM. Time to get ready for work!

My second dream is a bit more elaborate, but all the more frustrating. I have been quite occupied and have not been practicing as much as I'd like to, but Ill be sure to get back in the habit having found this site. Absolutely NOONE I know in person has any idea what lucid dreaming is, or "what the hell am I talking about." I'm glad I'll be able to come here for experience and discussion. Well thanks for reading, glad to let that out! See you guys on the forums!:boogie:

Glad to have another newbie here with some similar experiences!
It's neat that you were able to gain lucidity from a mirror; I cannot recall a single dream of mine in which a mirror was even present. Funny story, maybe irrelevant but hell I'll tell it, when I was younger I once played the little game where you go into a pitch black room with a mirror and chant Hell Mary and see if anything appears in the mirror. Of course, nothing appeared in the mirror, but my friend who was with me said something like, "see I told you it wouldn't work," and as soon as he opened the door to leave the room I knocked a cup off the bathroom counter, which startled him, causing him to trip and cut his chin on a pen that was on the ground. This was really scary for us as the myth was supposed to be that some witch would come out of the mirror and cut your face. A few years later I went through a drug experimentation phase where I at one point tried taking DXM, and I had a bad trip that was triggered by looking at a mirror in the dark. So I think I may have a bit of a fear of mirrors under dream-like circumstances, and consequently I suppress them from my dreams. Furthermore, water in my dreams seems to be unreflective- it is always just a deep blue. I hope to make use of this fact for MILDing.
I've also never had the experience of a false awakening. Or at least, I cannot recall such an experience. The closest thing I've had is dreaming that I'm unable to fall asleep- that is one frustrating type of dream! A few times I even awoke thinking that I was going to have to go through the day having only gotten an hour or two of sleep, only to realize later that I had too much energy and felt too well-rested for that to be true. Not a great start to your day though!
But typically my dreams are always fantastic. Almost every dream in my journal has taken place in some fictional environment. Perhaps I simply don't recall the more "ordinary" dreams as often.

I tried WILDing last night, as I read up on it and realized that I naturally am often conscious of the fact that I am falling asleep. However, I have a habit of releasing this consciousness as I am often afraid that retaining it will prevent me from falling asleep. This, of course, leads to loss of that consciousness and non-lucid dreaming. I furthermore find that, when I feel myself falling asleep, it is even less likely that I will recall any subsequent dreams. So I don't know if I should pursue MILDing or WILDing.

Either way, though, good luck to you and see you around the forums!