Have always Lucid Dreamed?

So...I've always had kind of a bizarre sleeping/dreaming schedule, even as a child. I wake up probably between 8-10 times a night, just for a minute or two. And for as long as I can remember, I've always had extremely vivid dreams. I would be able to recall entire dreams and very detailed aspects of it throughout my day; not keeping any kind of diary either.

However, I've never found a 'definition' for the control I have seemed to have in my dreams; but I guess that would be 'lucid dreaming'. I don't always have it, but about 50% of the time, I know that I'm dreaming. Most of the time, I use that control to fly. It sounds silly, but I flap my arms like a bird would, lol. Also, if I'm having a nightmare, I often am able to trick my pursuer into becoming my friend or leaving me alone. Sometimes I'll also jump off of big cliffs because I know I'm just dreaming and I can't actually get hurt and when I land, I wake up and it feels like I just hit the ground.

And the last thing, which I actually saw another post about, was partially dreaming sleep paralysis. This happens to me OFTEN. If I know that I'm dreaming and I decide that I want to wake up, whether it be because my dream is too scary or what have you, I struggle to open my eyes. And if I can get one eye open, I'm still dreaming behind the other one. Even once I get both open, if I close them again for a second I'm back in the dream. In all this time I cannot move the rest of my body.

So, am I just weird? Why do I have such messed up dream cycles? Have other people always been able to control their dreams?

Wow, you are the first person I've ever heard that had the same experience as me. Ever since I was a little kid I've also been able to wake myself up during nightmares. And this is bizarre because I've experienced that same phenomenon about opening one eye to see your room and dreaming behind the other and the dream continuing as soon as your eyes close. Whatever the case, what you described, the struggling, and the eyes falling closed to return to the dream, sounds exactly identical to what I've experienced for years!