Newbie with some questions :)

[jsmith2076]

I just discovered the world of lucid dreaming yesterday and I was fascinated so I started researching. In most of the internet tutorials on WILD I have read, it was said that you had to go to sleep and wake up during an REM stage and go back to sleep to WILD. Last night I went to sleep at the same time as usual and I experienced what I am 99.9% sure was a lucid dream without waking back up. Here is what happened: I went to bed as usual, as I said, but I stayed as still as possible with my eyes shut. I kept repeating the sentence "I will be aware when I dream" in my head. Eventually, I drifted off to a half sleep type stage and then regained full consciousness after who knows how long. I couldn't open my eyes or move so I was most likely dreaming. My memory starts to fade here so my description might begin to sound a little vague. Somehow I found myself in a hallway at my school. I was now positive that I was dreaming, but I wasn't as aware as I would have liked to be. I was able to manipulate the dream world somewhat, as I found myself able to teleport to a different room and I made a friend appear in front of me. That is all I remember, but I know that I was aware that I was dreaming. As I said before, I was able to, or at least I think I was, enter a WILD without waking up in the middle of the night during a REM stage. So my question is: Will I always be able to WILD like this, or did I simply luck out and enter a lucid dream with my consciousness intact while going to bed as I always do? I am new at this, so please give me any advice you can.