I am not able to have a lucid dream at will. They are spontaneous occurrences so far. I'd like to work towards it, but in the mean time I have a related question.

If you can't actually control your dreams are there ways to fall back into the same dream after awakening? For instance, we've all woken up during a dream at the most inopportune time. (Grandma's about to tell you where the family fortune is buried, etc) Some dreams are so great you don't want them to end. Sometimes I fall back to sleep and the dream continues and other times it doesn't and it's lost forever.

Is there anything we can do to increase the chances of continuing a dream? My existing approach is, "quick fall back to sleep and pretend you never woke up." But, it dosn't work so well.