I've been reading this forum for the past week or two, after I found it in a web search about lucid dreams. For a long time, I have been able to obtain awareness that I am dreaming. In the past, whenever I had a dream which went in an unpleasant direction, I would almost always realize that I was dreaming, and wake myself up. I never really considered acting on it, and exploring the possibilities of a lucid dream. I suppose they could have been considered lucid dreams, as I was aware that I was dreaming.

In the past week, I have been building up a habit of reality checking. Today, it paid off. Just as I have experienced many times before, I had a dream which started going in a direction which I didn't want it to. I realized it was a dream and forced myself to wake up, out of habit (it's not something that I would have actually wanted, I'm just used to doing it). What actually happened was a false awakening (not known to me at the time) , and I started dreaming again from that false awakening. I entered what I thought at the time was a wake-initiated lucid dream, as I did not realize I had a false awakening (in reality, I just realized I was dreaming again at that point). I was standing in the corridor of what appeared to be a hotel, and I used the reality check of pushing my fingers through the palm of my opposite hand. As it reacted in an unrealistic way, I confirmed that I was dreaming. That didn't surprise me, as I thought I had initiated it from a waking state. I walked down the hallway and turned into what appeared to be an elevator, a small room with mirrors around all of the walls. At this point, everything slowly faded away, and I woke up. As disappointing as it was, I was pleased to make some progress.

After I woke up for real, I realized that what I had experienced was not a wake-initiated lucid dream, but in fact dream initiated, from a false awakening. If I can teach myself to take control of dreams, instead of my usual habit of waking myself up, then I should be able to have more interesting experiences, I imagine.