OK, so for about 5 or 6 years I've had this problem that I've always assumed was a form of sleep paralysis. I would suddenly get stuck between dream and reality and be desperate to wake up but couldn't. I even tried going back into a dream but was too scared. I became aware of my surroundings (sometimes very in-accurately) and i tried to think what the hell I could do to wake myself up. I used to be able to control my breathing, and i would snore really loudly to wake my girlfriend who would then wake me. I have no such fortune anymore as I am a single man once more.

The most horrible thing is my inability to do anything at all, and it was a terrifying experience. After looking into sleep paralysis, i just didn't feel that it described what I was experiencing, and so, through searching on the internet, I read about lucid dreaming.

I'm not scared when it happens anymore, it's not nice, but I'm more irritated by it than scared.

About 3 days after i first started reading on these forums, I experienced my first lucid dream. I was in bed and a delivery man came into my room with a parcel he needed me to sign for. "can you sign this" "no" I said. He was pretty annoyed but he just sighed. I told him that he was in my dream and i didn't have to sign anything if I didn't want to. He tried to tell me he was just doing his job and so i tested him, "When you came in I was behind the door wasn't I", I said. "yeah". "Ha!, No I wasn't! I was in bed, you don't know because you weren't even here, you're just a dream!" He was getting really annoyed now so i pushed him through the floor. I then suddenly found myself in a large museum type room and I couldn't get back to annoying the delivery man.

As you can see I have not read ANY hints or tips, and I had no intention of learning to lucid dream, and yet just by reading about it, i achieved a very limited experience of it. Thanks everyone!