I can sorta relate to that. Most of my LDs are fun, but the dreams that really stick with me are the ones that come out of nowhere. I had a non-LD dream a few years back where I launched into orbit from an old Apollo mission capsule (dream physics FTW) parked just outside a Dollar General on the other side of the city. Things didn't go according to plan, and I shot past orbit and drifted out past our solar system and deep into the Milky Way. I guess I had been playing Mario Galaxy too much, because I noticed a bunch of cool galaxies in the distance made up of various materials: legos, Lincoln Logs, match sticks, Super Mario ? blocks, etc. I realized I was running out of oxygen and had no way to get home, so I sat back in my tiny capsule and watched galaxies drift by until I expired. It was a surprisingly sublime experience.

There was a point to all that, I swear

I woke up from the dream feeling fucking awesome. Unbelievably refreshed, at that... and it lasted much of the day. It doesn't happen often, but when it does you really take notice.

Do keep in mind that much of the material is written for people who are overly eager, and wanting to get into LDing as fast as possible. I took a much slower, measured approach where I set my alarm ten minutes early, then used the time to remember as much of my dreams as I could. I then used a voice recorder to log all the details while I did ye olde brush-teeth-comb-hair-shave-etc routine. Combined with autosuggestion, I eventually started having LDs with increasing frequency. I still have them less often than I'd like, but it's better than it was when I started, where I had two over the course of my entire life ^___^

So, no, there's no need to wake up during the night. If you do, for whatever reason, you can repeat something simple as you fall back to sleep, such as "I know I'm dreaming" which may give you a little boost. Or you could suggest subject matter for upcoming dreams instead. "I'll dream about Godzilla smashing Tokyo", for example

Wow. I was woken up by my housemate leaving in the early hours of the morning and so decided to have a stab at a lucid dream.

The first thing to note: falling back asleep whilst conscious is extremely unpleasant. I don't know whether it's because I've been suffering from allergies recently and therefore have trouble breathing at night, but it felt like being suffocated with a cushion.

Actually if it wasn't for the fact that I used to play a game with a by brother as a kid where he would try to suffocate me with a cushion, and I would go completely calm and just breathe through the cushion, I'm certain that I would have given up on attempting the lucid dream and just woken up completely.

I've experienced sleep paralysis many times when waking up, but I've never experienced being concious while falling asleep.

Anyway it worked. The dream was crystal clear. I could even move my hands in front of my face. I immediately floating out the window into the street where it was snowing and walked around a bit. I then conjured up a beautiful woman to talk to but hadn't decided who it was, and so her face was blurred which after a short period caused the whole dream to fall apart.

Now here's the thing: I remember being completely concious and I remember the surroundings as clearly as I remember yesterday, but I'm still not convinced that I actually was. Why didn't I decide to try the long division task I mentioned - had I just forgotten? Why didn't I just stop and plan what I was about to do. I know myself well, and this is the first thing I would do if I was truly concious.

I can't deny the it was very different to an ordinary dream, and the horrendous experience of falling asleep while conscious is evidence enough that something strange was going on, but I'm still not convinced that the dream itself was anything more than an illusion of consciousness.

I haven't had a lucid dream in quite a while since I've been taking sleeping pills (short term). I hit stupidly low level sleep with them and it interferes with my memory and such, but in about a week I'll be off them and back to normal. The stress at work was getting to be a bit much, and I needed to make sure I was getting at least 8 solid hours a night. Big projects require concentration

My experience is that the only obstacle between you maintaining a lucid dream is your ability to concentrate on maintaining it. If you stop and concentrate on one particular thing your subconscious will start reasserting control, and you'll be swept back into the dream, losing your lucidity. This is a gradual, yet swift process, and it's easy to ignore it until it's too late. I have no trouble reading, whether it be in books or messages scrawled on walls, and things requiring cognitive work beyond just conversing and physical activity are no problem as long as I don't obsess over them. If you don't stop and periodically remind yourself that you are dreaming, and perform simple stabilization techniques -- you will lose the dream. Every time. Absolutely.

The way I think of LDing is like being swept down a river. If you get the chance, at certain areas you can swim against the flow. As long as you keep swimming in the opposite direction, you won't go further downstream. Pause for too long, and...

If you want to create a book and read it, you'd better be prepared to stop every paragraph (or page, depending on practice) and retrain your thoughts.