Acknowledging dream within a dream?
 

Strangely enough this seems to be happening to me lately.
I don't consider it a false awakening because there is no awakening instead I often end up exclaiming in the dream something along the lines of "That isn't right, I must be dreaming." or telling someone "I think this is a dream."
It happens when I realize the most mundane things are out of place such as someones hair color not being the way it is dyed in the awake world but doesn't happen when everything is totally ludicrous.
My dreams tend to be very vivid and I can usually remember a lot of them but cannot usually exert any control over them besides the split second of realization its a dream. After that it goes back to as if I'm watching some crazy movie. Is this the beginning of being able to Lucid Dream? Are there different levels of Lucid Dreaming in which you cannot control actions or manipulate things within the dream?

When I first started lucid dreaming years ago it kind of started out like this. I'd notice things were off or something just wasn't right. Next time you have an experience like this, try to create an object that assures you are lucid and to help control your dreams.

I play a lot of video games, so how I control my dreams is with a 360 controller. How this started is I used to have a lot of scary dreams and one night I got so scared I paused my dream and had my 360 controller. Having realized I was dreaming, I allowed myself to unpause since I knew I wouldn't be hurt.

Thats an interesting method using a 360 controller to have control over your dreams! I feel like the actual creating of an object will be hard to do within the dreams but I've heard with practice Lucid Dreaming becomes easier.
Thanks for your reply, LunaJade

Funny you mention the controler thing because years ago when I'd be in dire situations at the last moment I would just "pause" the game, click exit and I would wake up normally. Sometimes I would just go back to the start of the situation to give it a change.. Funny you remembered me that.

I used to do that exact same thing. I remember a dream once where dozens of crocodiles were trying to eat me. I paused my dream, thought about it, laughed at myself. Then I proceeded to let them eat me. I must say, it turned out very interesting. I woke up laughing because all their bites tickled!

We just need a reminder, some sort of lucid spark to trigger our awareness in the dream and all is right! Funny how in this case games turn out to be the perfect help for us. Another way I used the pause menu (lol) was to save and really go wild on the dream without fear of consequences. I probably never felt the need to go back but the safety of the save file being there really enabled me to go further. Hm... interesting how I can see some paralelisms of my personality there.

I had a similar experience to this last night. It was like a dream within a dream as well and just stopped short of lucid dreaming (which was unfortunate). I was talking to a friend and realised she had become two people both considered the same person, and I was like wait a minute what the hell... I have to tell the real you in real life about this because you have totally just alerted me to the fact I am dreaming!! So I knew I was dreaming, but when I tried to gain control of the dream, it was like the landscape warped and went crazy and locked me back in, and I realised that despite knowing I was dreaming I was incapable of controlling it... It was very strange.

I have been very unproductive and down in waking life, and I think possibly that this went into my dreams and left me feeling helpless there too. Not very nice :/

I know what you mean... I can relate to what you said about losing control of the dream and all I can say to help you is just be confident in yourself in your dreams. Grab that moment when you realise you're dreaming to go full out and bring a confidence you could never achieve in real life. At least making this in your dreams may turn out to be a useful step in improving your situation :)

The first step of lucid dreaming is realizing that something seems off, and realize you are dreaming, so your off to a great start! I use the clock method which works every time.m if I think I. Might be dreaming I look for a clock (which just appears) I see what time it says, then look away, then look back and if the time has changed, then I know its a dream. Then I say something like "cool Ikm dreaming" and test it again to see if I can fly. Then...I order things to happen out loud and viola! Good luck!!

Oh and another trick if you feel like you are losing control try the spin method. Hold your arms out and spin, spin, spin! Things should calm down, but it does take practice.