Thought I'd share a little about my experiences with lucid dreaming. I've had them many times over the past 15 (or so) years and usually only when I lay down after being up for over 24 hours and have had some nicotine. Usually, before "transitioning", I'll get that strange feeling that one gets when they're encountering sleep paralysis (feeling heavy and as if a force is pressing you into the matress). This sometimes frightens me to wake since I may see terrifying images.
In the off chance that I don't get scared soykafless, I can enter a lucid dream. It's a little hard to explain, but I often "wake up" in my bed and my body would feel heavy, but "floaty" at the same time. At this point, I'm still in bed and it takes me a moment to realize that something isn't right with my surroundings. It is as if I had transitioned into an alternate, but similar universe. I get out of bed, excited about what I should do next, and I'd walk out of the room and go outside. Sometimes I'll wake up before I get the chance to really explore and see anything. It's usually always night-time in my dreams.
So I'm still dreaming, thinking about what I should do next. Should I role play a Fallout-style battle with a Behemoth, go sky diving, or fly around in space? I'm crazy about space, so a lot of my dreams are about that. When I look into the sky, there's no atmosphere or any light pollution. It's a perfectly clear view into space and the things I see are out of this world. I feel like I can touch the moon. Imagine going outside to see a perfectly clear and unfiltered view of the sky with good old Andromeda in plain view and bright colorful nebulae casting light onto the ground.
I know we'd never be able to get a view of the sky like that, but I've read that there are some places on this planet where one can get a pretty decent view of the sky. I would like to visit one of these places, but I'm sure it would require a lot of planning since they'll likely be desolate and easy to get lost in.
I've had many intense and vivid dreams that stick with me and are impossible to forget, maybe I'll share a few sometime.
Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a reliable method for getting myself into a lucid dream state without depriving myself of sleep. I wish I could do it all the time :(