Can't get lucid no matter what

This is my problem.

Both DILDs and RCs fail, which is very frustrating.

Once I had a dream where I was walking in a city I know, when I saw two famous actors acting they roles as if it was the movie. I thought "this has to be a dream!" and I picked my nose to check if I could breathe. I couldn't. FAIL

More than once, while in the dream, from nowhere the "this is a dream" phrase echoes in my mind. But then my dream-self thinks "oh well" and lets go. Nothing changes. FAIL

Also lately my dreams got very vivid, and more than once I had extreme dream recall (about 5 dreams in a night). When I woke up I was very confused and convinced those things happened for real.
I also had a SUPER-REALISTIC false awakening, and when I woke up I was 100% sure it happened for real.


In other words, the harder I try, the dreams get more indistinguishable from real life.
HEEEEELP!

I had a similar experience last night, where I tried to plunge my fingers through my hand, which did not work. I tried an RC or two more and they all failed. Something in the back of my mind kept saying I was in a dream though, so eventually it worked out.

Yeah, this post isn't helpful at all. Good luck to you though.

First, stressing about it and being negative won't help you. Remember, there's nothing physical that allows you to lucid or not; everyone can do it.

Have you read any materials on Lucid Dreaming? I'd recommend Robert Wagonner's Gateways to the Inner Self. It doesn't tell you how to lucid dream (save one technique in passing), but it explains why you want to. Reading that got me lucid dreaming during a dry spell.

yeah i used to fail a lot at ld'ing in the past, but i find that using the WBTB is a very good way to start, and im also using the DILD, and DEILD but havent gotten any ld's yet but im going to keep trying, im just trying to get that 1 ld then i know ill be motiviated to get the next one

RCs fail, if when you practice them in waking life, you don't believe that they will work. This is how it should go down:

When you do any RC during day, you expect it to work, because you expect to be in a dream, unless proven othervise.

RC should start with an awareness question, something like "wow, am I dreaming?" and you believe you are. Examine your surroundings and try to find differences between waking life environment and the one you are in at that moment.

Then you RC and you fully expect it to work. Then you say your mantra about next time when you come to question your reality, you realize you are dreaming.

So it's not really the RC that will get you lucid. It's the question you ask yourself. It's the "wow" moment, that makes you stop anything you doing and become aware of where you are. And then this behaviour will start happening in your dreams. You will start questioning your reality in your dreams. Later on, you may even skip the question (automatically, not you will decide) and realize you are in a dream just out of the blue. You still may do RC to confirm (also automatically).

That's how I see why RCs (+awareness) work.