Problems with Control

I've recently managed several lucid dreams. My issues have been almost exactly the same however. I feel extremely tired, wanting to go to sleep, this clouds my thought and has me stopping to rest repeatedly. I'd like to know how I can remove and/or limit this feeling.

Upon failing a reality check I have also been saying aloud, or to people around me "I'm dreaming." In order to remind myself and in order to add confidence. To me this gesture seems perfectly calm but reassuring, however after my last lucid I feel it may reduce stability. It also warrants the same response quite frequently "I know." This response is partially sarcastic and shows a bit of distaste for my comment, does this mean something?

I've also had a VERY hard time keeping myself from waking up... not much I can pinpoint that with really. No excitement, it does tend to happen whenever I try to exert direct control however, is this perhaps just a sign that I should maintain more passive control? The confidence is most certainly there, so is the focusing on something simply causing frustration or some other form of excitement?

Perhaps you can try using passive control? Take a pill or drink some energy drink :) Don't think about waking up, or stabilizing to make sure you don't. Go with the flow and be patient, it seems you're doing quite well for being relatively new at this.

I agree with Matte. Also try grabbing objects in the dream world, and really feeling them, because tactile senses can really ground you into the dream and help you anchor yourself and avoid waking up. :)

Good luck

That sounds like it could be a major source of my problems. I'm not at all a tactile person, I aim to lucid dream mostly for the experiences/people/self-awakening

You can try it out a couple times, and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, you can try using autosuggestion and tell yourself you will stay in the dream, you are alert in the dream, or pretty much anything you aim to do. Autosuggestion is a very powerful tool.

Happy dreaming :)