I use WBTB every night at 4 hours. Until I wbtb, I have very little to no awareness of my dreams. If I don't do wbtb at all then I don't start becoming aware until my last 1 or 2 hours of sleep. Once I have awarness I usually have some type of semi-conscious control, but it varies greatly. Once I am lucid my control also varies greatly, eg. sometimes flying is a snap, sometimes I have to use all my effort just to float a little. Control of my LDs, and to a lesser extent my non LDS, has deffinetly improved a lot with time. Potentially I can have waaay more control in my LDs than in my nons.


edit. as far as how I gain lucidity, I will either like you said, just suddenly realize Im dreaming, start off lucid in a dream, or WILD. I typically do all three things several times each night.