Not sure how to explain this

Last night before I went to sleep, I began watching a few videos on lucid dreaming. Well the whole time I was asleep there were a few hints but I didn't actually realize I was dreaming during the process. When I woke up, I could recall a time that I remember I was having a hard time breathing for a little bit, and then I remember a dream where someone offered me medicine for my nose being stopped up? Was this sleep paralysis? I can still remember how it felt but during my sleep it did not effect me, I just knew that it was hard to breathe. My dream later went on to a crazy one, but I woke up around 8 am. and went back to sleep for an hour. In the dream that occured during that time, I remember doing a reality check, which I thought was really good that I remembered in my dream to do a reality check, BUT I actually felt that I wasn't dreaming because the dream that went on looked exactly like my house and back yard. But of course, it got a little crazy in the end and I woke up. I could not control it and I did not know I was in a dream at the time. Can you answer my question on sleep paralysis and give some tips on how I can catch myself in a dream? Thanks!!

That was not sleep paralysis. Just a dream.

If you don't realize that you are dreaming while you are in the dream, then it's not a lucid dream.

Dreaming about RCs is a good sign though. It means, that you mind is paying attention to your practice and it's starting to show in your regular dreams.

But it's not RCs that get us lucid. It's the awareness. It's the daytime practice, when you suddenly think to yourself "oh wow, what if this is a dream" and for a moment you believe that you are in fact dreaming. Then this sensation and thinking will start happening in your dream and that will make you lucid.

Induction Methods and Techniques
http://www.dreamviews.com/wake-initi...mystified.html

pretty much like Gab said.
Try checking out the courses, they are a really good help.