Quote Originally Posted by Serith View Post
I heard it had something to do with the visual centers of the brain being less active when things are dark in a dream, which makes it hard to make the dream suddenly brighter like you can when turning on a light. I've heard some people claim to be able to turn on lights, but most can't.

I suspect it has to do with the suddenness of the change, since most massive visual changes like that usually take at least a second. I find that I can make things brighter in dreams most of the time by staring at my hand until the detail and color appears, but lightswitches don't work for me either.
Interesting, but that makes sense. Toward the end of the dream, I was trying my hardest to make the light work when I flipped the switch. Maybe that's what caused me to wake up.

Quote Originally Posted by Abra View Post
Wow, you are very determined to gain such control! As for myself, I've just been going with the flow these past few lucids, able to control my body (movements, flying, landing), and summon things. I wish I could change the dream environment!
In a way, it's almost a problem that I try to exhibit too much control. Whenever I become lucid, I get excited and try to do all sorts of difficult things. For example, one time I was lucid and decided to go "through the looking glass". I willed a mirror to allow me to walk through, and the dream became incredibly unstable. The world, and myself, started to look like a Picasso painting. I was unable to hold the dream world together, and after five or so seconds my body exploded into a thousand tiny replicas of myself. The small versions of me ran around like a swarm of ants, and I woke up.

A lot of the time I end up losing lucidity or waking up because I try to do something crazy and things get out of my control.