Thread: Short Dream-Related Experiences

First of all, hey forum. I'm glad to become part of this community.

I've been contemplating lucid dreaming and dreaming in general, from a pretty young age. I'm 18 now. Before diving into the info that's already here, I'd like to share a few things that popped in my mind, perhaps newbie-ish or not.
I've noticed that I usually remember my dreams when I awake prematurely, like when I forget my alarm clock on, or my phone rings etc. I think we're mostly susceptible to dreaming during REM cycles at night, but still, in spite of the lesser favorable conditions, I've had a few when sleeping for a few hours during the day as well.
I seem to be aware of these dreams, actually 'live' them, if I am to wake up, as stated above, some time later. If I'm unable to remember what I've dreamed, I think it means I just instantly forgot it, which also means I couldn't have been aware of 'living' the dream previously. Twisted, eh?
To a small degree, I'm pretty sure I've also experienced lucid dreaming, and some weird sleep paralysis. For example, a thing I've had a few hours ago before my dad decided it was smart to walk in on me and wake me up , I dreamed some mundane things, had a brief period of lucidity when I was aware that I was dreaming, felt paralyzed and struggled a bit to move, but without very much success. Perhaps I woke up at that point and fell back to sleep afterwards. Can't say for sure. Anyway, after that period of time, I resumed to the usual, people.. places, odd events etc. I'm aware that my brain is supposed to keep my body from moving during a dream, but why would I feel that when actually in the dream? Or was I semi-awake, but still unable to move?
Also, there's another thing that other dreams of mine shared. I found it hard to manipulate small objects or see certain things, because I lost focus very easily.
Lucidity wise, I usually can't stay in control for very long, if at all. My dream sort of shifts afterwards.
Here's another experience I've had when I was little and afraid of vampires, which was a common element in my nightmares, if I can call them this. I was at my grandma's apartment with some familiar people and the atmosphere was like from an old Dracula movie. A group of vampires showed up, singing and doing some kind of strange ritual I think, somehow related to a traditional dance in my country. Anyway, I think they noticed my door, the fact that I was watching and they became hostile and wanted to break in. Then something weird happened, I was in control and appeared by my own side. I practically saw myself there, grabbed my other projection by the collar and dragged myself out of, literally, the frame of the kind of like the motion picture that my dream appeared to be.
I'm not sure to what extent that piece of memory was distorted in time and by recalling it over and over again, but I'm sure of my own 'intervention' and the frame.
I've had moments when things got pretty scary and I told myself 'man, this isn't real. Get a grip on yourself!' and I calmed down.
I didn't really have issues with vampires afterwards because I used to picture myself shattering their obviously breakable fangs with a baseball bat.
In spite of all this, I've never been able to create scenarios myself and take wild actions such as flying and stuff.
This post didn't really turn out to be short.. Any thoughts?