Okay so I've been having a repeating problem that I've noticed.

I'll start off with how I noticed this.

When I had my first lucid or "almost" lucid, I was about to reality check and I woke up.

My second lucid was similar, I looked down at my hand which was covered in a strange black ink I realized it was and dream and woke up.

Third lucid was a bit different but I barely remembered it so I'll set that experience aside for now.

Finally my fourth lucid came unexpectedly this morning, I could almost feel my sleeping mind and awake mind slipping back and forth with each other, which I think is what made me suspicious of a dream and then when letters started changing by my will I became lucid. During this lucid I remembered to try to stabilize my dream by rubbing my hands together and I'll admit this was cool, I've never seen so much color appear before in a dream. But shortly after I woke up...
I was very calm, and from what it felt like I wasn't in the dream very long(though my perceptions could be wrong). This is very aggravating. I'm asking now for any tips that could help.