After reading some of the techniques on this site and comparing them to my own experience it seems that reality checks during my waking hours are one of the main things that help me in my lucid dreaming. Ive been practicing this for years- looking for the unusual/unexpected in everyday life- subconscious or just overlooked experiences. I never made the connection between that and my dreams until I read it on this site. Your mind makes all kinds of them anyway, so you have to filter with a little logic and rationale- but not too much!! Keep yourself open. Always look for unexpected interactions with known or unknown people- expect and look for weird and enlightening things to happen. I know that probably sounds a little ridiculous, but neat things happen all the time and we just walk right passed them. Constantly checking your surroundings and feelings "why do I suddenly have "so-and-so" on my mind? I havent talked to them for years." CALL THEM!! or "thats weird. I just drove all the way to work and hit nothing but green lights the whole way." Those may be terrible examples, but its just a matter of being AWAKE and not drifting through your life. If you feel an urge to do/say something- Do it! PAY ATTENTION to your gut! Say or do something you consider ridiculous every once in a while if you really feel it. Its liberating. Maybe 9 times out of 10 its absolutely nothing. But what might happen that 10th time? What do you have to lose? If you practice it while youre awake and make it a habit it may naturally flow into your dreams as part of your awareness. It seems like the more I strive to live this way the more luck I have realizing that Im dreaming. Once you do it a few times it becomes easier, but always on different levels in dreams. For me anyway.

Also, if you drink or mood alter (thats a very PC way of saying it) in whatever way you choose try NOT doing that for a couple of nights. You might find that you recall your dreams better and even have more vivid/longer dreams. If youre not getting the results you want- change your patterns. It cant hurt.