It seems like whenever I become lucid in dreams, either I wake up (most of the time) or I seem to forget about the fact that I’m in a dream, and my consciousness kind of fades.
It seems like whenever I have a nightmare I become lucid, yet I wake up. And usually when I realize the possibilities I would have had being lucid, I’m already awake, so in the nightmare, I’ll want to wake up - not necessarily take advantage of the situation (that is, until I’m awake).
Has anyone else had this issue?
It’s just a matter of inexperience 
. Once you get to LD alot, you’ll get better at staying lucid. You probablly just get too excited when you realize your dreaming. Try to stay calm next time or else this causes you to wake up. To keep yourself from losing lucidity, Use RC’s now and again while your dreaming. If your dream is fading, try focusing on something. Look at this object and pay very close attention to detail. Try spinning. You should do some research and find some other helpful methods on this site.
One thing that may help you is something I’ve noticed. When I wake up in the morning, and go back to bed and LD, I wake up quickly. But when I wake up in the middle of the night and LD, they last alot longer. So if you are trying to LD in the morning, perhaps it is better to try in in the middle of the night.
Of course, I only WILD and use CALD to WILD, so if you’re a big DILDer then I would disregard this tip lol.
Thanks for your replies.
It’s been a while since I’ve tried to become lucid (over a year), so I’m kind of out of the loop as far as solutions go. I need to get back into the game.
I’ve just started to use a dream journal again, but like before, my issue is my hand-writing in bed. I literally cannot read more than two words after I go and review my notes. Maybe it’s time for me to invest in a tape recorder, then journal down more of my dreams after I’ve woken up more?
You are on the right track with recording, that’s for sure! If you have a cell phone, it can be useful for voice recording. It’s usually close by when you wake up, so it’s not hard to record your dream every morning, then you can go back and type it up or something later. I know my cell phone is my best friend as far as DJ recording goes 
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Great idea with the cell phone. I didn’t want to have to dish out $30+ for a new recorder. Thanks. 