So I started my quest for LD two weeks ago or something, i had my first one this monday’s night. I wasn’t sure that it was a LD in the first place so I posted in “The BIG was it a LD?” topic. And after I’ve got an answer I realized I did it, but woke up shortly after being lucid… Nights with ND followed, but last night (after having lots of ND) I suddenly woke up, at 4 or 5 a.m. So I decided to try and do a WILD with music help from my mp3 player. I tried to enter the hypnotic state but the music kept my brain so conscious that I couldn’t fall asleep no matter how drowsy I was. So after listening to half an hour to music and concentrating on how much I wanted to LD, I stopped the music and slept. After a while a had a FA. The good thing is that I had my doubts so I’ve done some RCs: the hand RC wasn’t as weird as I expected so I tried to clutch my nose (I was very curious) and I could breathe! It was so weird, I was like having an astral nose or something 
Then I yelled “I AM DREAMING!” (to build confidence and I kept my excitement under control). In my room was a DC, one of my friends… I told him to get out so I could concentrate (I shouldn’t have done that, he could had helped me). After that i rubbed my hands, I felt very lucid, but after a minute of staring at the room I woke up in a fade out. I opened my eyes and felt disappointed 
I went again in a sleep state and a dream came into view. I was on an alley, walking , but this time I felt more suspicious than ever, and so I realized again that I was dreaming without any RC! But another minute passed and I was again in wake state.
The conclusion is that I had two LDs in a night and this thought makes me happy, but i am very angry for not being able to maintain the dream, so please, I want some advice to help me control my LDs and to maintain it. Thanks in advance 
Hey, congratulations on your LDs!! There are a few things to help you stay in the dream world, like rubbing your hands. Spinning arround your axis usually helps you stay in the dream, although you might change the scene or even lose lucidity, I think. You can also focus your attention to the dream world, like focus your eyes on some object (the ground usually helps me) or pick something up and concentrate on how it feels…
But it’s completely normal to wake up quickly after getting lucid. I’m also at the beginning of LDing but I feel that with every LD I have, no matter how short it is, I learn something. So it also helps to be patient and persistent. The last few LDs I’ve had I’ve been able to stay a bit longer. The more LDs you have, the more you wil get used to the feeling of being in a different reality and will get less excited, or be able to control your excitement, etc…
Hope this may help, even if just a little 
Good luck!
I would also participate in helping you.
I had my first LD recently. It lasted for the whole night, but during the switch of REM cycles I always woke up into a FA. I had like 4 FA’s that night. It was sure amazing, but I also felt that I wanted more control and be more in lucid state. I think it’s normal to not get long LD’s at first, because your brain is somewhat excited and you start maybe worrying too much. Rubbing hands is a good idea, but I would use the spinning tactic and on the same trying to do something else too.
I read that using multiple senses help staying in the dream.
I recently had another LD but it was very short and didn’t last for long. I think this is normal.
This looks like a good topic to post in.
I haven’t been on the forums for months because of a bum computer, so if this has been posted already, sorry.
I did WBTB, and throughout my entire dream, i was anticipating waking up, and was trying to do everything to stay within my dream. getting involved, etc, but generally i was assuming i would wake up any second and become slowly aware of my real body. However i managed to stay within my dream for a record amount of time (20 minutes +) until i got bored and forced myself up.
It turns out i was doing a form of sensory deprivation; i had covered my ears with both my arms and woke up not being able to hear a thing. I’m thinking that everytime in my dream when i anticipated waking up, i would 1st try and hear whats happening in the real world. Since my ears were covered, i managed to stay lucid longer.
I’m gonna try again, give it a go. hehe forget controlling your mental state, just block out the outside source 
get these ear plugs-- the sound rating is 29, and they really do help cut down on noise. Also, if you are able to sleep on your back without snoring, you could wear noise-canceling headphones in addition to the earplugs.
URL removed, please don’t link to sellers 
Oops! I didn’t even think about that. Well, anyway, the ear plugs are the foam kind. I tried the silicone ones, but they’re too greasy feeling and I felt like they were creating too much air pressure inside my ear canal – since they truly do seal off all air to the outside. But the foam ones let air through.