Just want to share some info. that help me. First of all my LD rate has been 1 per month and I can hold the lucid for about 5 minutes. Anyway this month I’ve had two LD, I’m moving on up 
. So thinking about it there is only one thing I did differnt. I had a busy day I work from 7-1 went to the gym from 2-3 then second job from 4-7 pm. It was a busy 12 hours needless to say. Got home at 8 by 10 my body was like sleep now, I need sleep.
What happen was I had the best night sleep in a long time. I was asleep almost the whole nigth. Had very long dream and went lucid. When I did wake up 3 times I was able to go back to the same dream.
So what I think is be active, move, work out. if you know your going to have a busy day. Try to make your day a 12 hour day enstaid of a 8 or 9 hour day. Fill it up with things to do. So at bed time your body is so tried the only thing you want to do is sleep. You’ll sleep and dream the whole night, maybe even go lucid.
I think pushing your body (stressing) will make you fall asleep faster (like emergency repair) which would mean the chances of you keeping some of your consciousness are rather big.
Theoretically it shouldn’t work that way, but emipirical evidence is always quite convincing.
According to the theory I’m talking about, being active and moving about will make you more physically tired. Thus you will need more sleep. However, it may not help you with dreaming, it could even be detrimentary. For the physical body recovers the most during deep sleep, and that is what you will get, while dreaming is (most) active during REM sleep. This theory is consistent with our knowledge of sleep and dreams, but as always, if the evidence tell us it is wrong, we must change the theory.
Keep up the research!