So last night I had a lucid dream (my second one ever!)
My lucidity was basically limited to knowing that I was dreaming-- I had very little control. Attempts to stabilize the dream only went as far as me thinking “Increase lucidity!” since I couldn’t move my hands to rub them together or anything like that.
At the same time I was aware of my real body and knew that I could move it if I tried. I thought that perhaps it was only an illusion of my real body and that if I moved it I would actually be able to control my dream. So I moved a hand… and just woke up.
Has anyone else had this problem? What should I do about this?
congratulations on your second ever lucid dream!
i have this problem all the time. i try to remember that my brain likes to trick me into thinking my real body is a limitation. its a strong habit from waking life.
sometimes at the beginning of a dream it takes a bit for it to form, and i cannot feel my body at first. i try to be patient and wait for the dream to form, while reminding myself im dreaming and trying stabilizing techniques until the dream forms enough that i can do them. i keep looking around, listening, and sensing for whatever i can find to start the dream from, until i get something to start with.
some people talk about waiting in “the void” for up to an hour before the next rem cycle hits, though ive never had that experience personally. it might be what youre experiencing though.
i still sometimes am tricked into thinking i moved my real body instead of my dream body and woke up, only to find out later that it was a false awakening, so i try to always do an rc when i wake up. ive had a lot of lucid dreams out of false awakenings because of that, and they are often more stable and clear than the dream before them.
good luck with your 3rd lucid dream, im sure it will come soon 
Thank you for your reply! So what you’re saying is that I should just try to remain lucid and wait for the dream to solidify before I try to take control?
To provide context, it was a DILD. When I became lucid, I felt a lot more aware of my physical surroundings (my bed, my real body, etc) and the dream became very fragile.
Since it was a DILD, I don’t think I was in a the void, but I think I might have experienced that with my first lucid dream a little bit. I’ll have to look more into it.
hmm, if its a DILD you should be able to find something to focus on or take control of if you keep looking and stay lucid, whether its observing the visual scene or listening for sounds. or maybe you can talk even if you dont have full control of your body yet. work with what youve got, basically.
try calling up a wind that you expect to feel on your dream body, grounding you more solidly in your dream body. or rain, or the feeling of your hair brushing against your cheek, or your pet licking your hand. whatever works for you and with the dream scene.
it sounds like youre aware of some of the techniques for once you do have control of your dream body, like rubbing your hands.
it also helps if you expect that the real life body you feel is actually a false awakening body, and in the case that you wake up you can have a nice solid FA lucid dream. for me more often than not when i think i feel my waking body and might move it, its actually an FA body. either way it helps to relax and not worry too much about it, knowing that moving my body isnt necessarily the end of the lucid dream!
Thank you very much! This was really helpful. I will definitely keep this in mind and try it next time I manage to become lucid.
I don’t remeber whether or not I did a RC after I woke up from this experience (though I do try to do them every time I wake up) so it might have been a FA after all!