How to lucid dream?

Is it possible to have a non-lucid dream which has a narrative in which one becomes lucid? How can one tell the difference between a non-lucid dream with a lucidity narrative and a lucid dream?

• I think I may have experienced one of these. As I understand it, there are degrees of lucidity and that may be the answer to my question. In my dream, I became lucid, exited my home, and began flying. I recall wondering if the houses on my street were accurately depicted. Now that I am awake, I can say they were definitely not, they were very different houses. The fact that I did not know this in my dream means that I did not have access to all my normal waking information, yet I was lucid. This led me to question whether it was acutally a lucid dream or if it was a non-lucid dream that followed a narrative in which I became lucid.

• Answer:

  Lucid dreaming at its most basic is that you realising what you are experiencing is a dream and not waking life, this doesn't mean you are controlling the dream nor does it mean you are free to do what you want within the confines of the dream, it just means your aware it is not waking life. Any of the other things associated with what is normally considered a lucid dream is more advance form of lucid dreaming. I regurlarly experience dreams where I am unable to control what is happening in the dream or change the plot or my surroundings, but I am able to explore it as if I was exploring a haunted house. I know that I am dreaming and I know how I can wake myself if the dream becomes too disturbing but when your fully in control you decide how to the dream is, how big it is, what it looks like and what you can do in it, and who else is there.