Honestly I never knew until a few years ago how I dreamt is considered 'lucid' until I read it on a prescription warning and looked it up lol. I thought everyone dreamt that way and knew they were dreaming. I haven't done much research on it at all, besides the short basics here and there on the subject in my witchcraft books. As far as what was discussed around me, oh most likely! I was raised around the metaphysical and witchcraft, my mother and 2 aunts. Lots of things I can't really explain, it has just been like this. I think I formed a lot of stuff (and maybe opinions lol) at a young age and some it just feels... normal. I think dreams are magickal (and I do use them as a tool in magick) and can be used and interpreted so differently from one person to the next, the more time you spend on them the stronger your ability to know and control them.
I don't really have dreams like I see some others describe, its like real life for me. Nothing really spectacular, sometimes pretty boring... No strange beings or weird symbols or crazy experiences or nightmares, not really. I haven't really tried (or experienced) anything in the spiritual sense either, but lately have been thinking about it, feeling a little out of sync with my Goddesses and that may be something I try in the future. I am working on a dream pillow and ritual ideas to help me with some kind of message, maybe a lucid visit to whom I should pay some attention to... something like that. I need a freakin' sign! LOL
Basically, I have conversations, visit places and people... Since I have been here in Alaska I dream of being at the ocean or other places I love (usually with someone but other times alone, kind of like ocean meditation in dream state I guess), I really enjoy my water dreams! Hearing the waves, smelling the ocean air, feeling the sand. I even remember once dreaming I was near the ocean and thinking how much it is going to suck when I wake up and see that is -20 and snow on the ground. Yeah I can ruin a dream quickly that way LOL. Knowing I am dreaming can be a buzz kill sometimes!
Like Scaravich said, the more you try to control sometimes makes you wake up, so I try hard not to control too much or altar things in dreams I want to stay in. But ocean visits are a favorite, I can usually induce by listening to ocean sounds. I choose to be alone or spend time with someone else, all depends where the dream is when I realize I am dreaming.
I guess I really noticed more when I was on medications years ago for depression and insomnia the control factor. That was a dark time though and the dreams were not fun, lots of stress dreams. The drugs made it so much worse, I disliked my dream activity during that time. I started to realize more through that, that I knew I was dreaming, controlling what I said and did in those dreams and if I wanted to wake up or stay in it. I have woke myself up a few times and many times the dream picks right back up though, maybe just a different angle, but the same movie...waking myself seems to adjust if I do not like the direction it was going. But sometimes it fights to go right back where it wants to go. I have also been able to pick back up some good dreams too! That is tough to control also, to wake up and go back into it, but it does happen. Some feel like long movies I keep pausing, others just seconds long and totally disappear.
The last few years (med free, btw) I have a lot of dream activity with someone I have a strong connection with but far away from. Last one was on the full moon (that always seems to help!) during a 2 hour nap, this particular dream I remember his arms around me and as I woke up I could smell his skin and hear the echo of his voice and before I even open my eyes I try to absorb that as much as possible, and it sticks with me. I control everything I say to him, everything I feel and do. I tell myself in these dreams 'don't wake up!'. Some we are just together, maybe walking and holding hands, sitting near the water at our favorite spot, very simple but extremely real and I always know I am dreaming. What ends it is the thought that I don't want to wake up, and it wakes me up! Of course there is a whole different type of dream I have on occasion with him but I am going to keep this PG rated.
I tend to have a lot more control of everything in those dreams and able to hold them a lot longer. Lucididty+dream magick+sexual energy= some pretty great dreamin'! (those are the ones I can control easily).
The other wonderful dream I have had recently is my friend who passed 2 years ago, similar dream experiences with her. I can feel her, smell her, still hear her voice when I wake up. I 'visit' with her when I am battling a big decision. She was the one who let me know I was doing the right thing as I was deciding whether to move here around the time of her death. I just had the second dream over this summer while another issue has been on my mind. It is an awesome feeling to see her and talk to her. I do struggle with contacting some other lost loved ones, another focus of mine currently. I do not try controlling those at all, I want her to control why she is there. The message means more to me that way.
I think for me, lucidity plays an important role in my recall. It is a lot easier for me to remember, my 'big' ones need no record they are as real to me as if I just experienced it. I think I like to let them play out (more than control them) and look to my recall ability as the real gift in lucidity. Recall can be tough for me sometimes, unless I am lucid. Sometimes I have been so unsure if a conversation happened in a dream or in waking life, it felt so real, I have had to ask the person if it really happened. Sometimes those have precognitive messages... but that is a whole other subject!
I guess I could describe my lucid dreams as a relationship tool for me. Maybe having so much separation in my life since I was young when I first moved here, it kind of developed into that for me... I don't know. A way of still being with those I miss. I spend a lot of time with the people I love in my dreams. That to me is awesome and I love being able to use them that way. Those dreams can help to bring me closer to them in other ways, help me work through issues I may need to deal with that person or just within myself, find messages in them, or just have fun.
In any dream work, a journal is key. The more you pay attention the more you will be able to be lucid. Meditation before you fall asleep can help, and working on sixth (third eye) chakra... for seeing and intuition, or to perceive and to command. And burn mugwort before sleep.