Why did I post the long lucid dreaming post yesterday? Because I had about FIVE HOURS of lucid dreaming the morning of my birthday!
The trick to successful lucid dreaming involved learning how to maintain your focus. Dreaming lucidly can be a bit like fighting gravity: it’s very easy to slip back into normal dreaming. So that once I turn lucid, I constantly remind myself that I’m in a dream. It was in doing this that I managed to extend my lucid dreaming far beyond my usual limits.
I don’t know if this technique is really necessary. It just works for me. I assume that as I get better maintaining focus, such overt reminders won’t be needed.