Your definiton is false.
You are not awake, you are just aware that you are dreaming.
You trained your subconscience to recognize dreams as such and it tells your conscience when it is happening, basically.
If you practice hard enough you'll be able to control your dreams easily.
It is also possible to use pretty much the same technique to learn a somewhat more efficient way of thinking.
Instead of thinking in words you think in images and/or just don't think your thoughts in the traditonal thought but just know what you are thinking. That works because the thought is formed in your subconscience before you conscience is aware of it.
That's how a layman would explain it pretty much.
Dunno about the technical stuff.
Originally Posted by
firebolty
It's almost impossible to do this without intense preparation.
It's fighting your nature.
Which is hard.
This is not true.
I managed to lucid dream within three days with very little pracice.
You basically just need to do a little autogenic training and focus on your imagination and dreams while doing so.