Hey everyone,
I am new to lucid dreaming. So last dream, I was on a ship, and I did a reality check, where you pinch your nose and breathe, and it worked! I knew it was a dream, but then it looked like I fell asleep in my dream and then I woke up in real life? Does anyone know how this can happen?
hmm my guess is that you have to stabilise your lucid dreams. you said you were new (welcome to lucidity 
) and a lot of starters (like moi!) begin with less stable dreams which means they can either collapse and you wake up, or you dont have enough control and it turns back into an ND quickly–some people call this a layer 1 LD. basically to stabilise dreams try spinning around, moving quickly, touching your surroundings, looking at your hands, demanding for clarity or doing more reality checks. some work better than others and some may not work at all in a particular dream so it might take a few shots but eventually you should get it.
if your problem ISN’T about stability then i have no idea . . .