What is the deal with leaving your body, then having it turn into a dream??? I can't count how many times I've left my body with full awareness, then slowly have my surroundings turn dream-like, and ending up in what seems like just a normal dream. How can I prevent this from occuring? It's so annoying.
Also, sometimes I have out of body experiences while dreaming. For example, I will be dreaming that I'm laying down, trying to have an out of body experience. When I leave my body, all the sensations feel real. But is it  a real OBE?
This one dream I had last week I left my body like ten times in a row, each time I came back I would leave again. But it was a dream. I was conscience enough to realize I wanted to have an OBE and to know what to do when I had them, but not conscience enough to realize it was a dream. The only reason I realize it was a dream is because when I came back to my body i was in a place I would never have been. The funny thing is, it all started with a real life OBE that turned into a dream. Geez. Words of advice/thoughts are appreciated.

When I read your post it made me think of something.  Let me take your problem and put it into other terms...

I have two kids, ages 9 and 11.  Even at their age, every single thought that goes through their heads comes out their mouths!  It drives me nuts, because I have my own brain and mind but I am constantly destracted by their chatter.  I love my kids!  But c'mon, I need a break sometimes. 

What happens is, I can have something on my mind that I really, really need to think about and sort out.  And every time one of the kids says something, it distracts me from what i'm thinking whether I want it to or not.  The easiest thing to do is to just turn my attention to them, listen or do whatever they need, and then hope that they are satisfied for a few minutes so I can focus on my own thoughts again.  I'm sort of exaggerating here but not really.  Any parent would understand what I'm talking about...kids really do distract your attention all the time, and it gets harder to keep your mind together on one thing.  It's hard for my husband and I to even have a conversation around the kids because they interrupt, and we end up realizing hours later that we didn't actually finish a conversation that we started.  Thank God for cell phones and email!

My point in all this is that we get distracted in the physical world like this all the time.  Same thing with the non-physical (OBEs).  When the "dream world" takes over your attention, it's because your thoughts are distracted.  Learning to focus, as Dave suggested, will help you gain some control of what you experience.