This factor not only affects lucid dreaming frequency/lucidity level, it affects every human endeavor. It has been told by many philosophers/authors in the past...
The factor is... the "burning desire".
Imagine a qualified doctor. He may be the batch-top. But when it comes to success in his career, to become the most popular doctor, he will have to have that special something in him... a burning desire to cure people and save many lives (or at least a great self-satisfaction in doing so).
A man can earn a doctorate in Software Development, but the well-paid, popular software engineer would be the one who has a burning desire to develop great software, despite his qualifications.
The list can go on...
I knew this applies to lucid dreaming/OBE too. But last night it really sunk in. I wrote about a successful lucid dreaming dawn on this post. Since yesterday was also a day that I had a free mind (a Sunday as in the successful experience), I thought of doing the SAME things to achieve lucidity.
I went to sleep at around 11 PM (as opposed to my usual 12 AM time). Woke up at around 03:25 AM. Went to the washroom. Kept the lights on and wandered here and there in the room thinking of lucid dreaming (what to do when I become lucid) for about 10 minutes. Switched the lights off and read an article about lucid dreaming using my mobile phone for about 10 minutes... then closed my eyes to fall asleep.
As expected, I became lucid in the first dream itself. But the lucidity level was not even close to the previous experience I posted about. I had to 'force' myself so much to make things clear in the dream. The details were all blurry. I didn't even remember to look at my hands to achieve more clarity. The dreams seemed to last only a couple of seconds. This happened a couple of times and after that, I don't remember dreaming.
So the reason I see here for the failure is, lack of a "burning desire" to have lucid dreams.
Since I had a successful experience last time, that has killed my enthusiasm by giving me a sense of contempt. I should find a way to motivate myself and to convince my mind that it's "not enough". So that I will have the "burning desire" to have lucid dreams continuously.
Sweet Dreams...
