Paralysis

I had a dream this summer that involved me knowing the presence of a ghost, and what I thought was a sort of possession. I was getting ready for school in a different room than usual, I heard these footsteps and just immediately knew there was a ghost. I then "woke up" from my dream and went to take a shower to "really" get ready for the day, on the way I saw a half eaten sandwich, should have known... anyway, I went to get in the shower and something made me laugh, but instead of my laugh, it was a deep male laugh, a chuckle sort of, but kind of menacing. And then I woke up. I experience sleep paralysis somewhat often. Again, a dream in a dream. I dreamed I woke up laying on my stomach and was being held down by a ghost, and then from the corner of my eye I saw these set of legs walking out of my room. But they were not solid, but the way it looks when you look through a bottle of water. I felt like this had some sort of connection to the other dream, but I do not know. Just the other morning I definitely was not dreaming, and I woke up to what I thought was footsteps, but I was in sleep paralysis, I chose to ignore it and went back to sleep. By this time I had been reading about lucid dreaming and reality checks, and previous nights I had been trying to do a MILD, trying to revisit my grandparents at their house. This still has not worked, but I did begin to notice dream signs and even performed a reality check in a dream. I get up to use the bathroom at least once a night, and I dreamed that I woke up to go to the bathroom, but the Christmas tree I put up the previous night was different, it was much smaller, my first clue, but soon after that I woke up for real to use the bathroom The next night I had a dream that I was driving to campus with my boyfriend and another person was in the car, but I do not know who it was. I met up with some friends that do not go to my college, and we were sitting in a grassy area and I decided to hold my nose and I was still able to breathe! I told everyone I was dreaming but I could not control it. Another girl showed up with these tiny little snakes and gave them to me, I asked her what I was supposed to do with them and I ended up changing their color like you would see through a heat camera. I knew I was dreaming but I was not able to control what was happening. After that I woke up. I am still working on performing reality checks and becoming lucid, my ultimate goal right now is to dream of my grandparent's house and control the dream.