Lots of theories…
I think that a dream is an out of body experience.
An out of body experience is an experience in which your consciousness is centered away from your physical body.
The out of body experience you had can be labeled as an etheric projection, in the real time zone.
what this means is that you were traveling with your energy body through the physical universe, or more precisely, through the real time zone. (dimension/certain frequency range)
In a dream however, you are in your dream (astral) body, the difference between a dream and an astral projection (out of body experience) is that in a dream (supposedly) the entire scenario, including the scenery, the people, everything is composed from your own mind, instead of cruising around in the public astral.
The astral dimension is not limited by space so there is no problem for your mind to create a whole private show just for you. Although in many cases, astral residents do influence your dreams, as in the case of meeting deceased relatives etc…
Perhaps it is easier for you to slip into your etheric body (although it is regarded as less of a natural procedure, traveling with your etheric body outside of your physical one)
than into your astral/dream body.
so, both lucid dreams and out of body experiences take place away from your physical body, only that in a dream, you are making up the environment, thus, to convert a lucid dream into a full astral projection, one would have to shut down the mental fuel he is giving to the dream.
however, as i said, in your case, you seem to be in the real time zone (hope you understand this term by now), which is another type of an experience with centered consciousness outside of your body.
in a real time projection, you might want to go cruise outer space or visit a friend (you can do that just by concentrating on the person you want to visit), try communicating with him or maybe even pinching him (although that would be quite difficult as you are a “ghost”), later you can ask him what he was doing for verification.
If you want to enter a dream, you should try creating a fantasy world while you’re going to bed, especially if you use WILD. imagine a nice place you want to be in (preferably one that does not exist in the physical universe, your own place) and start visualizing your stay there. That should take you into a dream (fantasy, fiction of your own mind)
hope this helps
feel free to ask any more questions that may arise.