The Dreaming Phenomenon

Dreams are pretty cool and all that, but one thing in particular strikes me as just wrong.  I don't understand why I can suspend my reality indefinitely in a dream but not in real life.  Well, I suppose reality doesn't often get suspended in real life, thus the phrase 'real life'.  Anyways, I really think that I need to start questioning more aspects of my dream while I'm immersed in it because when I wake up, I feel like an idiot for going along with the whole ridiculous situation.  Take, for instance, my dream last night.  It's a dream I've had quite a few times in the past and it involves either falling/driving off a cliff.  When I hit the ground, shouldn't it strike me as odd that I'm not all smashed up and broken?  It doesn't really.  I just get up and start climbing back up the cliff.  I really wish that I would realize how absurd what just happened was and try to figure it out.  Instead, I feel like a moron later because the absurdity never dawned on me.  I've had lucid dreams once before, but I was wicked jacked-up on painkillers and I suppose that doesn't count.  It was neat because I could close my eyes and start flying through the sky and then open them whenever I wanted.  I repeated this feat of conciousness over and over again that day.  Total control over it and I knew in the dream that I was dreaming and could stop at any time.  For a brief amount of time, I ruled my mind...well, I guess I ruled over my opiate influenced mind...or not...whatever.