Can you control yourself in dreams?

Yes, a lot of people dont believe you can but im absolutely sure. I've done it before where something is happening in my dream then suddenly i realize im dreaming so i change what happens after. Some believe its not normal for someone to change their dreams but its pretty fun.Like this time i was having a nightmare where some creature was following me..more like running after me.. we kept on running in circles back to the same place.Then suddenly i somehow realized i was dreaming so i just stopped running and told the creature "okay im tired of this so lets do something else" then i flew away ..the creature stopped following me too. This kind of dreams wont last long because you're half asleep and half awake so if you try to do something crazy in your dream you'll most likely wake up. I hope you can find a way to lucid dream so you can see how amazing it can be.