Lucid dreaming, but I cant wake up!

Ok, so I was dreaming last night and while I was dreaming I realized it was a dream. After I had came to that conclusion I did everything I could to wake myself up but could not. I tried hitting myself, jumping into water, and even yelling but nothing worked. I had never had a dream that I knew was a dream before.

At one point I was talking to a friend who was in the dream and tried to tell her that it was a dream. And she said the funniest thing "Is this another one of your conspiracy theories?". I angrily tried to explain that I was dreaming and that was all I could remember.

I was just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. It was really scary and frustrating.


Edit: I was also wondering if anyone knew of anyway to suppress dreams? Because I have been having a lot of horrible nightmares lately and normally I have no dream recall. So is there anything that I can do or take that will stop me from recalling my dreams?

www.lucidity.com...

There is a link to a website that should give you a little more insight on lucid dreaming and how to control it, most of the time, people practice self-motivation through out random times of the day. This means they ask themselves at random time "Am I Dreaming?" This trains the mind and the body to reconize the difference between the dreamworld and reality.

Hers's some insight on nightmares Nightmare-lucid dreaming

if it continues, you might want to consider seeing a therapist or doctor just to get sleep.

Good Luck.

reply to post by ZetaExplorer15


Thank you for the info, one of those links said I am more likely to have nightmares if I am sick which I am, or If I am anxious which I have been suffering from lately ( and I have no idea why ). So it makes a lot more sense as to why I have been having nightmares lately. So hopefully this will pass soon.

I was just wondering if you know of any natural ways to suppress dream recall for the time being, because these nightmares cause me to wake up a couple times of night with a horrible sweat. Then I have to wait until I dry off before I can get back to sleep, it is really annoying and scary.

Originally posted by Renegade2283
I was also wondering if anyone knew of anyway to suppress dreams? Because I have been having a lot of horrible nightmares lately and normally I have no dream recall. So is there anything that I can do or take that will stop me from recalling my dreams?

I would say go the other direction and run with it. Use your dream recall to develop your lucid dreaming abilities. The dreamer's expectation is a big factor here because in a dream, both fears and hopes become intensified. As long as you do not focus on the negatives while in the dream, you shouldn't have nightmares. This is also probably a lot more healthy than suppressing those thoughts that your subconscious is trying to tell you about.

Face your fears.

OP have you tried eating a turkey sandwich before going to bed?
I don't know if the tryptophan would make your ordeal better or worse, but maybe try?
That is a major component of the '___' molecule, which might be imbalanced!!

I wonder sometimes if computers and magnetic fields like cell phone towers etc. cause changes in sleep and/or circadian rhythm. Accused some game companies of knowing that.

My dream recall is also poor, has been for years, but lately there have been some really vivid ones -- seeing relatives, fleeing a disaster, seeing my son run away down a street, etc.

I honestly don't know how to stop that. However, I tend to rest well when i exercise very hard, for example, walk as hard and as far as you can without getting shin splints, rest for a few hours, then go to bed, works for me LOL.

I am manic depressive so sleep comes hard.

P.S. dream journal and analyze them briefly. also draw pictures of what you see.
watch if it comes true etc.

reply to post by DarkKnight21


I understand that, but Im not really facing any problems if I am actively controlling my dreams. They are not recurring dreams either, each one is different and some of them are not even nightmares. I believe that the vivid dreams are a result of me recently stopping medication regiment that was suppressing my dreams before. My main fear is that if I get to a state of lucid dreaming again I might accidently let some horrible thought enter my mind that will then manifest itself into a nightmare. Im not the kind of person that can restrict my thought path, sometimes while I am trying not to think of something, I end up thinking of the very thing I am trying to avoid.

So what I am saying is that I dont think that my dreams are this vivid naturally but rather from withdrawal from my medication. I know that it will eventually pass, but I am just looking for something to help in the meantime. Also, its not just one dream a night. I will often wake up from one nightmare, go back to sleep, and have another. It is getting a little hard to handle 2-3 nightmares a night and is affecting my sleeping pattern.

The most profound thing about lucid dreaming is that your mind convincingly recreates the world and people who are individuals and even when you are aware that you are dreaming and are creating the people you are interacting with, they are real and have a personality, you dont know what they are thinking or control them.

I never realize i am dreaming because there are flaws in the reality because their isnt, its just a feeling, I know I am dreaming when I can fly. Its what I strive for.

I find I get banned from lucid dreaming when I get sidetracked from my mission and try to have meaningless sex with the characters in my lucid dreams. Its been almost a year.

reply to post by KhufuKeplerTriangle


Thanks, I will definitely try exercising and using a dream journal. The second dream I had last night was so odd that I cant really describe it. It involved a bunch of us being taught that we have to kill each other, then we were in a forest and had to fight each other to the death. I recall running through the forest really fast and dodging arrows and stuff. At one point, I threw ( yes threw) an arrow at someone and killed them. I did some other weird spin-like moves and killed some others with a spear. I remember there were Humvee's with machine-guns guarding the exits and we were all like living in a community out in the woods. I had formed a friendship with someone. I don't know, it was really weird and specific.

In all reality that is a pretty poor description, but it is just so jumbled up in my head that I cant really describe it well.

Edit: I found this dream particularly disturbing because I don't even like to kill a spider much less a human being. Does that make me like a psychopath or something? Im normally a live and let live kinda guy.

Originally posted by Shadow Herder
The most profound thing about lucid dreaming is that your mind convincingly recreates the world and people who are individuals and even when you are aware that you are dreaming and are creating the people you are interacting with, they are real and have a personality, you dont know what they are thinking or control them.

Exactly, I found that to be the oddest part of it all. That I could have conversations with people even though I know I am creating everything. They seem so......real.

Wow, As a Lucid dreamer myself i find this interesting. It has taken me about 2 years to actually come to a full lucid dream on demand, ( using the awake induced method ) Now with that being said, have you been practicing lucid dreams? How long did it last? and finally most lucid dreamers who realize that they are dreaming for the first time the dream usually collapses. Sorry to hear you wanted out of it, but if i was stuck in a Lucid dream quite frankly i wouldn't want to have been woken up, so much to do and explore. I look forward to updates!

reply to post by Renegade2283


That's happened to me a couple of times. One time I had actually woken an hour or so prior to my dream and turned off my alarm clock before falling back to sleep. When I finally realized I was dreaming I understood that I HAD to get up because I was going to be late for work. I tried everything in my dream to wake myself up ... ended up diving head first into a cement sidewalk in a last ditch effort to wake up ... that did the trick

Better be sure you're dreamin' tho ... before going around diving into concrete surfaces.

reply to post by iclark97


No I was not doing any type of practicing. I think I was able to enter the state because each night as I go to sleep I am so afraid of having a nightmare that I am actively thinking about dreaming. I have only been recalling my dreams often for the past 2 weeks. Sometimes they are just dreams, but more often they are nightmares. However, last night was the first night I was able to realize it was a dream. The reason I wanted to wake up so bad was because I was afraid that I would accidently let a horrible thought cross my mind which I feared would manifest itself into a nightmare.

I was completely shocked I was unable to wake up from the dream, or carry on conversations about it. I think that was also a contributing factor on why I wanted to wake up. I think what eventually woke me up was that I coughed in my dream which I must have done in real life because I woke up just then.

The dreams I have been having don't really seem to pertain to any fears or worries I have in real life, or to what I was watching on TV or thinking about before I went to bed, which seems a bit strange.

Edit: Also, the dream felt like it lasted for about 20 minutes, which is a long time compared to how much I remember from most dreams. In reality I was only asleep for like 3 hours before the first dream ( which was the lucid one) ended and I woke up. The strange thing is that I had another dream after that and it was not lucid and seemed to last for hours. It was the one I described (poorly) above.

Thank you all for your input and advice.

Stars for everyone.

just try and relax and focus will to bring you back...ride your will it will always bring you honme..evenn if takes all night

reply to post by AthlonSavage


You know, I had to read that like 3 times to understand it, but once I did it made a lot of sense.

Originally posted by Renegade2283
reply to post by DarkKnight21

 

I understand that, but Im not really facing any problems if I am actively controlling my dreams. They are not recurring dreams either, each one is different and some of them are not even nightmares. I believe that the vivid dreams are a result of me recently stopping medication regiment that was suppressing my dreams before. My main fear is that if I get to a state of lucid dreaming again I might accidently let some horrible thought enter my mind that will then manifest itself into a nightmare. Im not the kind of person that can restrict my thought path, sometimes while I am trying not to think of something, I end up thinking of the very thing I am trying to avoid.

If you are concerned that you might have a lucid dream-turn-nightmare, it has happened to me more than once and is an empowering thing. Talk about facing your fears without any fear of consequences! Just for example, I was being chased (in a dream) by a vicious creature, through a dark, winding, path thru the woods, with all kinds of obstacles in the way. The dream suddenly turned lucid and I shot up into the air by mere will, pointed straight at my foe and yelled, "Hey- this is MY dream! I get to decide what happens!!! So I'm gonna fly around and have fun and you're gonna stop chasing me..." (or words to that effect)

Point is, the moment it became lucid dreaming, was the moment I KNEW I had total control over the "screenplay." Every lucid dream I've ever had (haven't had them in a while) if any negative components materialized, I had total power over the situation and no fear. I don't know if that is everyone else's experience or not.

I have even had nightmares (not lucid) where I remember saying "I wish this was a dream so I could change what's happening!!!" So even in my dream-life, my mind knows I have total control during lucid dreaming.

I was reminded of the movie Inception.....

Oh, and about your presenting problem of not being able to wake yourself up during lucid dreaming. Been there, done that too! I did all the "slap myself" and stuff you mentioned, all to no avail.

Finally I said, well fine... may as well have fun with this. And started flying. Learning how to make sharp turns in the air, do loops, etc. Before I knew it, I was awake and wishing I could do it again.

For a long time after that, anytime a dream became lucid, I'd say, "Oh cool, this is a dream..." and immediately I'd start flying again, lol...

I don't know what the point of lucid dreaming is supposed to be, but I think it has something to do with empowerment and inner strength. So 'live the dream' when it happens, because trying to bail out of it might be the same as giving up on yourself.

Originally posted by Renegade2283
reply to post by KhufuKeplerTriangle

 

Thanks, I will definitely try exercising and using a dream journal. The second dream I had last night was so odd that I cant really describe it. It involved a bunch of us being taught that we have to kill each other, then we were in a forest and had to fight each other to the death. I recall running through the forest really fast and dodging arrows and stuff. At one point, I threw ( yes threw) an arrow at someone and killed them. I did some other weird spin-like moves and killed some others with a spear. I remember there were Humvee's with machine-guns guarding the exits and we were all like living in a community out in the woods. I had formed a friendship with someone. I don't know, it was really weird and specific.

In all reality that is a pretty poor description, but it is just so jumbled up in my head that I cant really describe it well.

Edit: I found this dream particularly disturbing because I don't even like to kill a spider much less a human being. Does that make me like a psychopath or something? Im normally a live and let live kinda guy.

edit on 24-10-2012 by Renegade2283 because: (no reason given)

You mentioned something about being sick in the opening paragraph. Your body is fighting and killing germs. You have an alliance on your side (like, a 'good bacteria' that is in symbiotic relationship with you and also threatened by the germs?)

Just a thought. Your dream may be simply your mind over matter-- fighting hard to get rid of the illness during sleep.

Most of my dreams involve not being able to express verbally while cruel people pick on me LOL.

However, when a rare lucid dream comes, they can be sooo weird. Most of the time, I don't remember. Most of them are journeys, quests for something -- and there is a lot of ground covered. Often I see many roads, cities, and end up on a boat to somewhere strange.

Sometimes there is fleeing, but not as much combat etc. as childhood dreaming. I used to dream a lot like you, about woods, and flights, and levitation, etc. The jumping thing you mention, I did that too... weird huh? Maybe there is something to all of that.


The latest lucid dream I remember was odd:

I was with a girl (it might have been my dream guide or a fragment of the self that needs to be saved).
I was trying to protect her. We were fleeing from an unknown male pursuer, maybe my dead dad. He was crazy lol. But anyway, we broke out of the brush by the side of a lake.

There was no boat, but the pursuer was almost there, on us. There were two children's wagons, plastic radio flyers. My son has one. (We are dealing with CPS right now due to inability to cope with autism).

I pushed the wagons into the lake, and held them together with the seat belts so that the other girl could get in and ride safely across the water. I was determined to save her even if I drowned. I was confident we could escape.

Then, right in front of us, there was a huge dark brown whirlpool of floodwater. I forgot to mention, the lake was swollen with rain, and the sun was going down but it was showing colors in the clouds like after a big storm. Beautiful scary nighttime sunset....

anyway, i thought for sure the whirlpool would have us, as it was about 10 feet wide.
However, we managed to skip across somehow -- the wagon shape wasn't good for sailing and it just went over.

However at that moment, when I was sure we had gotten away, a tsunami came from the shore across from the whirlpool and doubled back toward us. By the time i saw it, it was about to crash over our heads. Actually it was not a curl, it was a swell. It carried us back toward the whirlpool and i knew we were going to die.

Then i woke up. not in terror like the emotional dreams, but invigorated and shocked.