Unable to wake up from lucid dreams?

[heather the fileseeker]

So the past few weeks have been a nightmare....literally. I've been lucid dreaming on random nights(I'm not trying to) and those dreams are getting harder and harder to wake up from. At the start, I'd wake up with when I fell or pressed my eyes closed in the dream, and wake up with 1-2 minutes of sleep paralysis. But no bad dreams until about 4 days ago, the first night I had nightmares I had a multi-teired dream, and each layer was worst than the last. I woke from it with sleep paralysis for about 5-10 minutes, and my alarm was blaring, it had been going off for over an hour and did not wake me. Then on the weekend I had the worst of these experiences, I had horrific nightmares and when I tried to wake up, I'd have a dream that I was in my room, waking up and then some sort of shapeless monster would attack me, I'dd realize it was a dream, push myself awake and almost be able to move/wake up, and then I'd fall back into another dream. I felt like I was drowning, just skimming the surface with my fingers before getting pulled back down. Then, when I did manage to wake up and pull myself out.....I found out I had slept through a whole day. It was the middle of the night on sunday, and I went to sleep on saturday. The other people who live with me had been gone since thursday, so I had been left to sleep there for over 24 hours. I'm honestly super paranoid of this happening again and missing work, so I've been living off 3 hour naps during the day when someone can wake me.

Anybody ever had this issue? Any ideas on how to stop it?

Edited June 29, 2013 by heather the fileseeker

[White Crane Feather]

So the past few weeks have been a nightmare....literally. I've been lucid dreaming on random nights(I'm not trying to) and those dreams are getting harder and harder to wake up from. At the start, I'd wake up with when I fell or pressed my eyes closed in the dream, and wake up with 1-2 minutes of sleep paralysis. But no bad dreams until about 4 days ago, the first night I had nightmares I had a multi-teired dream, and each layer was worst than the last. I woke from it with sleep paralysis for about 5-10 minutes, and my alarm was blaring, it had been going off for over an hour and did not wake me. Then on the weekend I had the worst of these experiences, I had horrific nightmares and when I tried to wake up, I'd have a dream that I was in my room, waking up and then some sort of shapeless monster would attack me, I'dd realize it was a dream, push myself awake and almost be able to move/wake up, and then I'd fall back into another dream. I felt like I was drowning, just skimming the surface with my fingers before getting pulled back down. Then, when I did manage to wake up and pull myself out.....I found out I had slept through a whole day. It was the middle of the night on sunday, and I went to sleep on saturday. The other people who live with me had been gone since thursday, so I had been left to sleep there for over 24 hours. I'm honestly super paranoid of this happening again and missing work, so I've been living off 3 hour naps during the day when someone can wake me.

Anybody ever had this issue? Any ideas on how to stop it?

Yes

A couple things.

Go for a run or do something strenuous.

Try to remain calm if you find yourself in SP. don't react and don't engage yourself. Simply tune your mind to something specific like your breathing or your toes. Remember the SP is part of REM sleep. Rapid eye movement. Your body may be paralyzed but your eyes are not. That's where the term comes from because your eyes are darting around when you are sleeping. You have conscious control over your eyes. If you are lucid enough and in a dream scape that you do not like or sp simply roll your eyes back into your head and stubbornly refuse to participate. You will wake up from anything.

Let me know how it goes, and if things escalate pm me. Ill walk you through whatever you need to get over this.

[libstaK]

If you are aware you are dreaming you should be taking control of the dream and deciding how it goes instead of trying to wake up from it. I would suggest meditation and creative visualisation. Create a scene of perfect serenity and ideal place that you love. If you keep repeating this imagery in meditation and learn to hold it the next time you have a moment of lucidity in your dream you can grasp the opportunity to go to your happy place. From there you can decide you wish to wake up and in your dream start to move your toes, then feet and same with your hands also decide you have had a great sleep and look forward to waking.

A true lucid dream will allow this control, what you seem to be experiencing is small pockets of lucidity which then get drowned out by your subconscious projecting it's fears and pulling you back into unconscious sleep.

Another trick is to go into creative visualisation before you go to sleep, get yourself relaxed and happy before you nod off - you will then teach your mind to focus on your happy place and have a good chance of going there regardless of lucidity.

[simplybill]

"I've been lucid dreaming on random nights(I'm not trying to)"

Just wondering if you're confusing "lucid dreaming" with "vivid dreams". Lucid dreaming is something that is purposely engaged in.

Having said that, I would caution you about engaging in ANY activity for the purpose of escaping from reality. I have used lucid dreaming on two occasions AS A TOOL to free myself from recurring dreams that were taking a toll on me emotionally. I discourage anyone from practicing lucid dreaming as a form of entertainment.

[heather the fileseeker]

"I've been lucid dreaming on random nights(I'm not trying to)"

Just wondering if you're confusing "lucid dreaming" with "vivid dreams". Lucid dreaming is something that is purposely engaged in.

Having said that, I would caution you about engaging in ANY activity for the purpose of escaping from reality. I have used lucid dreaming on two occasions AS A TOOL to free myself from recurring dreams that were taking a toll on me emotionally. I discourage anyone from practicing lucid dreaming as a form of entertainment.

No, I am able to control my actions, and consciously know what I'm doing/what might happen, but I am not initiating this in any way before I sleep. Lucid dreaming by definition is any time your are aware you are dreaming or can control your motives. Many people lucid dream naturally.

[heather the fileseeker]

Yes

A couple things.

Go for a run or do something strenuous.

Try to remain calm if you find yourself in SP. don't react and don't engage yourself. Simply tune your mind to something specific like your breathing or your toes. Remember the SP is part of REM sleep. Rapid eye movement. Your body may be paralyzed but your eyes are not. That's where the term comes from because your eyes are darting around when you are sleeping. You have conscious control over your eyes. If you are lucid enough and in a dream scape that you do not like or sp simply roll your eyes back into your head and stubbornly refuse to participate. You will wake up from anything.

Let me know how it goes, and if things escalate pm me. Ill walk you through whatever you need to get over this.

Hmm, interesting! I suppose in a way I've been doing that in my dreams, but the moment I'm actually wakeful and in sp I fight like hell and that's what's dragging me back asleep.

I have noticed the more I resist,the deeper of dreams I get into. I also usually feel ill/dizzy in my dreams, and am too caught up to make informed physical decisions. I go into the flight reflex by instinct and that's probably not helping me get out of these scary dreams. Even though I know I'm in a dream, I still act as if the monster in front of me is real.

As for exercise, oh boy. I have a full time job, a horse, and I kickbox, so I'm going to bed plenty sleepy haha.

Edited June 30, 2013 by heather the fileseeker

[White Crane Feather]

Hmm, interesting! I suppose in a way I've been doing that in my dreams, but the moment I'm actually wakeful and in sp I fight like hell and that's what's dragging me back asleep.

I have noticed the more I resist,the deeper of dreams I get into. I also usually feel ill/dizzy in my dreams, and am too caught up to make informed physical decisions. I go into the flight reflex by instinct and that's probably not helping me get out of these scary dreams. Even though I know I'm in a dream, I still act as if the monster in front of me is real.

As for exercise, oh boy. I have a full time job, a horse, and I kickbox, so I'm going to bed plenty sleepy haha.

Ok good.

yes it is the fighting part that's carrying with it the negativity. I know its hard to be lucid enough to remember what to do, but just talking and reading about it, when it occurs again, you will be more aware. If you can stay calm and not fight some incredible things can happen.

If you can remember to stay calm when you are in SP, (I know its difficult, I cant always do it either) then just relax but hold your awareness on your breathing. If you can hold your awareness right, a vibration will start up in your chest or potentially in your legs. It will feel like touching a washing machine on spin cycle but at a much higher frequency. You may also hear a very loud noise. Something like a jet engine or massive waterfall. When this happens you have three choices. Let it take you and you will fall into a very vivid dream, roll your eyes back into your head to force you to snap out of it, or if you feel something is in the room with you, you can jump up and use your kickboxing to kick its ass. When you jump up you will be experiencing on out of body experience or what others consider to be a specific kind of lucid dream. There might be something in the room with you. Don't worry it cant hurt you, its apart of you. If it bothers you, leg kicks and elbows work well. The important part is that you own your shadow. Once you start taking some conscious control over your altered states in stead of just reacting instinctually you can master some of these problems.

Let me know if I can help at all.

[The Dreamer - Hybrid89]

Ive been a Lucid Dreamer since I was a kid. Ive been triggering them for quite a few years now.

I agree with some of the things above and some I do not.

However I would agree with the fact, that you need to ventilate stress, you might not realize you have excess stress. It can cause us to do crazy **** lol. Awake or asleep.

I'd also advise you to take a closer look at what you eat, your lifestyle in general.

From my experience you have quite a few different types of dreams.

Ive had something similar to yours, Where i'd be having a nightmare only Id wake up to another dram and this would go on for a total of 4 or 5 times. The dreams were so real, at one stage I woke up to my parents and a wave of relief swept over me, only my parents werent my aprents, I was asleep adn they turned into monsters who attacked me. I woke up to another nightmare. one after the other. It was quite, terrifying. In the end I became afraid of the dark, who wouldnt. For the record, that fear didnt last too lnog, I'm very stubborn and don't like being afraid of things so I got over it.

Anywho, if I had to guess and my gut tells me that something in your life, is affecting you to the point where these dreams have manifested. Thats my take on it, call it a hunch.

[Himawari69]

Try looking up at the sky during a lucid dream, or spin and fall back, these actions seem to startle me awake during dreams. You can also stare at your hands intently, and concentrate on the smaller details of your palms. This works in waking me as well

[all16universes]

I know this is an old thread, but for the sake of sharing info to those who might be reading this looking for answers I will add my input.

The easiest method (if you remember to do it) to end a bad sleep paralysis episode is to change your breathing pattern. Your mind and body are not fully connected and communicate through various signals. Consciously changing your breathing pattern will alert your body to end paralysis since it knows you must be conscious to have done such a thing. Try it out if SP scares you.

[RedNova]

One thing to help you if you wake up and find yourself in SP... The thing I have learned with sp is that whatever your state is, whether you are afraid/happy, that is what you will project and it will effect your next dream. For example, if I wake up and find myself in SP: If I freak out and panic because I had a nightmare, I'm going to experience negative things such as another nightmare or negative hallucinations. If I wake up in SP and reflect positivity, I get the opposite.

Basically, just try to calm your mind if you wake up in a SP state. If you can't get out, then that's fine! Take control, calm your mind, and figure out what is causing all this in your dreams!

[WhispersInTheAttic]

I'm sorry to hear that you have to go through this-I'd be terrified if I ever went through this. I've never had this happen to me before, but I can understand where the fear comes from. Before going to bed, try meditating and taking a long hot bath before going to bed. Not sure if this will help you or not but it might put you at ease before you go to sleep. Another thing you could try is watching a real funny movie before heading to bed. I suffer from quite a few nightmares but I never had lucid dreaming before. Pm me if you ever need someone to talk too ever. Pretty good listener and I won't judge you by what you tell me about what happens in your dreams. Can only imagine the kind of fear you go through each night whenever this happen. My thoughts are with you.<3