2003.07.29: Lucid Nightmares
Every now and then, I have a lucid dream. Sometimes I'm just aware that I'm dreaming. Sometimes I can change the rules of my dream and do all sorts of cool things (like teleport).
I have one recurring lucid dream. I have this one so often that it easily accounts for more than half of my lucid dreams. In it, I am lying down wherever I actually am in real life. My surroundings are identical to my real life setting, right down to the light levels. I'm lying in the same position as I am in real life. All I want to do is wake up. But I can't.
In fact, I'm unable to move at all. Due to the way that muscles stop responding to the brain when you are asleep (so that you don't go around acting out your dreams while you are sleeping), I am immobilized. I'm convinced that if I can move, I'll wake up. I strain terribly. My brain is shouting "Move a finger. Turn my head." My nerves refuse to carry my messages beyond my brain. I am trapped by my own sleeping body.
Paralyzed.
Then I wake up. I breathe a sigh of releif and start getting ready for the day. And then I realize that I'm still asleep. Instantly, I discover that I'm back in bed, in my original position, frozen in place.
I haven't woken up at all. I just dreamed that I did. And now I'm back where I started. I'll cycle through countless rounds of "waking up", only to discover that I'm never awake.
I hate this dream with a passion. The paralysis freaks me out. It's even more maddening that everything is so realistic because its almost impossible to tell when I've actually woken up. My eyes must be partially open for some part of the time in order for the setting to be so perfect.
I've been having this nightmare for over a decade. What recurring dreams/lucid dreams/nightmares do you have?
eric says:
i haven't had one for a while, that i recall, but i used to have recurring nightmares about tornados and other stormy weather-related disasters. but mostly tornados. like ten of them, looming in the distance, on a huge open plain, bearing down on me, my house, my family ...
jim says:
Wow! You and I have the exact same sleep condition.
I also have lucid dreams. They run the gamut from cool animated goth-superhero trippy flying dreams, to ones where I'll simply sit up in bed, and step on the floor. Something will make me realize that I'm dreaming, so I'll take advantage by doing things like gently pushing my feet up off the floor and floating to the ceiling. I find these dreams abundantly cool.
But I also get sleep paralysis. This is the worst feeling ever. In fact I get it pretty badly. It starts with some horrible, horrible nightmare imagery. Something very frightening in ways I can't even explain. At some point, something triggers and I realize I'm sleeping but I can't wake up. I stare up at the ceiling, but I can't move, totally immersed in fear. The dream is still going but I'm awake (I think?!). I try to move, make sounds if I'm sleeping with someone, anything to try and wake up.
It's horrific and exhausting. They're rare, happening once every 9 months or so. I did have a spell of them a while back, like four over the course of a six weeks while I was in Asia. I was on the antimalerial drug Larium, which is linked to bouts of mild insanity and other nasty things like that. But under normal conditions they happen when I'm under significant stress or sleep-deprived. I suppose it's a form of lucid dreaming. I'd love to learn more about this phenominon and what it means.
Brian says:
This is the best news I've had in years. I experience the EXACT same thing. I, too, have lucid dreams in which I am perfectly aware of what setting I am in, what position I am sleeping in, the lighting, the pillow I'm sleeping on, and even what program is on TV (the other night I literally watched Saddam Hussein's "supposed" address to the Iraqi's while I was asleep),...but yet I COULD NOT MOVE. My mind is screaming "jolt your arms, legs, head,...something hard enough to wake yourself up." Finally, I usually wake up, but feel intense anxiety for about an hour and am afraid to go back to sleep. Usually, if I do go right back to sleep, I slip right back into the dream. Do you ever get the sensation that someone is in the room, or that there is some sort of imminent danger about to happen, but you can't move to stop it? I get that feeling often. I'm writing right now because I've had these dreams for years, and constantly for the past 3 nights, including tonight (which is why I'm up right now). It is SO great to hear that someone else is having these dreams (not that I don't sympathize). I began to think that maybe I really was jerking in my sleep, but couldn't wake up - it felt like there was a possibility I could be having seizures. But, I'm sure now that is not the case. Anyway, sorry for the long post...I just needed to get this off my chest. Thanks!
Reika says:
Every time I go to bed I know I am going to have a nightmare.When I do,I know I am dreaming and I try to wake up from it because it feels so scary,but the problem is I can't open my eyes.I try hard but I just keep dreaming.After a while of trying to wake up,I open my eyes but then I see the nightmare showin into reality,so i realise I can't escape it,I usually say a prayer(while dreaming!)so maybe God will help me wake up.I always feel someone is watching me,or someone is walking in the room although im asleep.I once dreamt that something or someone was spining around me with his face covered saying "dont you wanna see my face?!I am NOT ugly!!" and that thing was spooky and kept saying that and laughing around me,and when I "woke up",I see the same figure around me and when I close my eyes I see it better,when I open them,less..but I soon realise I'm still in the nightmare.Is there a remedy for such things?I mean,I really wanna wake up from my nightmares,I get scared and they seem to last forever.I dont know if a thing that happened was a dream or not,just because of the fact I dont know when i'm awake or dreaming.Thanx!
Angela says:
I've had dreams like that. It doesn't scare me, because I do know what is happening at the moment. There's really no picture in my mind, I'm just laying there in pitch black, and can't move. I know exactly how that feels. I can't even open my eyes, and when I try, it spasms. Trapped in a sleeping body is the perfect way to describe it.
I usually just fight it until I wake up.... My BF thought I was having a nightmare, because I was humming while I was doing it, but it was actually a cry for help!
Angela says:
I've had dreams like that. It doesn't scare me, because I do know what is happening at the moment. There's really no picture in my mind, I'm just laying there in pitch black, and can't move. I know exactly how that feels. I can't even open my eyes, and when I try, it spasms. Trapped in a sleeping body is the perfect way to describe it.
I usually just fight it until I wake up.... My BF thought I was having a nightmare, because I was humming while I was doing it, but it was actually a cry for help!
Angela says:
I've had dreams like that. It doesn't scare me, because I do know what is happening at the moment. There's really no picture in my mind, I'm just laying there in pitch black, and can't move. I know exactly how that feels. I can't even open my eyes, and when I try, it spasms. Trapped in a sleeping body is the perfect way to describe it.
I usually just fight it until I wake up.... My BF thought I was having a nightmare, because I was humming while I was doing it, but it was actually a cry for help!
Joshua says:
Sleep paralysis is fairly common, (about 1 in 10 people) and can is associated with false memory, ufo abductions, past life memories, et al. With me I usually hear someone coming in through the backdoor and I'm unable to move, although for awhile I was spotting black ops and choppers. Try jerking your head when you're stuck there, as that is usually the first thing I'm able to do and the only thing to guarantee that your actually awake. I have to get up immediately afterward, and go sit in another room. Light, high pitched vibrations, and head elevation, tend to be the triggers for me, but are not always there. Strange that in Canada, most people with that problem see a night hag on thier chest, others see ghosts, some see aliens. I personally wonder why fear is so often a factor. Any ideas?
helen says:
I have exactly the same problem! It happens to me very often, once a month at least. In the middle of a regular dream I suddenly realize that I'm dreaming, and very often (although not always) I start feeling this horrible fear (I have never felt anything like that in a real life) so I try to wake up and I cannot. I try moving but I cannot move. At this very moment, it is as if I can see myself lying in bed and I can see my boyfriend who is lying next to me and I try to get his attention by moving (hoping that the movement would wake him up and he'd see that I am having a nightmare and he'd wake me up). But I cannot move at all and I realize that I'm still dreaming. Eventually I do wake up, all scared, but I fall right back to sleep, I fall back right in the same dream, and I'm trying to wake up again. This usually repeats 5-10 times. Sometimes these episodes happen more than once during the night.
Sometimes I get a variation and in my dream there is somebody there when I try to wake up, usually somebody evil that I am trying to escape.
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