"Forced" LD exit. How to handle hypnagogia pain?

[pontozero]

Last night I had one of the longest LD's most certainly in years. I fell asleep around 1h30am and woke up proximately at 2h15am without any recollection of having any dreams without being at least half-lucid. During that period I putted my best efforts to test dream control, dream exploration, meditation inside a dream, everything I could remember that had been on hold since forever. There were periods I was almost loosing awareness, where the dreamworld seemed to influence my mindset and play with my emotions (scaring me or infuriating me so much I was afraid my reactions were actually happening to my sleeping body as well, like screaming in my sleep for example). However, I was able to escape those scenarios and hop into different ones, over and over again. Then it happened. That familiar, extremely painful, shock wave that seems to pierce specific body parts and never fades, no matter what I try to do, no matter how focused I try to be in changing the dream. It's always a sharp electric pain in my sleeping body that pulls me out through exhaustion of not being able to handle it anymore. This time, it was so sever I was wide awake (no sleep paralysis, I checked) and I still felt the muscles numb for some brief seconds. The whole experience drained me and I was only able to type a few paragraphs lazily on the phone before getting back to sleep. When I'm entering a Lucid Dream, this type of event seems more manageable, it only lasts for so long until I enter the dream... but when I'm inside the dream it doesn't seem to stop, growing worse and worse until I decide to quit and wake up. It's frustrating, leaving me wondering if that didn't happen for how long would I be able to stretch my LD. Is this type of phenomenon a defense from the body to say that enough is enough? Is there a turn around to at least diminish the painful effects? Curious to see how other dreamers in the community manage this type of situations.

[AshkoreDracson]

I have had random sharp pains in a few of my lucid dreams, there was always a conscious or subconscious reason behind it. For example in a lucid dream I had several months ago, upon spinning to stabilize as I was entering the void, I felt a very sharp pain in my back, kinda like as if I was spinning but only my back and so I was twisting my spine kinda deal. Where is it that you feel pain? Is there any trigger/reason of any sort when it happens?

[pontozero]

Good question AshkoreDracson, really made me think about it trying to figure out a pattern. The pain seems to change place according to the dream. Sometimes is in the back of the head/neck, other times I recall the sharp pain in my stomach and the sides of the stomach, like in the kidneys. This time it was in the upper crotch/genital area. As for the reasons they seem to vary but now that I think about it, most seem to have an implicit threat/danger situation. Also, they always seem to occur on my most "successful" Lucid Dreams.

[AshkoreDracson]

Hmm, at this point I don't think that the place where you get the pain matters. It's about why you get it in the first place. Which brings me to this possible conclusion, it's highly likely that you have a subconscious belief somewhere that if something goes too well, it's probably because it is (to you) and something's wrong hidden somewhere. (Thus inducing pain) Or something along those lines anyways. You can get rid of that subconscious belief by setting an intent that it's not true anymore, maybe set that intent in waking life or in a lucid dream, or maybe even while meditating, you choose.

[pontozero]

Hmm, at this point I don't think that the place where you get the pain matters. It's about why you get it in the first place. Which brings me to this possible conclusion, it's highly likely that you have a subconscious belief somewhere that if something goes too well, it's probably because it is (to you) and something's wrong hidden somewhere. (Thus inducing pain) Or something along those lines anyways. You can get rid of that subconscious belief by setting an intent that it's not true anymore, maybe set that intent in waking life or in a lucid dream, or maybe even while meditating, you choose. That's something I never considered and seems quite possible. I'll make sure to integrate your advice into my routines and see where it leads. Thank you for your feedback Ashkore, really appreciate it