How to get out of a lucid dream?

**TimO** · 01-09-2011 12:10 PM

Hey, im new and im from The Netherlands so sorry for my English.

So im new and i wanted to know how to get out of a lucid nightmare.
And i saw Inception and i though maybe just shoot myself trough my head xD

but......
is there another way?
to be honest im a little scared of lucid nightmares :\

**Skiddo** · 01-09-2011 12:28 PM

Well, I don't really know from experience (no lucid dreams yet) but apparently if you get too excited you will probably wake up on your own. Maybe being scared will be enough to wake you up?? If not, try something you have never tried before such as flying, maybe this will excite you enough to wake you??

**Zephyrus** · 01-09-2011 12:33 PM

from my experiance, just relax, close your eyes, and try to forget about everything, you should be able to wake up

**Winamp** · 01-09-2011 01:39 PM

If you find yourself in a nightmare, and you want to exit the dream, just close your eyes and fall back.
Or if you want to stay, close your eyes and think of something beautiful, and say "When I open my eyes i will be in some beautiful place"
I'm glad if I helped

**TimO** · 01-09-2011 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by AustralianFire

from my experiance, just relax, close your eyes, and try to forget about everything, you should be able to wake up

So.... you say i need to close my eyes and forget everything to get out of the dream and winamp says i also can close my eyes and think about a beautiful place so i also can sort of teleport to another place?

**kookyinc** · 01-09-2011 04:07 PM

Usually I'll just close my eyes tight and then open them quickly. Inception, while a good (ok, adequate) movie, got many facts about lucid dreaming wrong.
Alternatively, you could just stop focusing on the world around you. Then your body will start to focus on the feeling of being in bed, and you'll wake up.

**Raspberry** · 01-09-2011 05:00 PM

Stay still, close your eyes, don't move. The more you cut off your senses the more chance you have of waking up. That's why when you first become lucid you're supposed to walk around, looking and touching things so that your senses are interacting with the dream and it keeps you in it

**Burke** · 01-09-2011 05:06 PM

I just shut my eyes really tight, think to myself, "wake up" and open my eyes really fast and strong. It hasn't failed me yet!

**Olysseus** · 01-09-2011 08:28 PM

I find spinning like a top will immediately terminate a dream. Sometimes I will wake up from doing this, but most of the time I will enter a new dream. However, as I am spinning, the old dream fades into darkness. Before I fall into a new dream, in the dark state, I can focus all of my energy on waking up and do it. Anyhow there are a number of different ways to focus your will on waking up.

I also agree that while inception was a decent movie, the fundamental crisis of not knowing whether you are dreaming or not was bogus. You definitely do not need to kill yourself in a dream in order to wake up. Typical Hollywood melodramatics.

The other thing is that most nightmares are a way for your subconscious to tell you things. If its possible without being uncomfortable, you might want to try looking up some common dream symbols and trying to identify what your subconscious is trying to tell you in dreams. For example, I once actually had a nightmare that a friend of mine was chasing me with a knife. I decided to terminate that friendship. Years later I understood that this person was abusive to others and I was glad I had stopped being around them. Your dreams are telling you things all the time, and it is worth acting on what you see in dreams. Nightmares can be your subconscious telling you that something needs to change. If you are open to the question, sooner or later, you will realize what needs to change.

**Nufeather1** · 01-09-2011 08:48 PM

I usually shout "WAKE UP!" when semi lucid in a nightmare, but if im fully lucid I relax and think of ways i can overcome those phobias, those end up being pretty good lucids well unless I wake up finishing the action(ex: round house kick in dream= falling out of bed kicking air on rare random ocassion lol) hope that helped!

**atkins513** · 01-20-2011 08:52 AM

All of the above suggestions are nice, but the true most reliable method for leaving a lucid, including sleep paralysis is to take very deep long breaths in and out.. repeatedly, until you see the dream fading around you (usually takes about 10 seconds). The reason this works flawlessly is because the body notices any sudden changes and will awaken the dreamer... hence, this is why so many LDs fail due to being over excited.. breathing, heart rate, and other factors.. this is the 100 percent fail proof method I have used.. and it is quick. Spinning, falling back, and some of the other things suggested are typically used as methods for increasing lucidity, teleporting, or staying IN THE DREAM... and falling back, and spinning are both methods known to create false awakenings also... To get fully out of Lucid dreams, including false awakenings and SP, use this method...
If you have anymore questions about this let me know..

**Puffin** · 01-20-2011 04:33 PM

Just relax, close your eyes, and float. Lose attention of everything around you and it might destabilize the dream so you wake up. Or, you can try closing your eyes and falling backwards into nothingness, which can also help wake you up or send you into a new dream (FA). Those techniques have worked for me in the lucid nightmares I've had.

But if you have control, don't wake up! Just act annoyed and tell the dream, "stop it, this isn't funny" in a commanding voice. Then believe the source of the nightmare will go away. That works too.