Thread: Unpleasant and painful false awakening

I have had a recurrent nightmare a few times before I knew about Lucid Dreaming. I have had heard about OBE and Astral Projection back then and I was very curious and fascinated but I thought they were just myths.

The repeated pattern is that I am floating over my bed for a while unable to go down then falling unable to stop. At this point I'm not aware that I'm dreaming. Then I think that I woke up (which is not true) and when I try to get up, I feel so weak, and fighting to stay conscious. Then I feel a strong pressure on the back of my neck, like something is trying to get out. I try to fight it for a while, but eventually it comes out very painfully, and I find myself back in my bed or falling again, to try to get up again, then I try to walk to my mom to tell her what is happening to me, and usually finding it difficult to talk, sometimes I manage to tell her but she doesn't believe me, then the back of the neck thing happens again and I'm back in bed. It happens many times during one dream, so when I try to remember, I can't tell how many times I had this dream. It is really confusing.

When this thing comes out of the back of my my neck, is looks like when a demon or so comes out of a possessed person in movies minus the black color, it is white or transparent, and I can watch it in a third person view sometimes, or at least I can see what is happening to me somehow.

I always thought this experience had something to do with crossing to the dream world since it always happens shortly after I fall asleep. The memory of these dreams always made me feel uneasy.

Then I learned about Lucid dreaming and had a few Lucid dream, but never really felt weird sensations. Probably because I mostly have DILDs except once I had a DEILD but the SP was really peaceful.

A few months ago I had the back of the neck thing happen while I am lucid dreaming and I tried to deal with it, and had like 5 false awakenings until I could get rid of it, and continue the dream with more control. That time is not why I wrote this post, but if you are interested in the experience, it is on my Dream Journal:
Lucid dream, False Awakenings, Recurring Nightmares, and more... - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

The reason I'm writing this post is that I just woke up an hour ago from a very painful experience.

I was having trouble sleeping, and the last time I checked the clock it was past 8 am I and woke up around 9 am, so it wasn't a long sleep as usual with this experience.
I was having a normal dream and I realized I was dreaming, I was excited but somehow I was floating over my bed unable to change my position. I almost always have full control over my body when I LD, but his time I had only control over my mind. I ignored that and tried to conjure something behind the door while floating over my bed and failed.

Then suddenly I was in my bed thinking I'm awake but I wasn't. I had very painful sensations.
I felt like a couple of balls are moving inside my skull, they were moving and crawling under my skin, and I was shaking badly.
I also felt hot air coming out of my ears. I can't remember every sensation now, but I was in so much pain and trying to fight it. I tried to move my body and it made things worse. It all felt so real but I think at some point I realized that it wasn't because I tried to snap out of it and I woke up. Is it common for a false awakening to be so painful? It didn't feel like sleep paralysis because that's not how it felt in previous experiences but probably the same person experiences it in many different ways. I also thought SP happens when you start dreaming not before you wake up, but I'm not sure about that.

I couldn't go back to sleep and found myself googling Astral projection then OBE symptoms, and found some similarities like the floating, shaking, and probably the buzzing (my memory is fuzzy about the buzzing because I was so focused on the pain in my head). I don't have a certain opinion about OBE or AP yet. I sort of think they are lucid dreaming, but life taught me not to reject any theory completely until it is proven wrong so I'm open to change my mind about them one day.

I wrote this experience because I wish to understand these nightmares with so much physical and emotional pain. It is hard to imagine why my mind would put me through a horrible experience like that. I thought discussing it here would help. Also sharing experiences or feelings in written words usually helps me tune out of them.