What Went Wrong in my Dream?

**ccmetz2020** · 11-22-2011 11:44 PM

Hello everyone, I've been lurking around different dreaming forums for a little while now and I have always been interested in lucid dreaming. I've read up on some of the techniques and am aware of the reality checking in order to determine if you are dreaming or not. While trying not to ramble too much, I'll describe a part of my dream where I became lucid:

Ok, so basically in my dream I'm in my dorm room, but my bed is in the middle of the room for some reason. I'm carrying a shot glass full of water and accidentally drop it on the ground. When I reached down to pick it up, I noticed something strange. The ground wasn't wet like it should have been and that's where I became lucid. I felt an extreme rush like I just got shot into my dream body. I decided to test out my lucidity and jump onto my bed which I successfully did, but right when I did that, my body started to feel very tingly and I felt a buzzing sensation especially in my teeth. I tried to fly (or levitate i guess) above my bed but I realized that I couldn't move and I was frozen. Everything went black and I was stuck in sleep paralysis for around 30 seconds before I could finally move.

This was my very first lucid experience and it came on kind of randomly because I haven't even thought about trying to lucid dream for probably a month before this happened haha. It was fun, but why was it so short? It seemed like once I made myself jump on the bed, I started to lose and get a tingly/buzzing sensation. Did I do something wrong?

**transient** · 11-23-2011 03:31 AM

That's the feeling you get when your body starts to wake you up. When you get that "tingly" feeling you need to stabilize the dream. You didn't do anything wrong.

**divinemission** · 11-25-2011 06:05 AM

That's usually how your first few lucids are too, I've noticed. Short and quick. I haven't had that many, but I have noticed that they have been getting longer with each one. It's happened to me a lot, waking up soon after becoming lucid. It's probably caused by over-excitement and not being able to control the dream well. Just takes practice and concentration.

**Darkmatters** · 11-25-2011 06:37 AM

Yeah, it sounds like excitement over going lucid made you wake up into sleep paralysis. That can happen if you wake up really abruptly I think.

What you should do when you realize you're lucid is 1st do a couple reality checks to confirm it, then settle down, try not to get overexcited, and just look around for a while. Soak it all in, and get yourself used to the idea that you're in a dream. People tend to go jumping around and flying and stuff, which just makes the excitement worse.

You should also learn some stabilization techniques to use if you think the dream is ending. There are tutorials - check the DV wiki.

**MissLucy** · 11-29-2011 03:31 PM

I had one just like it not long ago! Except I intended for it to happen.

I was on the bus, but it took a detour (nothing too special here), but then I realised we were on a dingy wooden bridge on the side of a CLIFF. This DID strike me as odd, but all I could think was "omg this is SO ridiculous, I'm just getting off and waking up." So I rang the stop bell thing, (the bus was driven by my coworker, hahaha) got off and just said "ok Imma wake up now.." so I remembered the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland" film, where young Alice is told to pinch herself when she wanted to wake up. So I decided to try that. Sooo I pinched myself and I could feel "numbness pins and needles" spreading from my shoulder (where I'd pinched myself) all over and I slowly lay down. So as not to FALL, and jolt awake. The last thing I remember from within the dream is my arms falling slowly to my chest, I was lying on my back.

I remained motionless until I was sure I was 100% awake and conscious, and got reeeeaaaally disoriented because I fell to my back but was in fact lying on my side XD

**Silenceimasleep** · 11-29-2011 07:44 PM

The excitement probably woke you, lol. This problem will eventually go away, but at first you will have to battle it. Once lucid dreaming is not so new to you, instead of "OMG IM LUCID!" you will think, sweet im lucid.
just remember to try to remain calm, Also learn stabilization techniques. I use rubbing my hands together the most, its very effective.
Trust your instinct btw, if you dont feel that you can stop rubbing your hands and stay lucid, then dont, keep doing it. A problem i have is that i always think, wow ive been doing this a little while i should be fine. then zip im back IWL lol.

Good luck!
-Silence