Thread: Hello, everyone. Crazy experience with lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis earlier

Hello, I am fairly new since this is actually my first post. I registered a couple of years ago (when I was becoming interested in lucid dreaming) but never actually wound up posting until now. I decided to jump right in with kind of a long story about a very odd experience I had earlier.

I've been taking melatonin occasionally and noticed that my dreams become quite vivid and interesting. I started keeping a dream journal and my interest in lucid dreaming and dream control has been revitalized.

I had nothing to do today and about an hour after I originally wake up I go back to sleep. This is always a recipe for vivid dreams and this morning was no exception. I become lucid fairly early on in the dream (confirmed my standard RC of looking at my hand) and I'm actually controlling my dream. The details are a little fuzzy but I remember I was pleased at how much I could control. I was even able to remember where I was sleeping in reality and what day it was. At one point I realize I want to change scenes and I remember reading somewhere I could do this by walking through a mirror. I actually wind up crawling through a medicine cabinet to some huge outdoor event. I begin to lose control over the dream and it becomes characteristically bizarre (as dreams tend to be). I tell myself to "wake up", a method which has never failed me before. I open my eyes and see my bed, but I'm unable to move or talk. Eventually I do move and I'm able to look at my hand and my fingers are all out of whack. So I'm back in the dream. The next thing I know I'm walking through a hallway in an unfamiliar house and I'm getting kind of desperate to wake up. I see a cabinet and I tell myself that if I crawl through it i'll be back in reality. So I crawl through the cabinet and end up on a bed but it's not my own and I'm still dreaming. I get out of the bed and wander through what seems to be a very nice house. I remember something I read on this forum about a machine that could control the duration of the dream. Ostensibly one would put this in a lucid dream if they want it to last longer, however in my case I just want it to end. I tell myself the machine will be around the next corner and it is. Basically it was a huge black chair with a plastic control panel in front. I get into the machine and I say I want the dream to last for two more seconds. The chair leans back and I feel the entire ground shake twice. I open my eyes and see my bed again, the exact same view I had before and the same sleep paralysis. I can't move and I try saying "Help, I have sleep paralysis" but to no avail. However once I realize that it is sleep paralysis I'm able to move my feet and actually get up. It took a while to convince myself I was actually awake.

So thanks for reading this whole thing, sorry about the length. While this experience was disturbing it hasn't turned me off to lucid dreaming. I'm looking forward to reading and posting in the forum.