Combat Nightmares

I am 34 and have had horrible nightmares my entire life. These nightmare cause me to clench my teeth while I sleep thus waking up with a headache more days than not. I started looking into Lucid Dreams and Dream Control as a way to combat these nightmares.

I litterally started researching Lucid Dreams 2 days ago. Funny thing is that I think I am or always have been very close to Lucid Dreaming BUT you out there with experience can tell me?

I will use last two nights as example. When I first go to bed, i lay there and focus on breathing. Within minutes hallucinations pop up and I teeter between dreams and back away again. I then drop into a dream and then wake back up. I wake up because I am on my back and can't sleep well on my back BUT this is where hallucinations start almost like images on the back of my eye lids. Any way the last two nights I have dropped into as many as 5 different dreams in the first 10 minutes that I layed down before waking right back up. Last night i was in the deep end of a public swimming pool down on the bottom picking up old cell phones???? I realized that i shoud be feeling the pressure on my ears but was not. After being down there for a while I needed a breath of air and was able to take a breath under water. I also realized this was not possible and did not want to try it again as i was sure to bring in water the next time. I never became lucid but seems like i SHOULD have.

So I have two questions:
1. Am I already very close to Lucid Dreams?
2. Did anyone else get into this to combat nightmares?

Yes, you are very close. You noticed that you shouldn't have been able to take a breath underwater, which was one step away from realising that you are dreaming.
I didn't get into this to combat nightmares, I never even dreamed before I heard about lucid dreaming. Keeping a dream journal has helped me have about 4/5 dreams a night, but very few are lucid ones. I don't know how I got lucid, they seem to be random for me. I feel like I should pick up on my reality checks and such, but I have other things that need doing more than reality checks during the day.

Welcome to Dreamviews!

Yes, it sounds like you are close to lucid dreaming, because you are realizing strange stuff, that could get you lucid. I feel, what you need is a little nudge from awareness. During day, you ask yourself "Am I dreaming", then you look around, do some reality check. Pretty soon, you will ask yourself this question when in a dream and it will get you lucid. I put together a collection of methods that you can practice to get you lucid.

And yes, lucid dreaming can and is used to get rid of nightmares. Some authors of lucid dreaming books recommend to "kill them with kindness". When you encounter something scary, usually a creature, you should tell them that you love them and you don't want to hurt them. You want to help them. It's based on the assumption (an educated one), that these things are just part of us. A part, that we don't like about ourself and we are rejecting it - we are fighting it. Many dramers report, that after they declared their love towards the 'monsters', the monsters changed into something cute and nonthreatening and even 'merged' with the dreamer. Please, post or PM any questions you have. Happy dreams:)

Oh God! You just reminded me having a dream underwater and out of breath dream long ago like 4yrs ago. When my dream was over i really thought my heartbeat stopped and i died! i woke up alarmed and gasped for air so bad O.o your not the only one going through this!

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Originally Posted by Avalanche

Yes, you are very close. You noticed that you shouldn't have been able to take a breath underwater, which was one step away from realising that you are dreaming.
I didn't get into this to combat nightmares, I never even dreamed before I heard about lucid dreaming. Keeping a dream journal has helped me have about 4/5 dreams a night, but very few are lucid ones. I don't know how I got lucid, they seem to be random for me. I feel like I should pick up on my reality checks and such, but I have other things that need doing more than reality checks during the day.

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I achieved a Lucid Dream last night! Only after two weeks of trying and not very hard at that. I was in an office building, I looked out window and saw something (can't remember what) which I knew could only exist in a dream. I immediately knew I was dreaming. I spun 360 and touched something and was pretty excited. I started closing garage doors on everyone in the dream that was causing me anxiety. Had 'relations' then decided I was going to fly. At this point i started to loose lucidity and it turned back into scary / anxiety dream. I was high up in the building, it was strorming out and I couldnt maintain flight in the office so I knew when I went out building I would fall to my death.
don't remember anything else. But the lucidity was amazing!!!

Well done, keep it up.