"I must be dreaming, but I'm too tired to care..."

[Callista]

This has happened to me a few times over the years, and it just happened again during a nap I took just now: Being extremely tired during a lucid dream. Basically, what I got during the 1 1/2 hour nap were numerous false awakenings, some lucid and some not, and all ended before I did anything significant because I was so tired that I went back to sleep, usually before leaving the bed or even opening my eyes. (I know they were false awakenings because they were associated with some things that are not possible in the real world--my mom's presence, for example, or a man's voice in my all-female dorm.) Another time this occurred was at the end of a lucid dream I had in my early teens, during which I explored my grandmother's house. I found I was getting very tired, and I wondered whether it meant that my dream-self was getting tired because my waking-self was waking up. I kept the tiredness off for a while but eventually awoke. A third LD had me floating through the halls of my college dorm after a false awakening; I was too tired to do anything but float lazily around. This was also during a nap. I've had other, non-lucid, dreams in which I was tired as well. All three times, I was not very deeply asleep; and twice, it was during a nap; but I'm not sure what that would have to do with the feeling of tiredness in a LD. Ever experienced this? What's your ideas on the subject? Why is it possible to be asleep, dreaming, and tired at the same time?

[Seeker]

Happened to me just last night. I think sometimes it has to do with becoming lucid late a sleep cycle, just as you are exitting REM for a deeper level of sleep. I had the most amazing detailed dream last night, it went on for quite a while before I recognized I was dreaming. From that point, it was a continuous battle to keep lucidity. Not only because the LD was becoming fragmented, but because I had an almost overwhelming desire to let lucidity slip away and just 'fall asleep'. In the LD, I felt physically and mentally exhausted, like I had just been up for 24 hours.

[Jalexxi]

I've had this too, where I almost dismissed being lucid because it felt much easier to just go with the flow of the dream. Being really excited helped me here, since when it hit me that I was not only dreaming, but that I could turn the dream into a lucid dream (yes, that was a two-stage process for some reason), I did become lucid. Although I felt tired when I realized I was dreaming, when I became lucid, it was gone. I'm totally unsure what caused it, I thought it just to be something that can happen once in a while while trying to attain lucidity.

[thebodyelectric]

I seem to have a problem where I will realize I'm dreaming and just sort of let the dream take it's course anyway. It's like I'm watching a movie or something. I'll be sitting there and suddenly it'll hit me that this is quite obviously a dream and I won't choose to do anything about it, I just sort of passively observe my dream taking place around me. So I guess what I'm asking, is if anyone has an ideas/suggestions for getting myself to start toying with the dreams? thanks.

[BillyBob]

This happens to me alot, usually after failed WILDs (failed meaning only partial lucidity) and thats usually after about 5 hrs of sleep (or six)