Trapped in a LD

Greetings DV! The past few months I've been able to obtain lucidity without much effort at all. This has been a gift in a curse. Many times they are extremely vivid and amusing to the point where it feels comparable to real life when I'm wasted only with better coordination.

Occasionally, I feel as though I've been in the lucid state for too long and decide I'd like to wake up and dream a new dream. Usually when I try to wake myself up, I shake myself. This works most of the time to an extent, but often times it results in a false awaking.

:panic:

I become trapped in my own dream! I remember a specific dream in which this happened upwards to seven times, waking up in the same bed I was sleeping in in real life. I waked out my door each time, the last time being to a warehouse setting filled with a variety of ordinary people also stuck within their own dreams. They informed me that some people simply have trouble waking up from their lucid dreams and that I was at a sort of nexus for these people. Naturally this frightened me as I felt I may never wake up to my real life again!

Of course, I woke up. Still, I was a bit shaken and hesitant to close my eyes again that night. I'm curious to know if anyone else has had a similar experience of this nexus zone I've described or been stuck in a dream for a prolonged period of time. If you have, you'll know it is frightening.

I've had a string of 12 FAs in a row, although those occurred after losing stability. Even so, I don't generally have issues waking myself up, but that's not something I usually do anymore, as I can deal with most in-dream situations, nightmare or no, and very much enjoy my long lucids. The only exception is if I want to record the dream while everything is still fresh.

All that said, I can understand why you'd want a change of scenery during those longer LDs. Fortunately, there are better ways of going about it than waking yourself up; research changing the dream scene to get some ideas.

And that 'nexus' was probably the result of you being caught up with the thought that you were unable to truly wake yourself up. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Also, I'd work on that clarity if I were you. "It feels comparable to real life when I'm wasted only with better coordination," doesn't sound like a vivid LD at all.

Oh, and welcome to DV. =P

Ahh good advice there. However, I've always struggled with dream control and to change the entire scenery of a dream sounds very difficult, almost like changing the dream entirely. I'm still working on being able to create and erase objects so I guess I still have some work to do. When you do decide to wake up, what methods do you usually use?

About vividness, I was actually pretty impressed with myself for being able to obtain such a feeling. Many of my lucid dreams I experience as normal dreams (which to me are comparable to memories) that I've consciously directed the course of. I must admit I do feel as though my mind is still foggy and clogged at any level of lucidity I've been able to obtain, to the point where I feel as though I may only be partially controlling my actions with my conscious mind. Maybe that is where control and clarity overlap.

I have a very personalized and abstract method of waking up that probably won't work for anyone else. It stems from nightmare experiences I had as a child where I was able to realize at some level I was dreaming and wake myself up. Eventually, it turned into a reflex that I've been fighting ever since I've gained greater control over things. Nowadays, to actually wake up, I simply pull from those experiences, or more specifically the archetype they created, and the rest happens by itself.

As far as vividness is concerned, it's very possible to experience lucid dreams that have a hyper-real quality to them. In other words, LDs can potentially seem much more detailed, and even more real, than waking life. Most of the time, it's all a matter of properly engaging sensory details. The more attention you give the world around you, the more detail you'll receive from it. Touching, smelling, hearing, seeing, and tasting the dream world is an excellent way to direct your attention in order to achieve a higher level of detail and stability.

Try it out, and see where it gets you.

I've only been able to wake myself from a dream on one occasion.. other than that, I'm a big fan of the spinning technique. Typically when you spin in a dream your dream surroundings will change, thus changing the entire dream. You should try it!

I think it's awesome that you're able to become lucid so easily. Mastering dream control should be the next focus for you.

I've never had this experience, but I imagine two things would help:
1) Keeping your head on straight. Know that you're in a dream, know that dreams do end, because REM phases don't last forever (to some dreamers' detriment :D).
2) I've found that closing and reopening my eyes causes me to wake up from lucid dreams, and has been a mistake I've made far too many times when trying to focus and conjure things in the dreamworld. This may be used to your benefit. :)

I've gotten stuck where I couldn't see anything and felt claustrophobic and felt like I was suffocating from lack of oxygen in the air. I was also shivering and had vibrations as well as a buzzing in my head that made it feel like my brain was being fried by an electric current.

The first time it happened I was being careful not to move because I wasn't sure if I was in a false awakening or awake and just in sleep paralysis, after I endured it I just ended up waking up.

The second time I knew it was a false awakening because I was more experienced, but even I was moving around I couldn't see and I was flailing around my dream room trying to wake myself up, eventually it all stopped and I was able to see again but then I became less lucid and then I woke up.

It has happened to me too, being unable to wake up and wonder why, the easiest way for me to solve that is close my eyes and try to open my real eyes.

Yea now that I think about it, that does seem to be a pretty consistent method of waking myself up. For example, whenever I'm trying to conjure up a lady friend to play around with I close my eyes and try to visualize what I want her to look like. More times than not, this results in me waking up in real life. I'm sure excitement plays a role in this, but I guess I can use this to my advantage next time the opportunity shows itself. Who knows, maybe it'll work for once.

:shadewink:

Are you crazy? Why go through the trouble of a lucid dream only to cut it short by forcing yourself to wake up? False awakenings are a good thing. I get if you are having a horrible nightmare and just want to return to the comfort of waking life, but just for the sake of waking up? You need treatment.

I remember when I was little and I didn't know how to tame nightmares but knew I was dreaming, I would just hold my breath. It can take a little while and if you can't hold your breath that long just take a quick breath and keep going. I realised this worked when I used to make the mistake of holding my breath under water in a dream.
But I too wonder why you would want to end a lucid. I remember when I was a kid, wondering if I was sleeping too long (the night before xmas) and waking myself up only to realise it was still the middle of the night. So your sense of time in a dream is probably just messed up.

Yea I would have to agree that my sense of time in dreams is definitely warped. In this particular dream it felt almost as though I had been in the dream for hours and hours which, naturally, started to get a little difficult to process. This was definitely a very faint lucid with little control so I was not thinking like I would in a normal, "full" lucid. Basically, because of the length of the lucid and the eventual feeling of being trapped, the lucid dream became a lucid nightmare. It got to the point where I had had enough of continual, unavoidable false awakenings and simply wanted to wake up and try again.

If you're lucid, why wake up?

Uh, I have a question. How long do you think you were in that dream?
And was this your longest Lucid Dream?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WakingNomad

If you're lucid, why wake up?

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EXACTLY. Every time I see someone post something like "Decided to wake myself up" the first thing that comes to my mind is "what a waste"