Lucid but couldn't move my hands

I had a short lucid this morning where I couldn't move my hands. This became apparent when I tried to rub my hands to stabilize the dream, but they seemed paralyzed. I looked down and saw my arms were stiff with my hands folded and fingers interlocked. I struggled just to barely wiggle a finger. Confused and frustrated, the dream quickly faded.

On waking up, I was lying on my side. I noticed this as unusual because I almost always wake up on my back. I had one arm under the pillow and the other pinned under my body. It seems plausible that the position of my real body was affecting my dream body.

What could I have done in the dream to gain control of my hands? I guess I could have just willed it, but I was so unprepared for it that I didn't think.

I had a similar situation once; lying in bed in almost exactly the same position. (I was lucid, because I'd just seen a floating milk bottle go past) In that dream, I simply tensed my muscles and roared, trying to thrust everything outwards. It worked as well, I was able to get up.

Another technique I read about somewhere (ETWOLD?) is pushing your tongue against the roof of the mouth. I guess you could take this a step further and rub the tongue on the roof of the mouth and from there you may be able to rub your hands? It's a problem I've experienced myself a couple of times lately and the last time I managed to get my hands together to rub them and got some stability. But it was like they had ten ton weights attached to them and the dream didn't last long.

This happened to me a lot when I first started having lucid dreams. I would be unable to move my hands or legs. A way I learned to deal with this was to try to manipulate the world around me instead. Make things come to me with my mind, or float instead of using my legs to walk.

So frustrating! I get this all the time. If this happens, just keep going with the dream, and don't worry about it. Try to think about something else, and let your body do what it naturally does. Move your attention to your surroundings, or another part of your body. If you focus on it, chances are you will only make it worse.

Thanks so much guys. I've encountered the arm paralysis several more times since and just last night was able to overcome it, twice.

Like Cacophony and Robot_Butler said, I try to keep the dream going and solve the problem in a different way using the world. I don't struggle to move my arms, I just accept that I can't move them and focus on something else.

My solution was to spin. The first time, I was able to move my legs, so spinning was easy. That stabilized the dream and I could move my dream arms, no longer hung up on my physical arms.

The second time I couldn't move my legs either. So I imagined the world spinning around me. It took several seconds of concentration but I got the view spinning. This seemed to trick my senses into believing I was twisting my body or legs. After a few seconds, I was moving my legs and then my whole body.