I didn't want to start a new post as I saw three others with a similar theme: Lucid and can't wake up. I too experienced this when one of my dreams continued to play in my mind. I felt like I had someone holding my eyes open with toothpicks and I was forced to watch this movie play out. I even had a headache in the dream and I KNEW I had one IRL too. But my issue is not how to fix it because it will always eventually fix itself - we will wake up. My issue is WHY does this happen? I woke up exhausted and with a headache to boot! The dang dream just kept going and I, like in another post I saw, actually woke up briefly, went back to sleep only to have this same dream pick right up where it left off! It was seamless. So...does anyone know WHY this happens? Thnx