Hi all,

I'm totally new to this forum and topic.

The strangest thing happened to me last night and the closest explanation I could find online (not perfectly close) was lucid dreaming. Here is what happened:

I was dreaming about drawing a picture using white-board markers in a hallway. Suddenly I peeked into a nearby room and saw that the clock on the wall showed I was late for something. I went back out into the hall (still in a normal dream) to pack up the markers. When I went back into the room, the clock had a swash of purple paint over it. The walls of the room were now purple and all furnishings were gone. I walked into the room...

Suddenly I was wide awake but still in the purple room. This was very scary to me. I had a moment of just trying to collect myself; calm down, get a grip on what was happening. Then I looked around. I saw a window that was open to a small (also empty) courtyard and rain was coming down outside. I could hear it, see it, smell it. My thinking was this: This is not the room I am in because it isn't raining there. But then I thought - well, maybe it is raining now because I can hear it. So I walked to the window. Walking felt difficult; it took a lot of effort to move my legs. Then when I got to the window I looked at the rain and thought: this is real rain. I am here in this place with real rain. This was also a scary idea so I decided to close the window. I lifted my arm (with some effort) and managed to close the window. The realness of this experience caused me anxiety and I freaked myself back into the room where I was sleeping. I can't say I "woke up" because I was already awake in the dream, if that makes sense. I simply moved from the purple room to my room at home.

Anyway - I spent the next few hours trying not to sleep because I was afraid of being sucked back into the "dream world". Nothing was threatening there, but I didn't understand what was going on so I did not like it.

Was this lucid dreaming? Was it something else? Could it be a sign of a medical problem?

Just as past info - I'm over 40 and nothing like this has ever happened to me. I always have vivid, realistic dreams and often use a dream app on my ipad to look up the meaning of dream symbols, which I find helpful. I've now (today) read a bit more about dreams and can say that I have had a few experiences where I was partly awake and partly asleep and controlled my dream for entertainment purposes...but never have I been awake inside the dream like I was last night. A few times in stressful periods (many years ago) I have sleep walked and ended up some distance from my home. I am prone to nightmares and repetitive dreams.

Any info is appreciated. It seems like it could be a good thing, but I am sure you can see from the above that it is more than a little worrying to me.

Thank you!