Narcolepsy

As the title says, I have a sleeping disorder caused Narcolepsy, and this has many side effects. The one I'd like to talk about is the lucid dreaming. Is there any way to stop? I can only sleep for about 45 minutes tops before I wake up and have to force myself to fall back asleep. This happens many times every night. I'm wondering if perhaps the dreaming has something to do with it. REM sleep is the only stage I enter when I fall asleep it seems, and I go into it immediately, rather than after going through the other normal phases first. And the dreaming.. Always lucid. I always know it's a dream. I used to be able to control them, but now I can't anymore. They just go wherever they go. Waking up is an extremely unpleasant feeling. I feel exhausted, my body aches, and I can't help but wonder does the dreaming have anything to do with any of that?

Hi NarcGuy.

OMG LUCID EVERY TIME :o I'd say you're really lucky, but I see that might not be the case for you personally. I'm not sure if waking up exhausted is directly related to being lucid. I do think that even if the dreams were nonlucid, you might still wake up exhausted. I don't know how or why, but have you ever asked your doctor how sleeping directly into the REM phase might affect you physically?

When you start lucid dreaming, do you engage in your surroundings? Because for most people, not paying attention to the dream causes them to lose lucidity and just dream normally. If the lucid dreaming is not responsible for the tiredness when you wake up, I hope you are interested in learning how to gain more control once you're lucid so you don't have to ignore a very special skill. That way, you make the most out of your dreams and sleep.

Good luck!

Very good answer, Paigey!

Your doctor would be the best to answer your question about being tired, but I think it has something to do with you not having NREM. last two stages of NREM, stage 3 and 4 is when you sleep the deepest sleep and when body restores, repairs and re-energizes itself. So you are probably without these benefits of deep sleep and that may make you tired. Also, waking up that many times a night and having hard time falling asleep can make you feel not rested as well.

People do ask this question here from time to time if lucid dreams make you tired. Most of the answers is no. To the contrary, they make us happy and energized. But the story may be different, if all your dreams are lucid and especially if you lack NREM sleep. Sorry about that. Hopefully your doctor will be able to help to get you more restfull sleep. Good luck.

I thought so too at first my friend! Ever since I was a child I have been having lucid dreams. Not as often when I was younger, but then I could SERIOUSLY control them. Yes, going into REM so quickly when I sleep is the major problem of the disorder I think, because of that I don't get any deep sleep and the sleep I do get is insufficient. Its very hard for me to make it 8 hours without having to take a 15 minute nap or so during the day (after which I feel fine, only when I try to sleep at night for 8 hours or so is it painful and exhausting). And to gab, what you said about lucid dreams making you happy, I agree. They were always awesome. At first. But I think having 4 or 5 of them on a nightly basis, and not being able to control them, has twisted the benefits. Many times - because I've lost control of them - the dream will end and I will wake up before I do what I want to do, and this makes me extremely frustrated and angry. And I try to go back to sleep a lot of times, so I can finish the dream. Sometimes it works. But rarely.

Now, my dreams have become more and more strange as time has passed. Like I said I used to have full control of them. But it has lessened to the point now where there is barely any control at all. I think this could be for a number of reasons. For one, having every dream be a lucid dream, perhaps changes the experience somehow. I know most people have to learn how to lucid dream, whereas mine just kinda started happening. And since I have them so frequently, I dunno, I'm not sure how that would affect someone. Anyway, here's what I usually TRY to do. Due to sleep paralysis episodes and the possibility of really intense nightmares, what I usually try to do when I'm dreaming is.. and this may be a little odd.. But I try to focus on sex, and lead the dream somewhere towards that. I do this because its easiest to focus on, and to avoid a bad dream, because when they're bad, they're really bad

I also have to be extremely careful in my dreams - this is why I think it may have something to do with the exhaustion. When I am in the dream, I feel everything. It's as if it is seriously happening. If someone touches me, or I touch something, or when I move, I know it's a dream, but it feels as if my body is really moving. But the problem is.. I have to carefully pay attention to the feelings, because at random moments, I begin to feel my real body lying there again, usually parts at a time but sometimes the whole thing. When I start to feel that, the dream starts to lose focus, everything becomes blurred, as I start to slip back into complete consciousness. If I slow down, stop everything, rarely I can keep the dream from failing. But it usually ends. This is the frustrating part. I don't know if anyone else has experienced something like this. The line between consciousness and unconsciousness for me is so blurred. I can almost feel my real body at all times, while simultaneously feeling my dream body and being able to move and do things with it. I really am not sure how to explain it lol it's very confusing to me