Exhausted in lucid false awakening, why, how escape?

I had my 2nd lucid dream a little while ago. It was a false awakening, but luckily I thought to do reality checks right away and I realize it as a dream.

Here's the weird part: The entire time, I felt extremely lethargic and sleepy. I was struggling the entire time just to keep my (dream) eyes open. I was able to move my arms and hands freely, as far as I can remember (to look at my hands and plug my nose as reality checks), but my body as a whole felt more exhausted and tired then I've ever felt before, is how I would describe it. Eventually I tried to move out of bed, but this triggered waking up for real.

Could the tired, exhausted feeling have come from still feeling my real body in sleep paralysis/REM atonia, while still being able to move imaginary 'dream hands'?
Looking back, I wonder if a good strategy would have been to simply 'fall asleep' in the dream, while repeating mentally things like 'this is a dream, you are dreaming.' Then maybe this would lead to a scene change or a new dream, while still lucid. What do you think?

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Originally Posted by Matt1

Could the tired, exhausted feeling have come from still feeling my real body in sleep paralysis/REM atonia

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Good call! I think that's exactly what causes it. I frequently get that lethargic feeling when I take Galantamine - in fact it happened just last night. I happened to wake up after 4 hours, so I took some Galantamine and dropped back off to sleep (been a long time since I've taken it or really even tried to achieve lucidity). No lucidity (of course - having not thought enough about it recently or remembered to do any RCs or anything), but I had a number of very bizarre dreams and in all of them I was slumped almost catatonic on my side either up against a wall or in a chair like a lump, just sort of 'there' and observing what was going on around me. In fact there was always the sense of the side of my head being pressed against some yielding surface very much like a pillow. I did reach that almost-lucid state at one point (when it was beginning to take a turn toward being pretty frightening) and I sort of remembered that I had experienced things like this before and that in these weird experiences I can fly or do weird things like that - but I wasn't really lucid. So I was able to fly lazily away from the gigantic flies that were swarming around me (actually they weren't gigantic, I was minuscle) but just ended up back in the same labyrinthine house standing in a room crowded with dozens of people who all seemed to be just waiting in line or something. Dreams like that really suck! I for one am thoroughly convinced 'real world signals' are to blame.

Being extremely tired and unable to open your eyes in the dream is usually caused by you accidentally thinking of your physical body in the real world. The best way to overcome this is to remember that you are in a dream and try to command your body in working order. Remember that your eyelids, like the rest of your body is just vivid imagery and can be overcome by your mind.

There is a slightly smaller chance that your dream self was being affected by your actual body in that you were still feeling the effects of sleep paralysis or something like REM atonia. To get over this problem I would recommend that you just stand by and wait until your actual body is in a deeper sleep.

For someone that is new at lucid dreaming I would not suggest that you go back to sleep inside the dream. The reason being that you will probably just fall into a non-lucid dream. (unless you are really good at something like DEILD or MILD)

I've experienced 'real world signals' many times from taking Galantamine, and in none of them was I thinking about my real body. These signals manifest in several ways - sometimes difficulty seeing or blindness, sometimes I'm paralyzed laying down (sometimes even in my own bed) and often I can feel my body and head being pressed comfortably against some soft yielding surfce exactly like a bed, except that I'm upright in the dream. It's often very difficult for me to walk and when I do I feel like I'm walking through molasses and listing hard toward one side as if I'm about to fall over. In one dream I found myself wearing socks and mittens and a bathrobe, and I could quite literally feel fabric against my skin all over (which I believe is why my dreaming mind conjured up all the clothing). I also have difficulty thinking clearly in these dreams, as if my mind is incapacitated somehow, like I'm very drunk or stoned.

So there's more to it than just feeling the effects of SP or REM atonia - it definitely involves actual sensations coming through from the sleeping body into the dream. Not being argumentive here, it's just that I've had a lot of experience with these sensations and I want to point out that the explanations above don't fit the facts. It is possible that someone who's lucid and begginning to think about their sleeping body might bring on the same effects - but for me that's not what causes it. I believe there's a definite neurological factor of sensations getting through. In my case I think this only happens when I take G - not entirely sure about that - I could go through my DJ if I really wanted to find out. But I know these same symptoms are also present frequently when people WILD (which is actually what happens from taking Galantamine). I suspect the G is making me a little too aware of sensory stimulus and opening a channel from the body into my dreaming mind. I think that's the key to it - being too aware, and that this often leads to waking shortly.

Matt1, by any chance were you also hearing voices near you, as if people were nearby talking or maybe music playing? That's another symptom that often accompanies the rest and I definitely got it last night. I found myself in dream after dream where I was just sitting propped against various sofas or against the wall along with dozens of other people in room after room of a big house and I could hear their quiet muttering all around me but was unable to turn my head to look at them other than whoever happened to be in front of me. I never really moved at all, just sat or lay or stoood there through each scenario, then I would find myself in a different room still surrounded by all these people.

** Edit
I just read through Sageous' WILD tutorial in the DV Academy section, and he mentions that when you're about to wake up is usually when these real world signals break through. That sounds right to me - it's like actual conscious awareness is becoming too strong and if it continues then you'll be awake. I think for me and many others the Galantamine causes this problem of making you slightly too aware and too near waking up, opening the neural pathways from the sensory organs to the brain that normally would be shut off during sleep.This can also happen from WILDing (without Galantamine) and I think often results in the dreamer waking up immediately or very shortly after noticing the sensations.