When I become lucid, I get so excited and scared that I lose it...help!

I had a lucid dream last night!!!

There was some hectic chase scene going on (I was being chased across the farm where I work). This Act of the dream ended (I tend to dream in Acts).

I then found myself talking with a friend of mine (a rare event in a dream for me, to be engaged in conversation, oddly enough this is what I love to do most in life) and realized he was looking and acting sort of weird and then suddenly I went totally lucid. I had the presence of mind to stay calm, tried to focus on the things around me but it was too much, I got too excited, then scared and the dream stopped. I am hesitant to say I woke up because I did not recall being lucid in my dream until I woke up and did some real world stuff in the morning.

So, this is exciting for me but I need some help. How do I stop from getting so excited and scared by the fact that I am experiencing a dream? I really want to stay calm when I go lucid and be present and explore the dream world, which is something my dream recall lacks anyway, that is, details and imagery. My dreams are not vivid and the recall is very linear plot based, not image based. How can I see more of my world in my dreams, move more slowly and stay calmer when I go lucid? Thanks for any ideas!

Congrats on your lucid dream! I believe it is completely normal to be too excited the first few times, and then once the newness wears of, one can get the excitement under control. I remember my first lucid dream ever when I was about 18 years old, I was so excited I wanted to do a somersault and I woke up, but I never did anything special to reduce the excitement, and at some point it just was not an issue any more after I had had a few more lucids under my belt.

Congrats! :thumbup:
As i have mentioned in the chat, excitement is fairly usual for beginners, and if it keeps happening, mantra like "When i realize i am dreaming, i'll stay calm" before/while falling asleep might help. :)

Mostly experience, there is no way to speed it up at least I don't know of a fool prove way to reduce this besides just experience.
Though maybe you could try at random points of the day to just pretend you're in a dream becoming lucid and remember that you want to stay calm and think over what you want to do next. Kinda like preparing a speech in front of a mirror, so when you finally step on the real scene you will not be as nervous.

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement. The consensus seems to be practice, stay calm, focus and be present. I regard these as helpful ideas for every moment of human consciousness, waking and dreaming. I'll keep at it!

Thanks again,

SR

Congrats!

My first four LDs were only about 4 seconds long. I would realize I was dreaming, become excited and wake up. Although one of those LDs Happened because my car was crashing and realized as I was going into incoming traffic.

I was still really excited for my first PLD but I remembered to stabalize. Unfortunately it wasn't very vivid because I didn't know to pause and look at details.

So moral of the story, as soon as you realize your dreaming, throw your hands together and start rubbin. Once you are stabilized, your halfway there. If your dream isn't all that vivid, make sure to look at your hands and the lines on your hands.This will make the dream a lot more vivid.