Constant lucid dreams. Only today I learn it's called a "lucid dream" HELP me STOP!

I think for almost 2 years now I have had many (too much to count) lucid dreams but was too naive to know what it was called and the meaning and explanation. I probably started noticing it after a horrifying OBE and since then I'm always in great fear when I start to lucid dream. I never knew the name and cause of it until today and in these dreams I always told myself and even characters in my dreams not to worry cause its just a dream. So when I wake up I find it totally odd that I knew I was dreaming and even telling everyone else I was. Now I know most people on here find it fascinating but for me it's only been terrifying. How can I reduce them if not stop them? Although I've had so many I've rarely been able to alter them because unfortunately it mostly happens when I'm going into a bad dream and I'm just sitting there in a panic saying to myself and others that I'll just wake up soon and usually end up making out with the person that's trying to kill me, hurt me or get all weird on me lol (i know, weeeird!) I think it's the fastest thing that comes to mind to counteract how terrifying my dream is sooo most of the nightmare-ish lucid dreams turn into a makeout for me to have a chance to runaway and wake up lol. I'm sounding so weird right now haha but help I can't handle these lucid dreams anymore just want to have a peaceful sleep or atleast not remember them. I think I may also have a slight anxiety so bad dreams are really not helping here. Thank you :)

A lot of people have used lucid dreams to combat nightmares. Instead of stopping them, which seems to be the extreme solution. Lucid dreams are not your problem, bad dreams are your problem. If you train yourself to control yourself within the dream then you can make the bad stuff go away quite easily. Have a look at this DV Academy class on Dream Control and Stabilization. I, personally, don't know how to stop lucid dreaming. I guess to stop paying attention to them would be my best guess, but I really don't know, because I try so hard to achieve lucidity.

I hope you find a solution to your problem. Good luck!

Aside from what RealDeal said above, which is the real answer, I have another thought, Ariak13:

You might want to do some more reading about what a lucid dream (LD) is and how it works. I suggest that you look at LaBerge's Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, and not at the definitions found online.

Why? Because I think you might have misunderstood what a LD is. If you were truly lucid, if your waking-life self-awareness and memory were truly present with you in your dreams, then these nightmares likely would not happen at all, and if they did you would have no real fear of them because you would know they're not real. Plus, if you were lucid all the time, you would have long since mastered a personal method for dealing with the nightmares even if they were targeted specifically at your lucidity.

I think you might indeed have some level of awareness, or at least your unconscious has no problem with including the knowledge that you are dreaming in the parameters of your non-lucid dreams. But this knowledge is really not comparable to the condition of LD'ing.

So instead of making this knowledge stop -- which you likely wouldn't be able to do without therapy anyway, I think -- I suggest you learn more about LD'ing and try your hand at doing the real thing. With the power of your self-awareness truly present, these nightmares will become an unpleasant memory very quickly.

Good luck!

I agree with everyone else that our real answer is probably to learn more control and more awareness so that you can turn the bad dreams into empowering good and fun ones.

However, just because I like weird challenges I thought: What would it take to stop lucid dreams? Not recommended in my opinion, but here are some ideas: To figure out how to stop lucid dreams I first analyzed how to make them happen to figure out what the opposite would be. To start having lucid dreams people work on increasing awareness in everyday life, questioning stuff that is weird and unusual and does not follow what happened before, increase awareness to the here and now and decrease distractions that cause one to move through life on autopilot, improve memory, and of course get lots of rest so that they do not just need the sleep to deal with a lack of sleep. So to stop lucid dreams, I think you would need to (again I do not recommend this, but): reduce your awareness in everyday life, stop questioning the unusual, start doing things more and more on autopilot without paying attention, and induce insomnia and get less sleep so that when you are asleep you are more likely to just need the sleep for basic rest. Oh, and increasing stress in life could also reduce lucid dreams. Overall, such an approach has many issues with it.

Alternatively, since expectations and intensions are crucial in inducing lucid dreams, I wonder whether they could be used to reduce their frequency by telling yourself firmly that tonight you will just have a restful night without any of what you had experienced before, and the secret there would be to believe and expect that it will work.

I would however if I were you work on improving control and awareness in lucid dreams. There are tutorials on this site to help with that. I remember when I got really good at lucid dreaming I used to actually look forward to nightmares because I was confident that I could handle them and I knew that nothing in my dreams could harm me, and that was empowering.

In addition, work on relaxation perhaps through meditation and other relaxing techniques to be more at peace when you go to bed.

Good luck!

Ok BruteForce223, slightly offended. Look everyone I'm no expert as you all kinda sound like big lucid fans and what not but believe it or not this has been happening to me and I had no idea what this lucid crap is and I'm not very interested in looking more into with all your links and stuff but thank you for the time you took to post it. I've gathered you can't stop it? But I have read you could reduce it? I duno. I know you said if I have been lucid dreaming alot I would know and be able to master it buut until now I had no idea what was even happening and why I knew I was dreaming. I read it sometimes happens from poor sleep habits? Which is definitely me. I have to say alot of my personality and mental state would do alot with why I'm often scared in these dreams and probably unable to change them? I really don't know. It's alot more horrifying then fun!

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Originally Posted by Ariak13

Ok BruteForce223, slightly offended. Look everyone I'm no expert as you all kinda sound like big lucid fans and what not but believe it or not this has been happening to me and I had no idea what this lucid crap is and I'm not very interested in looking more into with all your links and stuff but thank you for the time you took to post it. I've gathered you can't stop it? But I have read you could reduce it? I duno. I know you said if I have been lucid dreaming alot I would know and be able to master it buut until now I had no idea what was even happening and why I knew I was dreaming. I read it sometimes happens from poor sleep habits? Which is definitely me. I have to say alot of my personality and mental state would do alot with why I'm often scared in these dreams and probably unable to change them? I really don't know. It's alot more horrifying then fun!

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Well I can understand that, but I'm so used to people talking total bull online and this sounds unlikely to say the least.

In any case, I hope you fix your anxiety with your dreams ASAP.

All the best,

Brute

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Originally Posted by Ariak13

I had no idea what this lucid crap is and I'm not very interested in looking more into with all your links and stuff

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Uhmmm then good luck solving your problems....

If you have no interest in considering our suggestions, Ariak, and apparently never did, then why did you ask the question? To impress, maybe, as BruteForce suggests? Well I for one am not, and I'm a bit annoyed that you wasted our time. And for what it's worth, the experiences you describe were not lucid ones; should you ever choose to follow those links and try to learn a bit about the subject, you will come to know that yourself, and maybe be closer to solving your problem. Or, if BruteForce is correct, you'll realize how transparent your story really was. Either way, you'll be better off for the effort you're not interested in making.

As Darkmatters said, good luck solving your problem on your own, then.

In that case, my advice on how to reduce lucidity hopefully will work for you. If you reduce your amount of sleep to 5 hours a night for example, add stress to your waking life, stop questioning weird stuff in your life, pay less attention, and start going through life more on autopilot, I would be shocked if you continue to regularly get lucid.

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Originally Posted by Sageous

As Darkmatters said, good luck solving your problem on your own, then.

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Lol that wasn't me, but I do see the resemblance! :cheeky:

Ease up on the insulting language. Ariak isn't the first person to show up on this forum with this problem and asking for help. A common theme among them is irrational fear and anxiety as well as extreme restlessness in their dreams. These feelings spark some sense of lucidity for them. But they always seem to blame the problem on the lucidity and not on the fear and anxiety that is causing it. The lucidity is not the problem. It's just a side effect of a deeper issue.

if you don't like lucid dreaming, though you can wake up from a dream if you're conscious to be in it: just said 'i want to wake up' with convinction :D

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Originally Posted by JoannaB

In that case, my advice on how to reduce lucidity hopefully will work for you. If you reduce your amount of sleep to 5 hours a night for example, add stress to your waking life, stop questioning weird stuff in your life, pay less attention, and start going through life more on autopilot, I would be shocked if you continue to regularly get lucid.

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I'm pretty sure that won't work, since he's a natural, who learned to recognize the dream state in nightmares as a kid, and now that recognition carries through any time his dreams get frightening. A person who has learned to recognize the dream state this way doesn't need the bells and whistles the rest of us have to use to try to train ourselves for that recognition. It sounds like that's also how you first became lucid Joanna, but in your case I suspect it faded with age and the changing of the proper chemical balance in your brain.

I'm not sure a natural can stop being a natural no matter how hard they try (until age wipes the slate clean for them). A shame they're always in strict denial of the power lucid dreaming would give them over nightmares and scary dreams.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Lol that wasn't me, but I do see the resemblance! :cheeky:

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Sorry... I guess it just seemed like something you might say!

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Originally Posted by dms111

Ease up on the insulting language. Ariak isn't the first person to show up on this forum with this problem and asking for help. A common theme among them is irrational fear and anxiety as well as extreme restlessness in their dreams. These feelings spark some sense of lucidity for them. But they always seem to blame the problem on the lucidity and not on the fear and anxiety that is causing it. The lucidity is not the problem. It's just a side effect of a deeper issue.

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My "insulting language" wasn't based on Ariak's problem; I sincerely offered a suggestion to help one that was sort of based on the problem as you described quite well I think.

No. It was based on Ariak's effective insult of ignoring our advice either because it was not what he wanted to hear, required some work on his part, or betrayed the possibility that his problem was something less cool than constant lucidity (you pick). Asking a question that important and then disrespecting well-considered advice seems a bit more insulting to me than calling out Ariak's behavior.

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Originally Posted by Sageous

My "insulting language" wasn't based on Ariak's problem; I sincerely offered a suggestion to help one that was sort of based on the problem as you described quite well I think.

No. It was based on Ariak's effective insult of ignoring our advice either because it was not what he wanted to hear, required some work on his part, or betrayed the possibility that his problem was something less cool than constant lucidity (you pick). Asking a question that important and then disrespecting well-considered advice seems a bit more insulting to me than calling out Ariak's behavior.

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I wouldn't sweat it Sage, I think it was directed toward me. I was a little aggressive, so apologies.

Brute

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

I'm not sure a natural can stop being a natural no matter how hard they try (until age wipes the slate clean for them). A shame they're always in strict denial of the power lucid dreaming would give them over nightmares and scary dreams.

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Which is why I'm not sure there really is such thing as a true "Natural." Yes, in childhood I think we all experience LD'ing, and there may be people who can have some sense that they are dreaming during the dream -- but without the requisite self-awareness and memory that true LD'ing requires. But naturals would have no problem dealing with nightmares from a very early age, and likely would, in time (probably after the first time they wake up from and actual LD), learn not to fear their condition but to enjoy it. That could just be my opinion, but it seems to make sense: If you are given a particular power, you will eventually appreciate rather than fear it.

Of course, that is just my opinion!

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Originally Posted by Ariak13

Ok BruteForce223, slightly offended. Look everyone I'm no expert as you all kinda sound like big lucid fans and what not but believe it or not this has been happening to me and I had no idea what this lucid crap is and I'm not very interested in looking more into with all your links and stuff but thank you for the time you took to post it. I've gathered you can't stop it? But I have read you could reduce it? I duno. I know you said if I have been lucid dreaming alot I would know and be able to master it buut until now I had no idea what was even happening and why I knew I was dreaming. I read it sometimes happens from poor sleep habits? Which is definitely me. I have to say alot of my personality and mental state would do alot with why I'm often scared in these dreams and probably unable to change them? I really don't know. It's alot more horrifying then fun!

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I think you're making a big mistake to make waking life decisions based on fear of dream experiences. A dream, as you've described in your original post, is inherently irrational, and while we may feel fear inside them, we are able to look at it logically upon waking and see that there is no danger present.

Make your decision about lucid dreaming based on your waking mind, don't make waking life decisions based on your dream mind; to do so, is, well, inherently irrational. Besides, most of us struggle our whole lives to avoid acting out of fear at all (that is what courage is, to act above the negative mental state of fear with a positive mental state, courage, so that we make good decisions based on clarity), if you try and drive away these states rather than elevate yourself above them you will only face an equal and opposite returning force when circumstances allow for fear to develop. You're conditioning yourself to be crippled by fear.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

I'm pretty sure that won't work, since he's a natural, who learned to recognize the dream state in nightmares as a kid, and now that recognition carries through any time his dreams get frightening. A person who has learned to recognize the dream state this way doesn't need the bells and whistles the rest of us have to use to try to train ourselves for that recognition. It sounds like that's also how you first became lucid Joanna, but in your case I suspect it faded with age and the changing of the proper chemical balance in your brain.

I'm not sure a natural can stop being a natural no matter how hard they try (until age wipes the slate clean for them). A shame they're always in strict denial of the power lucid dreaming would give them over nightmares and scary dreams.

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No, I never was a natural lucid dreamer - I learned because I wanted to learn to LD 20 years ago - and I guess you are right that they are different, and in that case I don't have any good idea on how to stop a natural LD, maybe it cannot be done but maybe it can be after all somehow.

Guys, be nice or don't reply...

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Originally Posted by Sageous

there may be people who can have some sense that they are dreaming during the dream -- but without the requisite self-awareness and memory that true LD'ing requires.

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Interesting - so what naturals experience, at least at first, before they achieve true lucidity (according to your theory) would be like what I sometimes experience when I get the feeling in a dream tht this is "another one of - these things" - where I'm aware that the laws of physics and normality are suspended, and where if you look away from something and then back it will probably be gone or different.. and yet it's not actual lucidity. I'm not self-aware enough to do an RC for instance, or stabilize, and turn it into full lucidity so I can take control or just leave the premises if I want. Hmmm yeah, that makes sense.

^^ That's it exactly ... I have a feeling you've given this some thought in the past?

Not in the context of natural lucid dreamers, but I have noted that feeling of near-lucidity a few times in my DJ.

Ah, yes, when I first learned to lucid dream I used to have those barely lucid dreams where I would think: "I am floating, this must be a dream, but I could float even if it were not a dream," and then I would just continue to float pathetically. Now those were lucid dreams, but my awareness was so low that I would call them barely lucid. It took me a lot of effort to move beyond that stage to a higher level of lucid awareness, but once I did, it was like night and day, and the difference between non-lucid dreams and these barely lucids was smaller than the difference between the barely lucids and the full lucids I later had - the additional awareness and added control made all the difference! Although frankly at this point I would even welcome a barely lucid, but don't tell that to my mind, since I have been telling it I expect to experience eating chocolate and then visiting the Taj Mahal in a lucid dream tonight.