lucid nightmares every single night

Hello fellow lucid dreamers.

I used to love lucid dreaming but lately, they have become terrifying. I have very self-aware lucid dreams and most of the time I have a lot of fun. For the past few weeks, though, they have been anything but. One of the biggest obstacles I have had in my lucid dreams is that I never seem to be able to control anything. I am very aware that I am dreaming, but I haven't been able to defy physics or change reality. For the past few weeks, I have had nightmare after nightmare where my family is brutally murdered or people pop out of no where and try to kill me. Although I know I am not in any real danger, I don't like the shock of things appearing behind couches or having to watch terrible things unfold.

Honestly, I have stopped writing down dreams because I wake up so disturbed by them. I have not been diagnosed with any diseases and my waking life is pretty normal, yet I am plagued by these terrible, terrible, lucid nightmares.

I tried to do some research, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of writing about lucid nightmares. I often try to wake myself up, but that often leads to false-awakenings and more nightmares.

I am in a really bad place and I don't see any way out. I have tried confronting the nightmares and that works sometimes, but I don't want to keep worrying about what I will encounter every time I fall asleep.

Do you have any ideas or similar experiences?

Hi, you say that your awareness is high, but I am afraid it is not. High awareness would mean that you would know not only that nothing can hurt you in a dream, but also that since this is a dream anything around you is the creation of your mind and can be influenced by you. I don't think it is possible to have a high awareness lucid nightmare because if one is lucid and has high awareness then you should at the very least be able to control your own thoughts and emotions, and if you do not want to be scared and upset, choose not to be. Thoughts and emotions are controllable even in waking life, but even more so in lucid dreams, and part of high awareness means being aware enough to have at least that much control to have the confidence and expectations that you are able to make a dream into a pleasant experience: you are in charge of the dream, the dream is not in charge of you. Know this, believe it, expect it, intend it.

I suggest that you practice awareness and intensions and expectations during waking life and during lucid dreams, and take charge. Be aware that you are the one in charge!

Hi there,

I used to have lucid nightmares. It's a horrible feeling as you know you are dreaming, and you try to face it, but it is still frightening. In one of mine, i was always being chased with a knife. One dream, i faced my attacker and allowed her to stab me. It really hurt and was no less frightening for taking control. Well, the ultimate control would be to change the dreamscape. BUT. Our unconscious doesn't do denial....it doesn't do avoidance. My belief is that often, when we have lucid dreamed happily and freely, and suddenly we are engulfed by difficult situations (try to see it like this rather than classic nightmares) it is because we have to deal with them in able to move on. It doesn't matter (to me) where they come from. But what is important is that we have them. As frightening as it is. In Shamanic journeying, a shaman would take their dreamer to the very heart of a dreamscape and allow the dreamer to overcome the obstacle with support. There is a lot talked about in terms of 'control' in lucid dreaming....i am finding :) But actually in my 'knife' dreams, of course i was always in control because it was a part of me that was holding the knife, reflected by all sorts of situations from my waking life. If i was to just build a different dreamscape and move on, and i would never have dealt with the issue. But there are safety nets and tools you can work within lucidity that vivid dreams can not offer (which is why in shamanic cultures, they will take you into dreamscape through trance in order to become lucid and give duologue and take control once again.) I might say this IS your opportunity to take control. You have been 'gifted' the ability to dream with high self awareness, now the crossbar is raised in these terrifying episodes.

I am the same. I have lucid dreamed for as long as i can remember but i have a problem to change the surroundings or sometimes something feels inevitable and i have to let it happen. I wonder if this is healthy? It is is waking life! It's an age old philosophy that if we run away from our problems they will just return to haunt us in a different form....

My advice to you is to meditate for 5-10 mins a night before sleep. Don't worry if you have not done before. Just go to a a local new agey type shop and smell all the scents and see if you can find an incense or oil that makes you feel calm...something that says 'yes', just have a good sniff of everything :) Go home and burn it, sit quietly with it. Avoid caffine or smoking before bed if you smoke....feel and imagine the area around your frontal lobes (each side of your forehead) even put your fingers there if it helps and imagine water trickling down each side, cooling and smooth, all the way from the sides of your forehead, behind your ears, down the back of your neck each side, down your spine and collected in a beautiful warm pool at the end of your spine in the sacral region. When it get's there, just imagine it turning into a colour that is appealing to you - perhaps pink or turquoise...hmmm...what happens in this beautiful water? You imagine that, the incense will help you create this place....maybe a childhood memory, a place where you felt safe and peaceful or happy...Breath it all back in right up from the bottom of your spine..and perhaps if you can start the exercise again!

This is a strengthening exercise for the center and may help equip you for the challenges you face in dreamscape right now. Just remember that there is always a purpose, something trying to work itself out. No harm can come of you.

Being calm and going to be with optimistic thought can indeed help, however meditation before going to sleep is just killing dreams for me.
I also had nightmares, still have, I dealt with them in this way: I usually got attacked, or see a loved one being attacked or hurted, so I fight back or die, both helped not to bring back any bad dreams again.
I used the simple "dream logic" or whatever we call it, by things being as you think, because they "used to be like that" or because "you know it's like that". So I'm working out at home, did karate for 5 years, and even though I'm far not as good as I was ( I already stopped it), I just say I can defend myself, and most of the times I can. I'm also a great shooter in real life, so shooting in dreams are also fine. These weren't always enough, so I started carrying a pocket knife in my left pocket. Even though I never used it in real life for such matters, it came to really good use in dreams, for threating if nothing else.

Soo...

Try to find something that you are good with at least a little, and empower it that you are a master of that, it should protect you, whether it's a katana, a pistol, a stick... be creative! Only thing to obey is that be confident about using whatever your choice is.

Or bring in a DC! Imgaine a DC who is always with you, or whenever you need him/her in dreams, and also imagine he/she can easily defend himself/herself and you in every situation. After that, learn that if you got into any trouble, shout his/her name to help.