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I have been lucid dreaming for a while now and, I know this sucks but, I get so scared that my dreams will turn into nightmares while I'm lucid that I panic and try to will myself to wake up but nothing works!
Any suggestions? I think once I have a better waking up method I'll be less freaked out about actually exploring my dreams but as of now, I just keep struggling to wake up and have false awakenings and panic.
Any of you have some strategies? Please and thank you!
You can wake yourself up by 'shocking' your dream body - one way to do such is kill yourself. You can get creative with this, so it's still 'fun' (Not in the sense that you're commiting suicide, but the fact that you can do it in the most ridiculous way possible, i.e. have the moon fall on you).
Even so, however, there's nothing to fear if your dream becomes a nightmare. It's your dream, you can take control. Don't be afraid of anything - just wave your hand, and make it disappear.
I actually recommend against waking up when that happens. I have anxiety issues so the same happens to me from time to time in dreams, as well as in sleep paralysis (and I mean I have full-blown genuine SP); I get scared that it'll be scary so it just turns scary. The best thing to do when that happens is to just focus on the dreamworld and what you want to do, taking your mind off of your fears. In the middle of a nightmare, try to face your fears and take control--after all, it's just a dream, and nothing can hurt you. It's much more relieving to turn a nightmare into a pleasant dream than to wake up and miss a chance to have an amazing lucid dream.
But, if you really want to wake up, I'll go over quite a bit of tricks I have myself that have worked throughout the years. For starters, I used to have a trick when I was little and having spontaneous LDs of just blinking rapidly and for some reason that woke me up. Closing my eyes does the same thing. Sometimes it doesn't always work for me, though, and a few years later I discovered a better trick of focusing on my body in the real world; the feeling of being in bed, my head against the pillow, the sounds outside in waking life. This would take my attention away from the dream and to waking life, so I'd just wake up. A few months ago I discovered something else (rather strange, but it works) that works: jumping from somewhere high (heights are one of my frequent dreamsigns so I have lots of opportunities to do so, but this might be different for you) and shutting your eyes when doing so, not focusing on the ground or the dream or anything whatsoever besides waking life. I would never hit the ground and the dream would always fade away until all I felt was the feeling of falling and all I saw was just blackness, and I'd wake up not exactly instantly, but more slowly and naturally. And finally, of course, if all else fails, dying sometimes works too.
Oh, and it's important to note as well that when trying any of this you really need to expect you'll wake up: the expectation is definitely helpful.
Those are just a few tricks I've used myself in my life. There's no real one way to do it, you just need to find what works for you. But of course, I still recommend trying to face a nightmare in hopes of getting a nice lucid dream, but it's okay if you prefer to wake up!
I hope I helped, mate!
I completely agree with what Maxis said. Especially about facing the fears and taking control during a nightmare. That can be pretty damn hard sometimes though, especially when you're completely terrified. I sometimes have to chant in my dreams that nothing can hurt me, just to remind myself that I'm invincible in the dream.
I don't think I read this as one of the techniques. The one technique to wake myself up that I've always used, never fails to get me out of the dream (sometimes I just get a lot of FA's). I scrunch up my face, kind of like I smelled something really bad and don't want to look at it too. Then I jerk my body really hard, flexing all my muscles instantaneously. This can cause my actual body to twitch as well, breaking me out of sleep paralysis. I hope some of these things work for you
I do agree with other posters opinions about not waking up. After all, whats the point of having a lucid dream if you want to wake up?
If anything scares you, just do your best to love it. Most aspects of your nightmares are pieces of yourself looking for acceptance. My nightmares always intensify if i feed the energy by running away or trying to defeat it. But if i simply love whatever is scaring me, it always seems to turn into something harmless, or disappear entirely.
However, i do agree with you that after having a foolproof way to wake yourself, Im sure you will feel more comfortable.
Ive found that killing yourself can lead to a lot of false awakenings. For me, the most foolproof way to wake yourself up is by holding your breath. It is the most direct connection to your real body that you have, as it is not your dreaming body which needs to breathe. Hold your breath long enough and you will surely wake up.