Thread: Fear when transiting to sleep and sudden unwillingness to lucid dream

Originally Posted by figurefly

My guaranteed way of full control lucid dreaming is to take a nap(!) during the day (2-3 hours) then staying awake until I feel really sleepy so when I finally go to bed, I can easily instantly get lucid.

The problem is that I'm having this fear of transition. (This thing started this year.)(I don't mind sleep paralysis and not afraid of it, never had a bad sp experience.) What I'm afraid of is a little hard to explain but worth giving a try. When transiting to sleep/dream I get this weird, not so pleasent feeling I describe as "I'm traveling far away and to the unknown" feeling which makes me end up unwilling to lucid dream. I get this feeling right before falling asleep even if I'm not attempting to lucid dream. As I'm drifting, I suddenly panic, fear and feel like I have to move my body in a sudden quick way to feel "real" again, this can go on for as many times as ten in a single night and I eventually fall asleep.

This is not a fear of having a bad experience nor a fear of not waking up in the morning nor a fear of death. It is the fear of the unknown. The fear that "sleep" is way more different and deeper than what I think it is.

Yesterday I took a nap during the day to lucid dream at night. I ended up "prefering" auditory hallucinations to lucid dreaming. Because of the reasons I described. This weird fear prevents me from having a peaceful sleep and from practising lucidity, which is something I really love.

How can I get over this fear and start to enjoy the world of lucid dreaming again?

I'm non-native so hope this makes sense to you. Thank you!

I've experienced something similar before.. I remember when i wanted to WILD but i couldn't and i had those times i were trying to sleep but my body was trying to force itself into sleep even while i'm aware.. So i get the feeling that i'm being dragged into paralysis. Even though i wanted to slip into a dream i had some random fear when this happened..

Now if i think about it, there is nothing to fear to be honest since it's the same process every time we sleep. you just switch over to your own world inside your head, only that normally you don't observe the process of transitioning. I don't think this was a helpful tip or something, but it's my thought on this.
Maybe it is the feeling of being "far away" from the real world?

Thank you for sharing, TDHXIII. You're right, there is no reason to be afraid of transition since sleep is something we experience everyday.

I also noticed, I only get this fear when I go to bed at "night". My day time naps or lucid attempts work well with no fear and such. My anxiety levels start to rise in the evening. And often, the things I get anxious about (at night) make no sense in the morning. Like, right now it is early in where I live and if I was sleepy, I could easily fall asleep/lucid dream with no fear.

I had read about anxiety levels rising late in the day. What do you think?

Originally Posted by figurefly

Thank you for sharing, TDHXIII. You're right, there is no reason to be afraid of transition since sleep is something we experience everyday.

I also noticed, I only get this fear when I go to bed at "night". My day time naps or lucid attempts work well with no fear and such. My anxiety levels start to rise in the evening. And often, the things I get anxious about (at night) make no sense in the morning. Like, right now it is early in where I live and if I was sleepy, I could easily fall asleep/lucid dream with no fear.

I had read about anxiety levels rising late in the day. What do you think?

I think it's the intimidation of being in the dark at night. Me personally, i would have more fear trying to transition during night than by day. Of course this is unneeded fear aswell. I bet in time this will fade away too. Another way to think about this is that your eyes are closed either way so night and day won't matter in your attempts..

Originally Posted by TDHXIII

I think it's the intimidation of being in the dark at night. Me personally, i would have more fear trying to transition during night than by day. Of course this is unneeded fear aswell. I bet in time this will fade away too. Another way to think about this is that your eyes are closed either way so night and day won't matter in your attempts..

I had also thought about this. At night, parents are asleep, it is dark and even though I don't have a fear of dark, nights carry the potential of getting creepy.

You know what? Next time, I'll force myself into a lucid dream and not change my mind because of fear. I think it will help me get rid of this.