Struggling to breathe after becoming lucid with DILD

**Drinterstellar** · 08-05-2015 05:39 PM

This morning I had two Dream Induced Lucid Dreams, after WBTB and MILD techniques used.

My lucidity is always cut short due to my inexperience and my resulting excitement from becoming Lucid.
However, this morning I had two consecutive Lucid Dreams (with a 10 min waking period in between). Both of these were DILD and i became Lucid using Hand RC's.

I have been practicing trying to stabilise the lucid dream, so in both dreams i spent a minute or so looking at my hands, and then at the surroundings as well as rubbing my hands to achieve increased stability.

I managed to get the dreams more stable than i ever have before. BUT, i faced a new problem. Both times i began to struggle to breathe, which made me focus on my physical bodies breath, and as a result causing the dream to end.

It is the case that my Nose was quite blocked. But is this the sole cause, or is it slightly psychological?!
Has anyone had a similar experience of not being able to catch their breath whilst in a lucid dream? It almost felt in one dream like i could suffocate.

DR x

**ThreeCat** · 08-05-2015 06:57 PM

So here are some possibilities:

(1.) It's in your head. You can breathe, you just feel like you're not breathing. Just don't pay attention to it and it should go away.

(2.) You're having an apnea. In that case, you can't breathe, which is going to wake you up.

If this has only happened twice, it's not necessarily a problem. If it crops up several more times, you may want to think about trying alternate methods (using one of those strips to hold your nostrils open, if only for the psychological effect it will have e.g. "I know I can breathe because the strip is on!" or taking some Afrin before LDing). My guess is that this is entirely in your mind, and that you should be able to slowly breathe normally, as long as you don't panic or get too excited and wake up.

**ToukieToucan** · 08-05-2015 09:27 PM

Maybe linked with sleep paralysis? My guess is that your mind might "wake up" slightly and since your paralized body has a consistent slow breathing pattern you would feel the need for more air (since you are excited or scared (in a lucid nightmare) or something similar.)

**Drinterstellar** · 08-05-2015 11:47 PM

Originally Posted by ThreeCat

So here are some possibilities:

(1.) It's in your head.

Originally Posted by ToukieToucan

Maybe linked with sleep paralysis? My guess is that your mind might "wake up" slightly and since your paralized body has a consistent slow breathing pattern you would feel the need for more air.

Thanks for the replies!

I do actually think its between these two, and in some ways they are probably the same.
I think my excitement requires more breath, the adrenaline that gets released when i become lucid really is quite euphoric. Sometimes I noticeably feel an increase in my heart rate upon waking. I know this "Lucid Euphoria" is common.

But touching on your point ThreeCat - in the first lucid dream i had this morning in which this occurred my vision was quite blurry. I almost recall likening at the time to how you would visualise something underwater. I wonder if that created some kind of expectation of not breathing?

It was interesting because the Lucid Dream had gone a bit like this...
I Became Lucid at a party that i was at in the dream, but then I lost my vision almost immediately. But despite then being in darkness i focused on remaining asleep or 'in the dream'. The next thing that happened was probably my most interesting lucid experience yet.

I started noticing hints of light fleck into my eyes, and then slowly opened them to reveal a kitchen scene. It was amazing to see a new dream scene come to life like that. But i couldn't bring it into 'full HD quality' hence the underwater feel. Any tips for doing so, my main ones have been to look at my hands, then the surrounding plus also rubbing my hands?

DR