Lightless Lucids and Expectation Nightmares

I took an interest in lucid dreaming a few years ago, and at the time I managed to have a few lucids. All of them were a bit short but their themes were far nicer. Now, I started lucid dreaming again around two months ago, after taking a large break and I've noticed a pattern. Every single lucid I've had (With a small exception of one) as had next to no light, as it takes place in my house during night with all of the lights turned off, or it takes place outside, nearly pitch black at night. I usually become lucid during random dreams with plots, but I always end up teleporting there. Not only does this often cause me to lose dream stability, but it dampens my dream control to an extreme. Last night I had a near-lucid nightmare, where I became lucid inside my house with all of the lights off and heard footsteps of a dream character. It was my sister questioning me about being awake. I had no idea what to really do, so I told her "Does it really matter?". After I tried to flip a few lights they came briefly on, very dimly, but as soon as I turned my attention off of them, they stopped making light. I know how expectation is extremely important for dream control, so I decided to expect other dream characters to turn the lights on. Sure enough it worked slightly, but I could still just barely see the rooms I was in. My sister then started trying to attack me by making rooms darker and covering me in blankets. I managed to glue her to a table using a complicated warding technique, and this helped only slightly. I then started getting really horrible and terrifying images of various things coming to life and attacking me. I knew it was a dream, and everything was made up, but that didn't change the fact that what I was experiencing felt real. Luckily enough nothing actually attacked me, but mostly because I woke up almost instantly. Now, one of the stranger things I find about this is the second I become lucid I teleport to a dark house, I can't even expect this, because it's RIGHT when I become lucid. My normal dreams are very rarely in places with little light though, making them far nicer.

Honestly, this is totally killing my motivation to lucid dream, as I find most of my lucid dreams actually effecting my mental state negatively.
I'm also aware that expectation of one thing to happen will cause it to, but I never started "expecting" my dreams to become like this. In fact, I only really started dwelling on this after having ten lucids in a row with the exact same outcome. I can't use this as a dream sign either, as this occurs ONLY when I've already become lucid.

I had the same issue so I thought maybe I should b prepared. I kept telling myself to turn around or go through a door and just imagine a desert for example. When I became lucid I suddenly remembered it and tbh the scenery changed without my expectation it was a random place I found myself in. So I guess u should try and see if that works? I also love flying so I go out of my house and fly . Maybe flying out of darkness helps u too.

I suddenly remembered something and thought maybe it's worth mentioning. One of RCs is turning lights on and off bcz in dreams they dun work well. That's why the lights in ur house were dim and not making ur house bright. I hope this doesn happen to u :). And dun lose motivation

Maybe you could try to reason to yourself why it's dark. Like look down to the floor and reason to yourself that it is dark because the roller blinds are down;and that there is in fact a day outside. Then go to the window and the blinds and open them.

Command your subconsciousness. Shout out clearly and loudly " Brightness!/Clarity!" in a commanding and confident tone. Remember that you're not trying to command any external force or dream "owner" down to your will, only your own subconscious mind. That could restore some of your control so that you can make the dream at least bright again.

Like Mashmid suggested try teleporting to another scenery or try changing the scenery you're in. A door could do it. Imagine dim lights on the edges of the door and then enter through it. Spinning could also do it while imagining a new brighter scenery.

As for the expectation that you might end up to another dark house once becoming lucid, maybe you could try continuing the lucid with a mind set like : " So what if I end up there again? I'll just continue my dream from there. If it's dark, I'll just make it bright again. And if that won't work, I'll just have a nice refreshing night time- themed lucid adventure. :)" ( You can have lots of awesome LD adventures at night too; like go gaze up to the stars. Go to a midnight club and meet all sorts of wild dream characters. Fly to the Moon. Enjoy the empty streets. )

To the creepy monster/attacking sister; realize that they most likely appear only out of the context of them "belonging " to the dark and "eerie" theme. There's nothing or no one after you in the new darker environment, they only appear because you think they most likely are there " because they belong there". This could be because of some primitive and non-rational fear of dark, or because you never saw spooky ghosts or creatures in a bright/day setting before. They have always belonged to the dark side for some reason. You could try familiarizing yourself to a dark and non-dangerous environment. Like to your own apartment at night. Just take it all in, walk around your dark and silent house and notice that it's all the same, it's just black and silent; pretty calm actually ( or boring ), not scary or threatening. Also remember that you're in fact the loneliest you can possibly be, you're inside your own head alone. There's in fact not a single other being or entity in the whole universe as you're standing in there. So there's surely no fictional creatures anywhere near either. If your sister is there and if she behaves in a kind of a threatening way, know that family members don't hurt each other. Just boldly go and hug her for example. That usually takes care of any scary figures.

Here is my theory based on experience. You can dream in almost every phase of sleep, therefore you can become lucid in phases that are not as suited for normal dreams (non-REM or nREM). You should always be pleased that y ou are in a luicid dream, but accept that sometimes the phase of sleep will create a dream much different from your common conception of a dream. In these non normal dreams you may find that everything is very dark, they may in fact only contain feelings and have no visuals aside from vague ghost like flashes. With years of practice you may be able to influence a shift in sleep cycle to REM, but it is a very subtle thing. Your best bet is to stay active by walking or skate boarding or something. Just do not focus on the problems such as light. Work on staying in the dream and maybe practice easy dream control, such as go looking for a certain place (keeps you moving). My theory is that this interaction with the nREM dream encourages a shift to full REM, and at the very least if you can extend the dream REM will occur naturally before long.

The point is that you are not failing or doing anything wrong. Enjoy the dream in what ever form it takes and do not worry about the darkness. In fact worrying about the darkness may be what caused a nightmare like event.

Thanks, these all sound like great suggestions and I'll definitely give them a go. Lucid dreams are always such an odd thing, being that they form from thoughts but can be as real as life.

I am in a similar position, having taking a long break of multiple years from lucid dreaming until recently. I was surprised to find you describing EXACTLY the main problem I am having: darkness. I am by no means afraid of darkness in lucid dreams, but it seems to prevent me from doing much and even hampers my clarity. Just last week I had a completely dark lucid dream in which I simply had to feel around for the walls of the place I was in. This doesn't quite bother me very much, but I do hope to find a way to get around it. Relieved to know I'm not alone with this.

I've just been watching some of Stephen LaBerge's videos, and he suggests showing love to these nightmare apparitions, because they invariably turn nice (in his experience). You might try that? Perhaps by showing that love, the light will also improve?

I just read through this thread and, aside from Sivason's post, I was a bit confused by the very foundation of what everyone was talking about.

There is no darkness in LD's, just as there is no light. There are no nightmare monsters, there is no confining "just like waking-life" house, or any other barrier to your freedom to explore. If you are truly lucid, if you are comfortable in your presence in the dream, then you know, you know, that none of the things being tossed at you are in any way real, and can easily be sidestepped by nothing more than a decision. If you find yourself in darkness, or some other confining situation, freedom comes not from finding a way out of the darkness or confinement, but simply by realizing (paraphrased Morpheus quote intended) "That there is no darkness."

Seriously. The core of lucidity lies in the understanding that everything in the dream is an extension of "You." If you let go of that core by deciding that darkness or nightmare imagery is somehow real or unavoidable, then you are abandoning that understanding that all the things in your dream are a part of you in favor of the perhaps more dramatically pleasing but definitely less lucid impression that things like darkness are happening to you. I think that if you can maintain that everything in your dream is "You," and thus is of your own creation, then you will find moments of darkness or nightmare imagery will tend to recede over the horizon of your own presence... the only exception to this, as Sivason noted, is if you happen to be lucid during an NREM period, when things actually are dark, but even then your lucidity can defeat the opression of the darkness because you will understand that you happened to become lucid during NREM, and you can relax and wait for the "actual" dreams to start up again, content in the knowledge that you're just in a pause between dreaming periods.

tl;dr: If you are truly lucid, the darkness, the confinement of your house, and the nightmare imagery will be meaningless. Next time, try to understand that none of these things are external forces, and all you really have to do is dismiss them as non-lucid interference and move on with your adventure.