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Hi, I know this might sound a little bit weird but please, I really need help regarding this. I've only had 2 lucid dreams so far but each time I got lucid, I either got SO SCARED that the dream started fading out and I woke up or I simply got too scared right after realizing it was a dream and woke myself up. So basically each time I get lucid I get sooo scared. I don't know why. Could someone explain me why this happens to me?
It can be very subjective. Perhaps, you feel that in a lucid dream your thoughts can manifest readily and it'll become a nightmare where you are consciously aware almost anything can happen and maybe not be able to do anything to make it more bearable. It'll be hard for most beginners to control the dream, maybe the sense of fear comes from that?Quote:
Originally Posted by QuickLemon
It could be a trauma thing: I have a buddy who thinks dreams in general are terrifying after having a lot of nightmares. Maybe you are the same, but not as aware of it.
You haven't given us a lot to go on. What is your relationship to dreaming? What are your thoughts on the nature of dreams? Have you had a lot of nightmares? Are you a generally anxious person? Could it be that you are afraid that your waking body is unprotected and unconscious?
Yes, I think you are right! I am scared of accidentally imagining something and turning my lucid dream into a nightmare. What do you think I should do about this?Quote:
Originally Posted by lucidbunnie
I used to have lots of nightmares as a kid. Dying, burning alive, getting stabbed are no big deal in my dreams anymore. And nope, I am not an anxious person. I don't understand what you mean by my relationship with dreaming. Like what do I think about it or... Anyway, thanks for helping me :)Quote:
Originally Posted by LighrkVader
Best way to overcome this is experience. Consider it like an exposure therapy. Sure when you start out with lack of lucidity it might seem like the dream is out to get you, but it's all matter of perspective. The more you become used to lucidity, less foreign it becomes. You'll start to feel it as a normal part of sleep and dreaming.Quote:
Originally Posted by QuickLemon
Then you are in a better situation than me. I have constant anxiety, not about dreaming itself, but about other things. If you can handle possible nightmare scenarios like that without problem then no need to feel scared. ^^Quote:
Originally Posted by QuickLemon
By relationship with your dream, LighrkVader, means how you feel about your dreams. Are you skittish about dreaming in general? stuff like that.
Of course, if you are in a lucid dream with "me vs them" mentality, the dream will try to comply with your expectation. As long as you understand your dreams are not out to get you, it'll be fine.
Here is a fear I had. Every time I was about to enter a WILD through rolling out of body into a dream I got scared something would possess my body. But then one night I was having sleep paralysis of a night terror. The thing felt like it was right there. I instinctively rolled out of body and next thing I knew I was in a lucid dream. When I woke up and journaled the dream, I realized, hey, I wasn't possessed. I'm not possessed now. Nothing harmed me. I just had a dream.
It was similar the first time I relaxed during a night terror instead of freaking out. I really didn't believe it would be okay until I experienced it.
So I guess eventually you will probably become lucid and go a little further into it. And then wake up and realize, hey, nothing bad happened. But yeah I wouldn't have trusted anyone who told me it was safe. Until I almost "accidentally" experienced it myself. In my case intellectualizing it helped prepare me but when the moment came along those fearful instincts were still right there.
What do you think will happen if you didn't wake up?
Can you please explain me what you actually have seen when experiencing sleep paralysis? Was it a shadow or something in your room? Did it move? Did it make any sounds?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles3
Hallucinations during sleep paralysis can reflect your expectations and emotions. I usually don't hallucinate during sleep paralysis. I do hear sounds, but hardly ever visual. In fact, once I hallucinated a fluffy cute dwarf bunny snuggling beside me and I could hear pleasant chirping of birds. No shadows, monsters, etc. for me. ^^
Perhaps to avoid this fear upon lucidity, you could preclude it through visualizing a positive lucid dream before bed as part of the MILD technique, as additional experience in the state?
However, perhaps just calming down and breathing deeply while dreaming, is a fantastic way to cool emotions and increase lucidity and clarity, while thinking 'I'm dreaming'.
I agree with those who say experience usually helps. Also, some other things to consider:
When you are lucid in a dream, you actively recognize that you are dreaming. Thus, you should be able to remember that the whole content of your dream is just you—your imagination, etc. Remembering this should help things not be as scary (especially after enough experience). It's kind of like if you were to zone out during the day and start daydreaming, and suddenly you start imagining scary things happen. It can be disconcerting for a moment, but then you might suddenly realize, “Oh, why I am I thinking about this?”, and simply change your attention to something else. Dreams are quite open to being directed by your conscious thoughts in this way, too.
Also, if you're not prone to your normal dreams being scary, it's probably safe to assume that lucid dreams won't be any different. The only thing different about a lucid dream is that you know you're dreaming. If anything, the lucidity will give you more of an opportunity to steer your conscious thoughts and keep them away from anything fearful or negative, if you wish. And as long as you remember that it's just a dream, it's less likely that you will find any “scary” imagery that may appear actually that scary.
I can relate to a somewhat similar experience I had with exploring non-dream sleep (like that experienced during WILD and such). I was always fascinated by it and started experiencing it at random on occasion during sleep, but for years, as much as I wanted to explore it, I was always nervous because I had heard people describe having some super-funky experiences (in the form of hallucination-like imagery kind of like dreams, but without actually dreaming) that I thought would be really scary to go through. So for a long time I would have a bit of trouble because I was always a bit uncomfortable going into that state, and it would cause me to get nervous and wake up. Finally, once I started having a few “funky” experiences of my own, I realized that they were never actually scary at all because I was aware of what was going on the entire time and that there was never any actual danger. So then I finally thought, “Okay, so this is cool. No problem”, and now I'm quite comfortable with it. I really like it, in fact. There have been times where I've felt soothed and relaxed to the point where I can almost say I felt even more safe and “at home” resting deep within my sleeping mind like that than I normally do just sitting in my house when I'm awake. :)