Reoccurring darkness in dreams

As the title suggests, this is a problem I used to have a lot back when lucid dreaming was a regular thing for me. Now, this is going back a few years because I stopped a long time ago for whatever reason, but have recently decided to reinstate my progress.

Now, I found that most of my lucid would be dark straight off the bat, or would turn dark upon becoming lucid, etc. I couldn't control this aspect of my dreams and became rather annoying, because I found it hard to ground myself as I couldn't see very well and there would quite often be a foreboding presence or feeling present in these dreams, which put me off having them because it was scary. It also affected my control in general most of the time.

Has anyone else had this problem? Or have any tips to help me reverse this? I'm yet to have a lucid since actively trying to have them again so I don't know if this is still a prevalent problem, but I am slightly concerned about it.

Hi there,

I’ve had to deal with similar problems in the past. In my case, the problem was rather more complicated – I was having to deal with vision problems and paralysis that seemed to be related to having a static field of vision, and the way I ended up solving them was to just close my eyes and go without vision. Later on, I sometimes had lucid dreams where vision wasn’t present in the beginning, possibly because I was just used to dreaming that way by then.

So yes, it's definitely possible to keep a lucid dream going when you can’t see anything. I even had one earlier this year where I intentionally turned my vision off to experiment with different senses without having trouble keeping the dream stable. The main thing to do is to engage your other senses as fully as possible. Just explore your environment through touch and hearing. Taking your shoes off or keeping a hand on a wall can help. I’d imagine that any stabilization technique that doesn’t rely on being able to see things would work. And, if you can just keep the dream going, there’s a good chance vision will just spontaneously return on its own.

That’s something interesting that I discovered after struggling with this for a while. Trying to make myself see just resulted in static imagery and paralysis, but I discovered something I could do—it’s practically impossible to describe, but it was like flipping a switch in my mind that let the imagery flow in. That seemed to be the most important part: taking a receptive attitude towards the dream environment rather than actively trying to make vision happen.

As for foreboding presences—well, that’s a different problem, although it makes me suspect that what you’re experiencing is a problem related to sleep paralysis, which I’m pretty sure was the case with me, although presences of any kind were never a feature of my own experience. It might help to imagine yourself in a location you have positive associations with—lucid dreamers usually make objects they want appear behind them or just around a corner because it’s easier when you can’t see them appearing out of nowhere, and you can make that work to your advantage when you can’t see anything.

Okay man thanks for the advice. I shall try not to worry about it too much and work with what I've got, should it happen again. In regard to the switch flipping, I think I get what you're trying to describe. I'm not able to do it but I can understand the concept behind it. That has given me an idea though. Maybe I could literally try flipping a lever in my next lucid and alternate between night and day.

That's certainly worth a try - although, since non-functional light switches are one of the classic signs that you're dreaming, it may be a bit of a long shot. But, if you're looking for ideas, I did have a lucid dream a year or so ago that started out dark, but when I happened to draw the curtains of a window aside, I suddenly found I could see. And that makes sense, when you think about it - pulling a curtain aside, being able to see things. It's a more indirect way of going about it than a lever, but I suspect that it makes more sense to our dreaming minds.