Quote Originally Posted by dreamfeeder View Post
The third time was last night and this time as I entered and became trapped in the trippy infinite staircase, I became conscious of having been here before and that it scared me in the past so I was able to push myself through the membrane of the stairs/dreamscape (for lack of a better description) and escape them. I soon woke up after I escaped the staircase.
When I woke up I instantly thought that that nightmare may have become lucid, does it sound like it to you guys, have I accidentally stumbled into a lucid dreamscape?
Based on what you’ve described I would call it “semi-lucid” as well. There was a part of you that acknowledged what you were experiencing wasn’t real and you knew you could escape it, but you didn’t quite conclude it was a dream. It was lacking what Hilary described as the “aha!” moment. Sounds like you were close and It’s quite common for people to have lucid experiences from recurring nightmares, probably because the experiences recur making them more recognisable as dreams.

Quote Originally Posted by dreamfeeder View Post
I've never had anything distinctly lucid in the past besides one time where I was having a regular dream and next minute I was hurtling through a black void at incredible speeds and became aware and conscious of the fact that I was, and I also felt G-forces comparable to a rollercoaster or something similar. I thought of that more as an out of body experience more than anything but I guess it could kind of fall into a lucid dream category too.
This sounds like the sensations you get when transitioning into a dream from waking. I regularly experience what your describing when attempting a wake initiated lucid dream (WILD). Perhaps you had just entered the dream with awareness which would explain why you felt lucid during it.

Quote Originally Posted by dreamfeeder View Post
The past year has been somewhat tumultuous due to a health scare with my mum and also all the covid stuff and some job insecurity that's happened so maybe there was a level of loss of control influencing and creating the feeling of no escape within the nightmare.
Ive found Stress and anxiety can greatly effect my dreams and trigger nightmares. I think it could be because we’re feeling that anxiety as we fall asleep and it lingers whilst we dream and creates a scenario to match how we’re feeling. So even though you may be worried about work in waking life the dreaming mind comes up with its own narrative based on anxiety such as been trapped and unable to escape. Anxiety is then associated with the nightmare so it continues to recur until we can over come it in waking life. Just a theory.

Quote Originally Posted by dreamfeeder View Post
Funnily enough, a few nights ago before bed I thought about the recurrent nightmare and thought to myself that next time if I have it I should try and become lucid and escape out of it! It was more of a random thought more than anything and I didn't think more of it but maybe that was all the intent I needed so that next time the nightmare happened, I was prepared?
Yeah, setting simple intents like this can be quite effective for lucid dreaming. Before bed try setting an intent again to notice when you next have this dream and visualise what that would be like. You may find if it recurs again you’ll become lucid. You may not be able to fix whatever problems you’re having in waking life from within the dream but at least you can face the scary situation with a clear head and make it less terrifying.