Stuck in painful dream paralysis / lucid dream

[Ellen]

I have a problem. In a reoccuring nightmare I dream of a very strong pain on the sides of my face/in my jaw. I have learned to realize that this is a dream, but am incapable of waking up. Often I find myself paralyzed, being able to open my eyes a little but can't move the rest of my body. I might feel as if I'm falling, being pulled and I will hear voices. It makes me really, really scared. Throughout the whole experience this strong pain in my jaw remains. I know this is sleep paralysis, but knowing that doesn't make it any less painful. I can usually decide to have a lucid dream if I want, if lucid dreaming means being mentally awake or aware while you're sleeping, but I'm never able to controle it and it usually ends up with me having this nightmare/pain. What's this? What can I do to stop this dream. I've had it for 2-3 years now, a couple of times a month maybe. Anyone recognize any of this?

[Seeker]

Hi Ellen! Welcome to dreamviews. Since you understand about sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming, I can think of a couple of things you might try. 1) Learn control and force it to go away. 2) While in your lucid dream, find someone, maybe a dream character doctor that can heal you. I would bet that #2 is your best option since you say you have little control. Just walk around asking your dream characters where you can find a healer.

[nightowl]

I like seekers number 2 option. I also suggest that you bath yourself in fire or breathe underwater. I think the reason why you have trouble controlling your dream is because you dont have the confidence and the will to do it. As for the fire idea(thanks to evangel for this)-you should bath yourself in fire. but you MUST have realization that its just a dream so you wont think that you're burning to death. I heard that it would cleanse your soul and since you know its a dream, you know that the fire cannot kill or harm you. You must keep this in mind or you might lose control and start to think you are burning. For the water idea, i dunno if it would help but i felt more wonderful/refreshed than normal when i did it(non-LD). I was in a small pool as a mermaid(you dont have to be one in order to breathe the water). Anyway breathe in the water. Feel it going through your body. Visualize that the water is life energy and will heal you more everytime you breathe it in.

[louie54]

when ur like parylised but ur like awake u know? thats normal. everyone in my family (living w/me) has had that and i thnk some of my friends did too. its basiclly a glitch. u wake up in a dream but its real. it happend to me b4 too but i long time ago. wat i did was go bak to sleep well try to atleast.

[SleepSpirit]

Sleep Pararlysis is a blessing... . . . It's the easiest way to get into a lucid dream, Yea, it can hurt... really bad... but u just have to be confident, let it control u, don't try and control it...just wait... let it push u down into an l.d. I read somewheres that sleep paralysis makes u face your fears, which i agree w/, b/c whenever I seem to conqure my fear of sleep paralysis, it changes into something different, a completely different feeling... a terrible one at that.... i still have to shake myself out sometimes, cause it just gets too intense.... Just watch out.... when thinking about sleep paralysis, i think of the old saying "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" he's sneaky, he'll toss u between the waking world and sleeping world for minutes on end... hours seemingly.. in this limbo state.. . so don't fear him... your blessed to be attacked by such a thing.. . were the minorty, You've been given a gift... don't fear it.. . .don't throw it away

[SleepSpirit]

Eat the pain.. no pain no game

[O'nus]

Commonly referred to as astral catalepsy and sleep paralysis (whatever your beliefs are in regards to dreaming and the astral plane, etc.), the pain during sleep paralysis can be quelled by taking certain medications such as barbituates or sleeping pills.. it really depends on what is causing the pain, becuase it could be as simple to quell as taking simple acetaminophen. My guess is that there is residual synaptic firing to the trigeminal ganglion.. the cause, I could not hypothesise. Is the pain focused on your jaw point? Maybe it is an ache from teeth? Look forward to hearing more. Hope I have been enlightening.

[Death-Wuad]

I always have a dictionary on my desk for when O'nus makes a post. You should seriously listen to him, he knows what he's talking about, even though none of us ever do at first I've never experienced sleep paralysis, but I would like to try it just so I can say I did, and I also have a great curiosity of such phenomenon.

[SleepSpirit]

Originally posted by O'nus Commonly referred to as astral catalepsy and sleep paralysis (whatever your beliefs are in regards to dreaming and the astral plane, etc.), the pain during sleep paralysis can be quelled by taking certain medications such as barbituates or sleeping pills.. it really depends on what is causing the pain, becuase it could be as simple to quell as taking simple acetaminophen. My guess is that there is residual synaptic firing to the trigeminal ganglion.. the cause, I could not hypothesise. Is the pain focused on your jaw point? *Maybe it is an ache from teeth? Look forward to hearing more. * Hope I have been enlightening. R u like a psycological biologist or something ? lol... seriously ? Did u go to Uni, and if so.. what did u study ? Like do u research dreams for a living ?

[CT]

Originally posted by SleepSpirit+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SleepSpirit)</div> <!--QuoteBegin-O'nus Commonly referred to as astral catalepsy and sleep paralysis (whatever your beliefs are in regards to dreaming and the astral plane, etc.), the pain during sleep paralysis can be quelled by taking certain medications such as barbituates or sleeping pills.. it really depends on what is causing the pain, becuase it could be as simple to quell as taking simple acetaminophen. My guess is that there is residual synaptic firing to the trigeminal ganglion.. the cause, I could not hypothesise. Is the pain focused on your jaw point? *Maybe it is an ache from teeth? Look forward to hearing more. * Hope I have been enlightening. R u like a psycological biologist or something ? lol... seriously ? Did u go to Uni, and if so.. what did u study ? Like do u research dreams for a living ?[/b] What, are you suprised that there are actually people who know what they're talking about on these boards?