How do you wake up from a lucid dream?

**metaphysical** · 08-19-2010 11:47 PM

Hi, newbie here, and am going to try to get my first lucid dream in a matter of minutes when I sleep today.
My question is - how do you intentionally wake up from a lucid dream, or just go back to non-aware dreams? I'm kind of fearful that if I do happen to lucid dream, I'll be stuck there for a while. I know I'd wake up eventually, but it's a bit of a claustrophobic feeling, being stuck in your own head.

Thanks

**Robot_Butler** · 08-19-2010 11:53 PM

Don't worry too much. Most people have the opposite problem. They have to fight to keep from waking up. It isn't like the movie Inception, where the girl is screaming "WAKE ME UP!" By the time you get that excited, you will already have lost it.

I can normally wake myself up just by thinking about it. Sometimes I will open and close my eyes a few times, trying to get my real eyes to open. Beware of false awakenings when you wake yourself up from a lucid dream. Sometimes you end up just making yourself dream about waking up.

**Ray23** · 08-19-2010 11:58 PM

Yeah waking up is no problem

**Robot_Butler** · 08-20-2010 12:04 AM

Now that I think about it, I do often wake to sleep paralysis when I wake myself up intentionally. It is not the frightening sleep paralysis you hear about with hallucinations and adrenaline. Just a groggy sort of half-awake state. Does anyone else get this consistently?

**metaphysical** · 08-20-2010 12:05 AM

Sleep paralysis is another thing I'm worried about. Sounds like temporary paralysis - and sounds scary. Is it?

**NightCrawler** · 08-20-2010 06:33 AM

waking up is quite easy. I have an unintentional lucid dreams where I am in a nightmare and realize I am dreaming. In this case usually I am so frightened that I don't bother with changing the dream, I just want out. So I think to myself that I want to wake up and like Robot said, I open/close my eyes a few times. I do also find that when I force myself awake quickly like this I experience sleep paralysis. Don't worry meta it really is not that scary if you know what is going on. About two weeks ago it happened to me again, but I knew it was sleep paralysis and eventually I would come out of it, so I managed to stay pretty calm and within a few seconds I woke up completely.

**Mincemeat** · 08-20-2010 09:18 AM

I have only been in SP once, and it isnt scary as long as you know what it is (if you dont it is VERY scary, BUT YOU DO!) you can exit SP by holding your breath as long as possible (it may take a few tries) you can still control your breathing while in sp

. That SHOULD wake you up, if it doesnt concentrate on moving your head (i think it is called the old had or something like that).

Hope it helped

P.S. i am not an expert

edit

ops replied to nightcrawler sorry haha