Whenever I realize I am dreaming, the dream 'attacks' me

**Awesomeness** · 10-12-2010 10:14 PM

I realize I am dreaming sometimes, (at least from what I can remember) about once to five times or more every two weeks, because they often happen in spells. The problem is, once I do the dream turns on me. I can often hold back my thoughts that I'm in a dream while still being aware of it, sometimes through the whole dream, but sometimes only for a little while.

Anyway, if I do realize I'm in a dream because something happens that doesn't make sense, or I just do, then everything that could possibly go wrong happens.

Once I had a dream where my family went shopping, and as we all got back into the car, after a minute I realized everyone but my mom, the driver, had disappeared. I thought for a second and figured out it was a dream. Instantly my mom revved the car as fast as she could and skid off the road. When she crashed she opened the door and walked towards me. I closed my eyes as she beat me, and then I woke up.

That's just an example. A few times I've had my brother scream and tackle me, once I had my mailbox eat me. Sometimes I'll just hear a loud sound like a microphone screeching in my ears that won't go away when I cover them, and I'll collapse to the ground and wake up, but always this intense wave of fear even when it doesn't make sense to be afraid comes over me.

How can I stop dreams from becoming extremely hostile whenever I realize I'm dreaming and lucid dream?

**Kolten** · 10-12-2010 10:25 PM

Hmmm, it's probably because you don't have control of your dreams. Look up some tutorials and things and you can learn how.

**Robot_Butler** · 10-12-2010 10:27 PM

That's strange. I normally have the opposite problem. My dreams are crazy and unpredictable, but calm down once I become lucid. I have to use little tricks to keep them outrageously unpredictable and dream-like. Do you have any ideas why this might be? Does the feeling of lucidity frighten you? Maybe that fear turns the dream into a nightmare?

**Cacophony** · 10-12-2010 11:15 PM

Hello and welcome to DV!

I would highly suggest reading up on different dream control techniques. There are many things you can do to change your surroundings in a dream while aware that you are dreaming.

Spinning around is a good technique that has worked countless times for me. This almost always completely changes the dream.

Good luck!

**Titan2995** · 10-13-2010 12:21 AM

Hmmm....I experience something similar when it comes to my dreams. My dreams don't attack, but abort. Usually if I figure out that I'm dreaming, it's like my dreams begin to shut down and wake me up.

I'm definitely looking up some of the techniques and tutorials used to keep control, and you should to.

**ianfort** · 10-13-2010 12:53 AM

I think probably the first time it happened it was a fluke, and now it happens because you expect it to.

**Kolten** · 10-13-2010 01:28 AM

Yeah, I somewhat agree with fort on this one.

**loulou** · 10-13-2010 09:01 PM

Whoa. OK I haven't done any research about lucid dreaming so I don't know if this is common, but I felt chills reading that because the same thing happened to me last night. I realized I was dreaming and decided, cool, now I will have some fun. Then the dream attacked me, as you put it. It was really scary because the fact that I knew I was dreaming didn't make it any less painful. This must be common???

**Awesomeness** · 10-13-2010 11:24 PM

Thanks, guys. From now on I'll try to relax. After all, sometimes when I've realized I'm dreaming I've been able to continue without derailing it. I'll try my best to calm down, increase the vividness of the dream and make things happen. I hope this 'expect bad things to happen' thing isn't a permanent habit.

**Foul** · 10-14-2010 12:44 PM

It might be completely inappropriate but I laughed manicly at you crouching down and your terminator of a mother beating you down.

**Robot_Butler** · 10-14-2010 06:42 PM

Didn't this happen in that movie, Inception? Maybe that is sneaking into your expectations.

**Emiko** · 10-14-2010 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by Robot_Butler

Didn't this happen in that movie, Inception? Maybe that is sneaking into your expectations.

That's right, and that's exactly the explanation I thought of when I read the first post in this thread. The movie rules are "be careful about altering the environment in a dream; it attracts the attention of projections [DCs], who will attack whoever is making the alterations." It seems to be the consensus here on DV that whatever you expect to happen in a dream will.