I'm new to this whole lucid dreaming thing (you'll probably be able to tell from reading this i don't know much at all about it). I have heard of it a while ago and it sounded awesome but only in the last few days have I decided to give it a go. Sorry if I end up writing a fair bit here but my experience with this last night was not too good and when i woke up properly i told myself i was never going to try this again. I reconsidered this morning though.

Basically i read about reality checks a few nights ago and wanted to try them in a dream. I used the one where you put your hand over your mouth and nose and try to breathe.

Well to the dream. I've had a nightmare before where I wake up (not actually wake up just in the dream i think) and i can't move or talk or anything and it's just me in my room but i don't feel safe at all. Anyways the dream is very scary and when i wake up i am shocked and don't really want to go back to sleep again.

So the dream began in my room and i immediately tried this reality check and as soon as i did it i realised i was in a dream. But as soon as i realised i was in a dream i woke up (in the dream) and i couldn't move or talk and when i tried to move or talk i felt a great pain in my head until i couldn't move at all. This whole time my cat was next to me. It lasted a couple minutes and then i went back to sleep in my dream (reminds me of inception or something). I did the reality check again and the whole thing repeated itself, and then it happened once more time. After the third time it happened i waited till the pain had stopped and went to my parents room. I then woke up properly and realised that all three times this had happened it was a dream because my cat was not next to me and she was downstairs the whole time.

Basically i'm just wondering if i can get any insight as to what happened and how i can try to do this correctly next time. Because i want to try lucid dreaming again but this experience was not nice.

Thanks for any input anyone has.