How do you sleep normally after LDing regularly?

I just started researching online and found this site. I'm very curious about this LDing stuff as from what I could tell I have always done this. I love dreaming because it is the only place where I truly have control of everything around me. However... Apparently I haven't been allowing myself (per my sleep specialist) to get into the restorative sleep state below dream state. (He calls this hyper vigilance as my brain doesn't completely shut down and he believes it is due past trauma) That being said, I have dreamed in this manor since I was a child. It's most often a good time but I haven't thought of any ways to make it truly useful. It's great to fly or to be someone important in your dreams but what about getting real rest? I wake up exhausted. I have also been having an increasingly difficult time waking up as I honestly don't want to. Dreaming is way more fun than real life. Also linked to this is the false starts. I find when I really don't want to wake up but the alarm is going off I will have about 5-6 false starts while trying to wake up. It has been quite scary some mornings when I start to doubt my ability wake up and panic. Also I was hoping someone could shed some light on why sometimes during my false starts I wake up as a totally different person. (eg. last week I had a false start and woke up in bed next to a man I didn't know, walked through a house I didn't recognize and looked in a mirror at someone I didn't recognize. What is that about? I left the house in this dream through the fire escape and "woke-up" in my bed again only to start the false start process again lol ) I'm very interested in what light could be shone on these areas.

Cheers

From what I have been reading most people strive to achieve this type of dreaming. Excuse my ignorance but can't anyone do this. Perhaps my thoughts on LDing are flawed. I go to sleep "wake up" in my dream. If I like the direction of the dream I'll go with it and discover and enjoy the world I have created for myself. If i'm not happy with the direction of the dream I will go back to one that I have enjoyed in the past. I can fly or move objects in my dreams and I love it. I'm aware that I am dreaming which means I can fight vampires or monsters with no fear. lol This is what I have defined for myself as Lucid dreaming. Perhaps my definition is incorrect. I only started looking into this last week and was unable to find anywhere that really helped with the flip side of these amazing experiences. What if I just want to sleep and not remember my dreams or be involved. How do you take a "back seat" to your dreams. I need to be able to control entering this state so that I can get good sleep as well.

Honestly, I'm not sure. Mantras work for inducing lucids, so maybe they can stop them. Try saying "I will not be able to control my dreams" over and over for a while before going to bed. But this is just a guess, hopefully a more experienced person can help you :(

Are there any other people who do this unintentionally?

Im not too sure that you are actually are having lucid dreams. Can you provide me with a dream of yours so i can tell you?

Two nights ago was a fun one. lol I woke up and was at a family friends house and they were all getting ready for a wedding. I find it amusing to mess with the people in my dreams (yes I know I am only messing with myself but it is fun none the less) I feel different in a dream then reality so it usually doesn't take me long to realize I am there. This was really quick as the colours weren't right. Washed out a bit. I love when this happens cause I can run super fast and feel light as air I went for a run from the house where we were getting ready. This is always inetersting as it is almost like jumping. There is a blur of washed out colour and then I am in another area, I can choose this area or go with whatever my brain comes up with. In this dream I went with the flow, I stopped running outside of a house where a man was cutting the lawn and ripped his mailbox from the ground and continued to run (interesting cause it was an actresses mailbox) . Super funny for me cause I know he couldn't hope to catch me cause I'm not really there and he is not real. lol I'm not this troublesome in real life. I returned to the place where everyone was getting ready and gave the bride the mailbox. I remember the feel of the metal and the writing on the side. She laughed.

Today for example I am home from work sick. When I'm not feeling well I really miss my family and will sometimes choose to visit with them in my dreams. I was aware of where I was going before I went to sleep as I directed my self there. I know this counter productive as I'm trying to stop getting so involved in my dreams but I didn't have to go to work. I "woke up" at my aunts house and we chatted for a bit (I know that this is kind of ironic while doing it because I'm only really talking to myself but I shut out that little voice of reason and sink into the dream) Partway through a heated discussion about what my cousin is up to in her life we get a call from her and she needs a ride. I offered to go and get her. I haven't been able to actually drive in a dream so I just ran. (Doesn't really matter cause the point was to see my cousin and I can change the dream goal once I get there to go for coffee or something) The frustrating thing is that I was woken up 3 times trying to accomplish this by the phone. Very jarring and then I have to go through the process of "finding" my cousin again. Once I was able to meet up with my cousin at the bus station we went for a walk around the area and talked about life and goals. In the waking world I am very concerned about her life choices so it was the perfect venue to talk this out and get off my chest the things that I have been worried about. (again I know that I am not actually accomplishing anything but it feels better to get it out and where is safer than a dream to do so. Really not a super interesting dream but nice for me.
Usually once I realize that I am in a dream I will get pretty childish, (fly in front of someone to see their reaction) It is like the world becomes my playground.

Maybe it is because when I was little and used to have nightmares my Dad told me that I could control my dreams and to take over the next time. I remember the first time I really gained control and killed the thing that I was afraid of. It was a witch and I threw a couch at her lol. I suppose that is why I always thought it was normal cause I was taught at a very young age that everyone has this control and we just have to use it. Besides my Dad can do it too so I figured everyone could. I still believe that everyone can. One thing that I was taught to do as a kid was say the "im going to remember my dreams" thing before bed. I don't do it anymore but I haven't needed that in years. I think I remember having a dream journal at 8 or 9 too.

Any thoughts on how to take the back seat?

Although it might be boring, I wonder what would happen if you just tried to go to sleep at the start of a lucid dream. Maybe you would go into a deeper state of sleep and get the rest you need.

Stages of Sleep

Usually sleepers pass through five stages: 1, 2, 3, 4 and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress cyclically from 1 through REM then begin again with stage 1. A complete sleep cycle takes an average of 90 to 110 minutes. The first sleep cycles each night have relatively short REM sleeps and long periods of deep sleep but later in the night, REM periods lengthen and deep sleep time decreases.

Stage 1 is light sleep where you drift in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. In this stage, the eyes move slowly and muscle activity slows. During this stage, many people experience sudden muscle contractions preceded by a sensation of falling.

In stage 2, eye movement stops and brain waves become slower with only an occasional burst of rapid brain waves. When a person enters stage 3, extremely slow brain waves called delta waves are interspersed with smaller, faster waves. In stage 4, the brain produces delta waves almost exclusively. Stages 3 and 4 are referred to as deep sleep or delta sleep, and it is very difficult to wake someone from them. In deep sleep, there is no eye movement or muscle activity. This is when some children experience bedwetting, sleepwalking or night terrors. In 2008 the sleep profession in the US eliminated the use of stage 4. Stages 3 and 4 are now considered stage 3.

In the REM period, breathing becomes more rapid, irregular and shallow, eyes jerk rapidly and limb muscles are temporarily paralyzed. Brain waves during this stage increase to levels experienced when a person is awake. Also, heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, males develop erections and the body loses some of the ability to regulate its temperature. This is the time when most dreams occur, and, if awoken during REM sleep, a person can remember the dreams. Most people experience three to five intervals of REM sleep each night.

Infants spend almost 50% of their time in REM sleep. Adults spend nearly half of sleep time in stage 2, about 20% in REM and the other 30% is divided between the other three stages. Older adults spend progressively less time in REM sleep.

brain waves of different sleep stages

As sleep research is still a relatively young field, scientists did not discover REM sleep until 1953 when new machines were developed to monitor brain activity. Before this discovery it was believed that most brain activity ceased during sleep. Since then, scientists have also disproved the idea that deprivation of REM sleep can lead to insanity and have found that lack of REM sleep can alleviate clinical depression although they do not know why. Recent theories link REM sleep to learning and memory.
Stage Frequency (Hz) Amplitude (micro Volts) Waveform type
awake 15-50 <50
pre-sleep 8-12 50 alpha rhthym
1 4-8 50-100 theta
2 4-15 50-150 splindle waves
3 2-4 100-150 spindle waves and slow waves
4 0.5-2 100-200 slow waves and delta waves
REM 15-30 <50

Apparently I skip the stage 4 and stay in REM too long. I was told that stage 4 is where the rest for my brain comes from and because I don't touch that I am not getting the right type of sleep. The only thing I can think of is that LD's are related and stopping me from shutting my brain off completely. I need a way to stop the LD's.

I will try to go to sleep in my dream. It isn't something I have tried before. I know I have some difficulty letting the dreams go once I know that I am in them. Some kind of inner battle that I have to work on. I guess it is hard to relinquish that type of ultimate control/power. Besides the fact that it is way more fun than anything else I do in a day. lol I will let you know if this works tonight.

try listening to some binaural beats to help you enter deeper sleep.
more speciifically, an app for the iPod called "Ambiscience power nap and sleep"
has an effect called "Deep Sleep"
If u dont know what im talking about google it.

Will do this tonight.

Okay I downloaded the Ambiscience power nap and sleep app. quite interesting. lol I dreamed of being in a star ship very star trek lol It wasn't an LD so I am curios to try this again tonight. It could be that I was just too tired to get involved in my dream or the "back seat" mantra I practiced before bed. Not the best experiment if I change too many variables at once but desperate times... I liked the let go but am interested to find out if I can do this again tonight.

Cheers,