A truly frightening experience has led me to this place

Hello to everyone, I am new here. I had a rather frightening experience last night which led me to do some research. I was, prior to today, unfamiliar with the concept of lucid dreaming, other than I had heard the term somewhere before and nothing beyond that.

What happened was that I underwent a series of countless dreams where I would "awaken" in the dream, in the same manner I always do in normal life, and then strange things would occur culminating in (usually) nightmarish events. At certain points in the dreams I would somehow figure out I was still asleep and dreaming, and things would usually change course at that point from strange or odd to frightening. As this continued on, over and over, I would realize that I was still dreaming earlier and earlier in each dream sequence until I was at the point where I just assumed I was still dreaming each time I "awoke". While most of these sequences would end in feelings of fear and horror, they ended up starting with me being pretty teed off.

I have no idea how many of these dreams I had, one right after the other, but there could have been dozens or hundreds for all I know. I felt like it had taken a year when I finally woke for real after some hour or so after I had originally fallen asleep. The strange thing is how much I could remember from so many dreams. All of these "false awakenings" as they are apparently called would start exactly the same way, and the same way I wake every morning in life. My wife would wake me up, I would turn off my cpap machine, take of the mask, stand up and head towards the door of our bed room. Then the dream would progress in my house or somehow transition to elsewhere, usually a place I work or go to often. I would notice things out of place, and at that point the dream would turn very dark.

As soon as I had "lucidity", I would notice everything that didn't make sense, even if it seemed to a moment before, and try to question the people around me, who would then argue with me illogically. And somehow this usually angered them and led to my being attacked or something. And then suddenly I was waking up again, and this would repeat over and over and over. When I finally woke for real, well before I was supposed to, and was able to verify I was indeed awake, I got out of that bed and just stayed up the rest of the night. I was absolutely done with it. I woke up very angry.

I cannot recall ever having such an experience, even on a far smaller scale, as I barely dream as it is. And I do not remember having a dream where so many details were fresh in my mind after waking, and for so many different dreams. And the fact that I still remember so much some 14 or 15 hours later is incredible.

I found this site by chance while researching dreaming, and figured I would toss out what my experience was, and maybe read a little bit here. I get the impression that most here want to experience this phenomenon, but at this point, I think I have experienced it enough for a life time and don't want it again. It all seemed more like some psychotic episode than an "adventure" to me.

welcome man! i'm kind of new too but the one thing i think would help is if you realize that you are in control of your dreams.. when you gain "lucidity" tell yourself what you want to change and feel it my friend.. you are in control! good luck with lucid dreaming.. don't worry you can fix the problem :)

This was all in one night? Sounds like an intense experience.

LOL! This is what i went through a couple years ago. It was Halloween night and i had watched the Exorcist. I slept in my parents room on the floor like a big baby. I went to sleep and woke up not able to move and I had to fight my way out of this and wen I did i heard a scary voice and "woke up" again not able to move. It felt so real and i was scared. This kept happening and i saw and heard scary things. Every time I woke up it was like "Ok Im awake now it was just a long chain of nightmares." Then I saw scarry stuff and I woke up again. It would not stop I felt trapped in the dream worried it would last for hours. Even when I woke for real i was thinking it was most likely a dream and it took a few hours for me to change my mind. But I still worry this all is just part of an extended nightmare chain and that at any moment ill wake up not able to move on that same night yet again. I know this is unlikely but I worry. At least you didnt go through the horror of being un able to move hopeing you where finally awake. BUT!! when you know what to do when you realize your dreaming you will have full control and be able to have a mad crazy adventure. I would love it if I where to have chain dreams every night because I would become lucid every night and adventure.

That indeed does sound a bit tiresome and frustrating. What you experienced, in the sense of knowing you are dreaming, is indeed what we are trying to accomplish here, but most certainly not the actual dream you experienced.

The reason we want to acquire lucidity is because it greatly increases the chance of us controlling our dreams. Controlling dreams is very enjoyable because you can do things (such as flying, or perhaps a little magic) that aren't possible in real life, and your brain will simulate what you think it would be like making it feel realistic.

I would say that you got to experience lucidity, but you didn't get to experience the joy that usually comes with it. I suggest that before knocking it aside as a frustrating experience, give it another shot and try taking a little control of it. I can guarantee that if you succeed, your opinion will change. I admit that I would be the same way if I was in your shoes, but that dream surely didn't do lucidity justice.

Anyway, welcome to the forums, I hope you plan on sticking around a little bit. :)