Thread: What happened to me....

Lucky you , since when you've been practicing ? Today i was scared as shit when i almost entered my first lucid dream , so i just couldnt handle it and woke up <_< read my topic to know.the full story xD

Welcome to Dream Views, MirageXI, and congratulations on the lucid dream, and your successful experiment with dream control.

You did the right thing, by relaxing yourself through the sleep paralysis. Every night, our bodies 'paralyze' themselves, so that we don't act out our dreams. It's a defense mechanism to keep us from injuring ourselves in our sleep. Sometimes we will wake up in the middle of it, though, if our sleep is interrupted, or we are just unable to fully rest, and it can be pretty scary. This moment is notorious for giving people bad experiences, because there is an innate fear that comes along with being paralyzed, so our minds tend to project images of scary things, instead of peaceful dream content. But, like I said, you did the right thing. Just relax through it, realize it's normal, and everything will settle itself down, giving you a chance to sleep back into a dream, consciously.

I would definitely suggest starting up a dream journal. There is a good chance that the alcohol and the sleep aid helped you in your experience. Try it in combination, another time or two, and then sometimes without, and see what differences in results you get.

Again, congrats on the lucid dream, and enjoy your stay!

I'm going to break this down into bits, otherwise you're going to be lost in strange terminology

The part where you woke up from your nap (while watching tv) and went to your bed is called "Wake Back To Bed" (WBTB), it's a Lucid Dream (a dream in which you know that you're dreaming) induction method.

The part where you were unsure whether or not you were dreaming, would have been the beginning of a Lucid Dream (LD). Had you just become a LITTLE more conscious and aware, you could have realised you could do anything. And by anything, we mean ANY thing.

The part where you were paralyzed is called Sleep Paralysis (SP). It's something your body does so you won't sleepwalk (and possibly injure yourself) or act out your dreams. It's also a step towards LD. The Owl you saw is part of something called Hypnogogic Hallucinations (HH), and is also perfectly during SP. I personally think the HH occur because on a normal night, your mind goes to sleep before your body (this is built-in as a survival mechanism back when we were closer to apes). But now, your body's asleep before your mind. Your mind assumes that if IT is awake, your body must be as well, so it assumes external input - sensations. That's what HH serves to do.

From there on, you transition into a dream, like you did.

The fact that your LD start with you lying in your bed is called a False Awakening. I get them a lot too, they're very common and perfectly normal.

There are things called Reality Checks (RC) which you can perform to check whether you're asleep or awake. I'm just going to list the ones I do, as the list is pretty much endless, and I'll undoubtedly forget some.

1. Breathe through a pinched nose. Close your mouth, pinch your nose and see if you can still breathe. In a dream you can, in real life you can't.
2. Study your hands. In real life your hand will count the amount of fingers you actually have. In a dream.. ..probably not. I personally once had 6 TOES on my right hand instead of 5 fingers XD pretty hilarious. I've heard accounts of people having fingers fused together in a dream, fingers branching of other fingers.. ..whatever is abnormal about your hands is a sign that you're dreaming.
3. Finger through palm. Try to push your index finger through the palm of your other hand. In real life, your finger will just bump into it. In a dream, it'll go through it like a spoon through pudding.

..That's it from me, I guess

*merged thread with original, in Newbie Zone*

thanks guys... i think this is a really interesting way to sleep (in control) ... I'm going to try all the techniques this site has to offer