New here and need some help.

[dlulu04]

Hi, I am new here. I just signed up today. So I have looked on the web to see what it is that I am experiencing and it turns out that Lucid dreaming and false awakenings are really close in description to what I experience. It doesn't happen often but when it does, it is scary to me. I guess the scariest part is that I know I am dreaming and I try to wake myself up and move but I can't move. I can feel my body trying to move and it shakes but it doesn't move. Then, thats when the "false awakenings happen." I thought I woke up. I swear I thought I woke up and I am relieved. But in lucid dreams, one can control the outcomes? I feel like I have some control but the set up is not what I control just somethings that I do. It's hard to explain. I am glad that I am not the only one going through this. If someone can help me to overcome this type of dreaming or at least to help me to take control, that would be awesome. Thanks!

[Caenis]

Your body shakes, and you can't move? That sounds like sleep paralysis. Are you laying in your bed when this happens, or are you in a dream already? It can be a little scary at first, but once you learn more about it through reading and experience, it'll get easier, even exciting. You'll be able to control your dreams better with more experience as well. Remember while you're dreaming that it's just a dream, and you can do anything in it. Don't think you can fly, you must believe with 100% certainty that you can fly! If you can learn to control these dreams, you'll have a great time. The dream world will bend to your will. Have you been performing reality checks? If you're having false awakenings, it'd be good if you chose a few reality checks to perform each morning as soon as you wake up. If the reality check fails, you're dreaming. You can then do whatever you want in the dream. If you get used to the false awakenings, you can have a lot of fun in your dreams.

[Arch]

Cheers Caenis for the great post. Sounds to me like you are experiencing Sleep Paralysis, it's completely normal and it stops us acting out our dreams, you can take advantage of this by relaxing and reentering the dream, which is the DEILD technique. If anything it's a gift, not many people experience it, even less experience it regularly. If you need anything else just ask

[dreamerJon23]

Also if you truly want to wake yourself up, try centering more and when you can feel your physical body wiggle your fingers and toes, within 10-20 secs you should rouse from SP.

[gab]

Welcome to DV! Another way to break from sleep paralysis is to change your breathing. That's how your body notices you are not sleeping anymore and releases you from it. On the other hand, I agree with previous posts, that you could explore the opportunities SP offers to you, and that's lucid dreaming. You can read about SP in tutorials about WILD type of lucid dreams, here in DV Wiki. Please post any questions you have. Happy dreams

[dreamerJon23]

Nice tip, I will try that.