Troubled dreamer seeks support

Hi everyone!

I stumbled across this forum while searching for info on sleep paralysis and vivid dream imagery. I had a frightening series of dreams the other night and awoke in sleep paralysis. My husband has to wake me up at least several times a week, and sometimes several times a night, because of my nightmares. I would like to gain control of my dream life both to stop my nightmares and to more easily distinguish betweeen dreaming and reality. I often recall dreams later in the day and have difficulty figuring out if it was a dream or a memory.

On a positive note, I have excellent dream recall, and I have sporadically attained lucidity on many occasions. I have also had a few OBEs where I have floated above my body and flown around the house. I believe that by studying and practicing the techniques on this site I will more predictably be able to achieve lucidity. For now I have started a dream journal in my daughter's old spiral notebook. I do plan to transcribe some of these into the dream journal here.

I am looking forward to meeting like-minded people on this forum. I do need support, as many of my dreams are troubling. I have chronic back pain and take pain medicines in the evening, which I think may contribute to my nightmares. Also sometimes I have difficulty going to sleep or wake up in the night from the pain. If anyone else has chronic pain issues I'd be interested in hearing how you feel this affects your dreaming.

Welcome to DV!

I'm sorry your dreams aren't pleasant. Learning how to LD to get rid of nightmares is one of the most common reasons. What you need to do is to start visualizing yourself being in danger of any kind, or perhaps if you have a recurring dream or a dream sign of some sorts. Visualize seeing that familiar dream sign and then tell yourself you'll check if you're not infact dreaming. Doing this many times a day will eventually carry over to your dreams. Start questioning your reality and you'll do it more and more in your dreams. If you realize you're dreaming and you're in a nightmare then just change the dream or close your eyes. You'll soon wake up. Don't be scared of ending up in SP. SP is completely natural and harmless and will only turn ugly if you're worried it might happen. Try to think of a nice dream scene instead and ignore what you feel or see.

I had nightmares alot as a kid and I learned how to LD because of them. If you're wondering about something then just ask :)

Thanks for your response, Matt! The sleep paralysis really scared me, although I have experienced it before. I'm not sure what my dream sign is, but I hope I'll figure that out with journaling. I also discovered lucid dreaming as a way to vanquish my frequent nightmares I had as a child. Now the nightmares are back but the lucidity is not. The series of dreams that frightened me the other night occured just as I had gone to sleep but did not realize I was asleep. I had several false awakenings and the feeling of not having control of my body and floating around the house. This is not my usual type of dream or nightmare. I had to get up and reorient myself to sort out what really happened and what was a dream. My daughters are also interested in lucid dreaming, and they suggested we put "A"s on our hands to do RCs throughout the day. Thank you for your helpful suggestions!

I have been fortunate to not have experienced too many FA's, but they can be real annoying at times. I suggest you rely on a more reliable RC like counting fingers or pushing your finger through your palm or plugging your nose and see if you can breathe. Remember that it's not the RC itself that is important, but the mindset and questioning of reality. The RC is just to be 100% sure you're not dreaming.

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Originally Posted by JenJen

I am looking forward to meeting like-minded people on this forum. I do need support, as many of my dreams are troubling. I have chronic back pain and take pain medicines in the evening, which I think may contribute to my nightmares. Also sometimes I have difficulty going to sleep or wake up in the night from the pain. If anyone else has chronic pain issues I'd be interested in hearing how you feel this affects your dreaming.

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Hello JenJen. Sorry to read that you have chronic back pain. =/ I also have chronic back pain, but mine isn't as severe as yours. It's rare that I'm woken up or can't sleep from the pain, since usually laying down provides me with relief. I haven't noticed much, if any effect on my dreams. In fact, my back issues are almost never acknowledged in my dreams. I don't usually get nightmares either. You pose a good question though, I wish I remember what my dreams were like directly before and after my back surgery.

I read one lonely study about using lucid dreams to help manage pain. Scroll down to page 11 if you care to read the results. Maybe you could experiment with using lucid dreams to help manage your pain? Once I become a stronger LDer, that's one of my goals. :)

Thank you for sharing that link, Caenis! That would be great if lucid dreaming could help manage pain! Of course, the pain meds interfere with dream recall... :(

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Originally Posted by JenJen

Thank you for sharing that link, Caenis! That would be great if lucid dreaming could help manage pain! Of course, the pain meds interfere with dream recall... :(

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That's unfortunate. Well I hope lucid dreaming can at least help you with your nightmares. And you wrote that your recall is good right now, yes? Just take it one step at a time. :) Keep us updated with your progress!