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.