Thread: couldnt wake up from dream

I had a dream the other night that seemed to be lucid, but I couldnt wake up. I felt pain in my legs and lower back which seemed to be familiar from my childhood, but when I tried to wake up I couldnt so I screamed and thrashed my head about. It seemed to take a long time and while I was doing it I thought, God I bet ive woken the whole household, but my husband was lying next to me still fast asleep so I obviously hadnt made a sound. It was very unpleasant.g

Sounds like sleep paralysis to me. This is where your mind is awake but your body is not. You cannot move, and i usually can't breathe. It is often accompanied by VERY loud sounds, and the thought that something is watching you, or coming to get you.
Once i did this, and i thought that my stereo had turned on full blast by mistake. I thought i would have woken the whole street but in fact everyone was still sleeping. It was truly baffling at the time

I'm not sure if it could be anything else...

Funnily enough my mother suffers from sleep paralysis. I had no loud noises, but I did get the sense that I couldnt breath although I thought this was just panic, but I was very aware that I had had enough of this dream and I wanted to wake up. I was just amazed that I hadnt actually screamed because I really felt that I had.

I don't know much about sleep par, but every once in a while i have those types of dreams where i just can't wake up, It's torture isn't it! sometimes, even if i can wake up the dreams right there waiting for me when i fall back to sleep. What can you do!

Originally posted by lucidvegan
Funnily enough my mother suffers from sleep paralysis

I'm not sure that "suffers" is exactly the right word. Everybody goes into SP, it's just that you're usually fully asleep, and therefore unaware, when it happens. It is the mechanism that prevents you from acting out your dreams, as sleepwalkers do. Sleepwalkers apparently have some malfunction that prevents SP from kicking in. The only time you're aware of SP is when your mind is awake, but your body is asleep -- apparently this happens more often to some people that to others -- and of course to those who are attempting to lucid dream via the WILD method.

Those who experience SP in a lucid state and don't understand what it is, are often quite afraid -- and understandably so. But once you know that it's a normal part of the sleep pattern, you should be able to convince yourself that there's nothing to fear, and in fact use it as a stepping-stone to having lucid dreams.

OTOH, the sensation is usually described as a tingling or buzzing -- not a pain in the legs and back such as you describe -- so it's possible you may have experienced something else here. Not quite sure.

I dont think my poor mum was looking at it from a lucid dream point of view LOL and she definitely did suffer cos when she woke up she would say it was awful. We, as children, would see her twitching and moaning, and when she finally did wake up, she would say that she would be able to hear us but could not get back. Mind you, this is the first time Ive actually written that down and now Im wondering, is that sleep paralysis? or is that something diferent? I dont know much about these things. What do you think?

When I was a child and I was having a bad dream I would tell myself to wake up and it usually worked. Although sometimes I only woke up mentally and my body seemed to be still dreaming. I would be fully aware of my surroundings and all my senses would work perfectly except I wouldn't be able to move my body or open my eyes. It was a really scary experience and it is like being trapped inside yourself (once I thought I had gone blind). I would try and shout and move to try and fully wake up but it would take ages. After having a couple of these experiences I learnt to lash out with my arm to try and hit my bedside table so the sound would wake me up. Now I have no problem escaping my dreams (In fact I no longer need to I just pass anything bad that happens off as being imaginary and then things get better) because I have alot more mental strength.

I would suggest just waiting until the experience has passed and not to worry. But if you get sick of it happening (if it happens again) then try and will yourself to do something that will trigger you to wake up. A couple of examples would be to hit something or relax and remind yourself of all the important stuff you have to do today or if you have kids think of checking on them (for some reason this can enable you to break free...like an adrenalin boost). Eventually you will gain full control over this and it will go away.

Hope this helps. Believe me it is a scary experience.

Thanks for that. Hopefully it wont happen again. I remember thrashing my head about and bashing it on the pillow but it took a while for it to work.

Out of interest does anyone ever smell burning in their dreams. This has happened to me twice. I havent been lucid dreaming, or even particularly aware that I was dreaming but have been woken up by the smell of burning toast. Whats that all about then LOL.