Help! Lucid Nightmares, can't wake up

Last night I had a very complex, very frightening dream. In the dream, I woke up in my bed during the course of the night, but soon realized when I tried to get up that I was still asleep. I suppose this might have been something akin to sleep paralysis. In any event, I was rather frightened by the fact that I couldn't move and struggled to wake myself up.

Then the dream started getting weird.

After some struggle, I believed I had finally woken up from sleep paralysis, when in reality I was still dreaming. I was in my bed, but when I would try to get out of bed, I realized I was asleep.

After more struggle I thought I was awake and I tried to call to someone in the next room, but they couldn't hear me. I got out of bed and started walking, or crawling, toward the hall, but I couldn't move. I realized I was asleep again, and at that point of the dream I "reappeared" in bed.

This dream continued through several "levels", or stages. Each time I was in bed, thinking I had woken up, and each time I realized I was still asleep. I was desperate to wake myself up, but each time I thought I had I found out I was still dreaming.

I had to break through at least nine or so levels before I actually woke up around 3:00 or 4:00 AM. The entire time I felt extremely oppressed by some unknown force.

Each time I realized I was asleep in the dream, I was "summoned" back to my bed, and thought I had actually woken up, when infact I was still dreaming. I hope this makes sense.

Any help?

Hey there,

I've had dreams like that. It's a phenomenon I call them dreamparalysis.

Basically what happens here in my opinion is that you come very close to awakening, your sleep is really light. And your mind is getting mixed signals, from the one hand the deeper sleep and dreams trying to pull you back in, and on the other hand from your body, which is currently lying in your bed, paralysed (as we enter sleep our body paralyses itself so that we don't begin acting out our dreams).

So although you're trying to escape from it, you're so close to awakening the real body sensations of your body lying in bed continue to impose themselves on your dreaming, that's why you're constantly shifting back to your bed, and why you find it difficult to move.

My advice in such situations, is to remain calm, first and foremost, so that your body can go back to a deeper stage of sleep. Additionally, try to focus on your dreamsensations. In particular, things that wouldn't be in your normal bedroom. Maybe you hear voices, listen to them. Look around, try to spot what seems strange or different, see what they look like, touch them if you can. Focussing on dreamsensations is a technique that's usually done when a dream is about to end, to prolong and solidify the dream again, but here it helps to bring you back into deeper sleep.

If all else fails, lie back and close your eyes and go to sleep in your dream. You might wake up, or you might end up in a false awakening in a different dream.

Hope that helps,

-Redrivertears-

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Redrivertears

Hey there,

I've had dreams like that. It's a phenomenon I call them dreamparalysis.

Basically what happens here in my opinion is that you come very close to awakening, your sleep is really light. And your mind is getting mixed signals, from the one hand the deeper sleep and dreams trying to pull you back in, and on the other hand from your body, which is currently lying in your bed, paralysed (as we enter sleep our body paralyses itself so that we don't begin acting out our dreams).

So although you're trying to escape from it, you're so close to awakening the real body sensations of your body lying in bed continue to impose themselves on your dreaming, that's why you're constantly shifting back to your bed, and why you find it difficult to move.

My advice in such situations, is to remain calm, first and foremost, so that your body can go back to a deeper stage of sleep. Additionally, try to focus on your dreamsensations. In particular, things that wouldn't be in your normal bedroom. Maybe you hear voices, listen to them. Look around, try to spot what seems strange or different, see what they look like, touch them if you can. Focussing on dreamsensations is a technique that's usually done when a dream is about to end, to prolong and solidify the dream again, but here it helps to bring you back into deeper sleep.

If all else fails, lie back and close your eyes and go to sleep in your dream. You might wake up, or you might end up in a false awakening in a different dream.

Hope that helps,

-Redrivertears-

---

Thanks. That does help.

The strangest part of the dream was the fact that everything seemed perfectly normal. It was only when I tried to move or call out that I realized I was still asleep. Then the dream would keep resetting itself, each time I would think I had finally woken up. Weird. :?

The part where you think you've woken up are commonly called "False Awakenings." They're very typical in this sort of situation, exactly because you're on that borderstate between being awake and asleep.

Personally, I believe that the onset of sleep and the onset of dreams overlap slightly. You begin dreaming just a few moments before you begin sleeping (that's where Hypnagogic images come from). In the same vein, the ending has an overlap too. You continue to dream while already waking up (this often leads to people reporting that they heard strange sounds or saw something weird at the moment of waking).

So what happens here, is basically that your body is so close to awakening that you're right there in that shadow zone between actual waking and dreaming, hence the repeated attempts at waking which each time result in yet another dream, as you don't quite get to full consciousness yet.

Hope that makes sense,

-Redrivertears-

Yes, that does make sense. I did some research on "False Awakenings" after you mentioned that, and it's the exact experience I had. I've had these sort of things happen a few times in the past.

It's comforting to know there wasn't some demonic presence trying to devour me in my sleep, in any event. :shock::D

The feeling of sleep paralysis (and consequently dream paralysis) can be pretty oppressive. So much so that during the Middle Ages it developped it's own set of myths and legends. "Old Hag", "Incubi", and probably a few others are terms who's origins have been linked to this phenomena :)

-Redrivertears-