Hi All . . . I am new to the board tonight and wanted to say hi and relay some information about my first lucid dreaming experience. I had heard of lucid dreaming quite some time ago, but didn't really know anything about it. A couple of weeks ago I came across an article about it and read it. I have always had better than average dream recall.

I wasn't attempting to lucid dream last night, but it happened. I slept for about 7 hours and then got up to take my dogs out . . . after that I went back to sleep and that is when it happened. I was dreaming for awhile when I suddenly realized that I was dreaming and was having a frustrating dream. Unfortunately, instead of trying to stay in the dream and lucid, I told myself to wake up and actually said wake up . . . I felt a very strong reaction, a sudden sensation of being jerked out of the dream. Then something really interesting happened. In the dream I had been standing in a neighborhood at sunset . . . when I awoke I was laying on a blanket outside (as if I had been on a picnic and fell asleep . . . when I woke there I recognized having been there before . . . possibly in a dream earlier in the evening?? I have no idea), then when I opened my eyes (actually awake now) I was laying in my bed. It was the strangest sensation . . . like a dream within a dream. I read a little today about false awakenings. It was like layers of the dream . . . and it brought to mind an Edgar Allen Poe quote . . . "Everything we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream." . . . Also, when I came awake so suddenly like this my eyes really hurt . . . I am wondering if this is because I was jerked out of REM sleep? I would love to hear about others experiences and if anyone has had anything similar to this happen. I am hoping that I'll be able to become lucid again and next time will try to stay in the dream as long as possible!