This might be old news to others...

[emmychi]

but it's a new development for me. I have lucid dreams in the past, but as of late I have been having dreams where I know I am dreaming, but am completely out of control. They started, for example, with me being in a high school chem class (I've been out of high school for 7 years now) and I will fall down. Everyone can see me, but no one seems bothered by it, although I feel entirely embarrassed. No matter what I do, although I know I'm asleep, I can't wake up OR convince myself that I shouldn't feel embarrassed, because it's a dream. These have progressed quite a bit. The most recent ones involved me simply walking from our kitchen to the bedroom. About 2 steps from the bedroom door, I lose all control of my body and fall, or more accurately, float, to the floor. I cannot move and feel myself struggling to crawl to the bedroom. I attempt to yell, deeply inhaling to BLAST out a scream for my boyfriend to help, but can manage only the slightest squeak. It sounds lame, but in the dream it is completely terrifying. I awake in bed without being able to move, which seems to last a couple minutes, although I am not entirely sure of the time. I wouldn't be so worried if the feelings of anxiety were not staying with me for much of the following day. I would really like to find a way to end these, or at least gain some control; it is hard because I do also have lucid dreams where I feel I have complete control of my actions. Any suggestions or comments are very much appreciated!

[Halocuber]

I know this probably doesnt have anything to do for what your looking for but Those dreams about yourself where you cant move or breath are completely normal. They are scary as hell but they are normal. Also When you werent able to wake up , were you really tired that night? Because if you were , than its harder to wake up. Hopefully somebody more Experience will reply to your thread and answer your questions.

[emmychi]

I appreciate that. The two worrisome things are 1) I've gone from being able to control my actions to not being able to control them, to feeling so out of control that 2) I can't let it go for a couple days afterward. It's kind of like I'm regressing. Maybe someone will understand what I mean, I feel a bit silly the more I think about it.

[Luminous]

Welcome to DV! Sorry to hear about your negative lucid dreaming experiences. I'm guessing you are quite overwhelmed with emotions like fright and frustration during these lucid dreams where you have no control. This is probably why you find yourself unable to control them. Frustration especially can really ruin your control and in a way, take over your dream. Next time this happens, try to calm yourself down, remind yourself that this is all just happening in your mind, so it's yours to control. Then, don't try to control anything before you feel sufficiently calm. I know it can sound hard to do, but it's the best and most efficient way to gain control. When it comes to waking yourself up, try closing your eyes in your dream. This is enough to wake most lucid dreamers up. You can also try to hold your breath and see if that wakes you up. I see you also experience sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is pretty much your body being asleep while you are actually awake. Your body is paralysed when you're in REM sleep, to keep you from acting out your dreams. But, sometimes, (at least for some people) your body becomes paralysed before you actually fall asleep, or it's still paralysed when you wake up. I know it can be a scary experience, but it's actually harmless. Some people use sleep paralysis to enter a WILD, you can check out WILD tutorials in the tutorial section if you want to know more about that. Feel free to ask if you have more questions!