Lucid dreaming a bit scary?...

[tommy79]

Hello, new here. I'm fascinated by dreams and have had a few semi-lucid ones, especially since taking melatonin (3mg), which I currently take every night. My feeling is that when I become lucid things feel a bit "wrong". I'm sort of in my own brain, and I'm aware my real body is somewhere else, and it's all a bit frightening. So I choose to surface out of my dream pretty quickly. (NB One thing that interests me is why when I was younger I wasn't able to escape from nightmare situations so reliably...when I'm in a nightmare now I just choose to escape and wake up, occasionally falsely but I always do get out). That said, I have had a couple of wonderful lucid dreams, especially flying dreams. I dunno...the whole thing just feels a bit strange. I worry about blurring it with reality, when I'm awake. I'm sure many people here have seen Rosemary's Baby, in particular the terrifying scene which is shot like a dream sequence but may not be; it's powerful because on some level dreams ARE frightening phenomena. The more lucid and vivid I get (now that I take melatonin) the more I feel I'm in some sort of twilight zone between reality and dreaming. If I start trying some of the techniques suggested here, i.e. questioning things when I'm clearly awake in order to bring that into my dreams, I feel like I'm going to go a bit crazy. Anyone else know what I mean?

[Robot_Butler]

to DV, tommy79 I think I can understand your fear. That lucid feeling can be a bit weird. I feel it especially when I am talking with a dream character who I supposedly know in real life. It is very strange to talk with someone knowing that they are not real. The whole point of doing reality checks is to keep your awareness up so you can tell the difference between reality and a dream. Without this awareness and ability to become lucid, you are already confusing dreams with reality. By definition, non-lucid dreams are those where you are convinced the dream is real. That is a scary place to be, especially if it is a nightmare. The more you increase your awarneness and lucidity, the easier it is to tell the difference between reality and dreams. It will also make you more comfortable with the dream state, so they start to feel less weird.

[nautilus]

Welcome to DV! I've definitely experienced that twilight zone feeling, usually when I'm waking up and falling asleep several times in one night. I've found that reality checks, such as counting your fingers, are just as good for checking to make sure you're awake as they are for seeing if you're dreaming...so if you've just had a false awakening and things still seem too weird/scary, you can know that you're still dreaming and wake yourself up for real (and then know for sure that you're awake by doing another reality check). I've also experienced those lucid dreams where I felt "close" to my physical body, as though I were in a lighter sleep. I usually try to get "further" by either going through the floor or falling asleep (and WILDing) within the dream.

[ForgottenDream]

yeah i understand exactly what you're saying, a few times while i was lucid i thought i never want to do it again because of the weird feeling. now, i feel completely comfortable and i started taking melatonin as well (5mg), but i don't take it every night, just when i feel like i need help sleeping. i haven't had a lucid dream in over a month now because a lot has been going on, and stress, but i just started doing reality checks again so hopefully i'll have one soon. also reality checks like looking at my hand or looking at my surroundings doesn't work for me, my hand looks normal in a dream because i expect it to be, and the same goes for my surroundings, so i have to come up with a new one.

[dreamscaper22]

welcome to dreamviews where someone seems to have an answer....in one way or another

[mustbe18]

Ya I definitely had that sort of real not real sort of feeling. When I was just starting to get in to lucid dreaming I had a really vivid dream that was close to reality I started to question the world when I knew I was awake. It was A very strange moment when I thought I was a little nuts. But I got over it and now I am much better with differentiating dream reality and the waking world.