Thread: Newbie needing help...I want to stop dreaming

Hi everyone. Glad I found this forum and I hope that I can get some help here. I have always had lucid dreams as long as I can remember. Some of my dreams are just terrifying to others when I share them...but to me...while I am dreaming I know they are but a dream and I can be like a "dream master" get away...fly away...change the ending...you get the idea. Mainly, I have not been afraid of my dreams in a very long time. Now I have started having lucid dreams that I wake up from in a "false awakening" and then converse with the person in what I think to be reality only to realize I am still in a dream world. I then try and convince that person to help me wake up. I have actually rocked back and forth in bed and called out for my husband to wake me. This is happening more frequently. And also, I should mention these dreams all happen within my home setting, usually originating from the last thing I did. If I went to bed...I wake up in my bedroom surrounded by people. I have heard people cooking in my kitchen. I have conversed with a child in my bedroom. I saw an elderly women in the last dream. I feel like I am dreaming in layers sometimes. Anyone out there with similar experiences? I dont believe in hauntings....am I just stressed out. I have a whole list of weird things and really too many to list in this posting. Maybe I have a tumor? I dont know, but I am getting afraid to go to sleep and not being able to wake up in a true reality. Please help.

First off, FAs are common and very normal. People who DON'T lucid dream have them, too. A FA is simply dreaming about waking up. Your expectations and reactions determine how you feel about them. Personally I find FAs to be annoying, but not anything more.

It is also possible that you are having HH (hypnagogic hallucinations). These are a very normal and healthy part of dreaming. Most people never even notice them. These are visual, auditory, tactile, etc. HH are the beginings of dreams that form when a person isn't fully asleep. HH can be as ordinary as printed words from a book you recently read, or it can be disturbing. The thing about HH that so often upsets people is the overwhelming sense of fear and danger when it happens. If you want to learn more about HH just google it. There is a lot of medical liturature out there about it.

Perhaps learning more about FAs and lucid dreaming will help you feel better about your experiences. If you find you are still afraid to sleep, I suggest talking to a doctor.

Good luck!

Ok, from what Ive read HH occurr within 30 minutes of falling asleep. I am pretty sure that I have experienced these alot. The jerking sensation of falling,etc. However I have a lucid dream in which I know I am dreaming. For instance.....I dreamt that I was having a conversation with my husband, I saw a woman in a long flowing floral dress walk thru the house...at that point it struck me odd and I knew that this woman should not be in our house and I knew I was dreaming. I woke up on the couch next to my husband, we had fell asleep watching tv. I tried waking him up to get him to go to bed and when I looked up....I saw the woman again and then realized again that I was dreaming. At that point I was frightened. I ask my husband if we were awake he assured me we were. He was sleepy, but said of course your awake. I told him that he needed to wake me up, that I was dreaming. I kept telling him to wake me up...and that is when I really woke him and he woke me up. This happened several hours after going to sleep, so I dont think that this was a HH. Have you ever had this type of over-lapping lucid dream? Is it common? Maybe I just dont know what to do with it and I just get scared because it is a new experience. This is about the 3rd time in the past couple of weeks that I have had this type of over-lapping dream.

Listen to seeker! That's called an FA!

Cemert, I'd recommend getting into the habit of doing reality checks. Especially in your case, doing a series of them. Try to get into the habit of doing them immediately when you wake up, without even looking at your surroundings, to immediately catch if you are in a dream or not before anything creepy is able to happen. If you try to use a "dream power" and it works, you are dreaming, and there's no reason to get frightened. If it doesn't, try a few other ones. Then, take in your surroundings.

Thanks Shift. Just wondering, I completely enjoy my LDs when I am in an unfamiliar surrounding, but just recently I had a LD and then a FA in my bedroom surrounded by people sitting in chairs. I was so frightened. My husband wasnt in bed yet, and was playing PS3. During this FA I called to him and could see him in the background waving to me to wake up, like I was sleepwalking or something, because I found myself crouched down on my nightstand. Eventually the people faded away and my husband was only there. He was convincing me I was dreaming....then I woke up for real and I was lying in bed, not crouched on the nightstand. What is that called? Lately in my LDs I have a FA or maybe 2 and ask the person in my FA to help wake me up? Is that just my way of finding reality? I would love to learn how not to be fearful of that. My FAs always consist of waking up in my house and strange people being here. Does that have a significant meaning. I mean, what if I started talking to the 20 or so people I FA'd to in my dream. I do not know I could handle that. I am Okay in other surroundings besides my home....is that normal for newbies to FAs to be fearful in their homes? And is it significant to dream about people you have never met?

Hey there, false awakenings can get aggravating, but I've never had them to the extent you are (apparently)
Since this never used to happen to you, it occurs to me that it may be for a reason.

Have you tried asking these questions to the person you're talking to?
1) Who are they really? (sometimes they transform into something that means more to you)
2) Why it keeps happening?
3) How can you make it stop happening?

Let us know how this progresses, I'm curious to hear the solution

Heres some help, the people in a lucid dream are mostly phantoms created by the subconscious mind so you can command them with your thoughts are tell them to do something verbally. If anyone of them fails to obey you you now know you have the real essense of a person in your dream state, wether they are dead or a living person who is also dreaming and has inadverdently or deliberatley stumbled into your dream space. After all at anyone time your sleeping there are millions of people who are dreaming an unsconsciouly roaming the astral dream space. If you would like to get away from them in lucid state jsut cover your eyes and say, when I open my eyes I will be in such a such place, now open them you are there >)

Originally Posted by Dragomentis

Heres some help, the people in a lucid dream are mostly phantoms created by the subconscious mind so you can command them with your thoughts are tell them to do something verbally. If anyone of them fails to obey you you now know you have the real essense of a person in your dream state, wether they are dead or a living person who is also dreaming and has inadverdently or deliberatley stumbled into your dream space. After all at anyone time your sleeping there are millions of people who are dreaming an unsconsciouly roaming the astral dream space. If you would like to get away from them in lucid state jsut cover your eyes and say, when I open my eyes I will be in such a such place, now open them you are there >)

Do you have any evidence to support this?