Excitement and lucid dreaming

[AngelZlayer]

I have read that if you get too excited in a lucid dream you might wake up. I have also read that you can stabilize the dream (such as rubbing your hands), but is there a way to actually decrease the risk of waking up even if you are very excited / enable yourself to get more excited without waking up? Flying seems to be very popular (for obvious reasons), but shouldn't it wake you up pretty fast? On average, where goes the excitement-limit for waking up? If you loose yourself in excitement and "become a child again" (i.e don't try to control your level of excitement), is it enough to stabilize at the same time to keep yourself from waking up? For example: Can you just rub your hands (and look at them of course) while flying to stay asleep/lucid despite your excitement?

[Abra]

Whether you fly or not is irrelevant. :/ The whole excitement thing *might* wake people up, and it might not. I've never woken prematurely due to excitement--I could always attribute it to some other factor. With experience, you will stay within the dream longer. Again, you might not even have a problem with waking prematurely in the first place! If you do, then use the stabilization techniques, and know that over time, the premature awakenings will diminish.

[Nathan-kun]

My first lucid after reading this forum occurred to me during a nightmare. I successfully managed to gain lucidity during the nightmare and defeat it. It turned into a wonderful lucid dream. Because it was my first lucid dream, I was REALLY excited, but the dream was quite long. Actually, I think it was one of my longer lucid dreams. I couldn't go back to sleep that same morning because it was so intense, but the excitement didin't seem to wake me. The point is that the excitement thing seems to vary from person to person. It never gave me many problems. However, it is a good idea when you become lucid to breath, relax, and observe your surroundings before doing anything. In doing this you'll be "grounded" in the dream, which will increase your chances of staying asleep.

[AngelZlayer]

Whether you fly or not is irrelevant. :/ The whole excitement thing *might* wake people up, and it might not. I've never woken prematurely due to excitement--I could always attribute it to some other factor. With experience, you will stay within the dream longer. Again, you might not even have a problem with waking prematurely in the first place! If you do, then use the stabilization techniques, and know that over time, the premature awakenings will diminish. So I don't actually have to worry about getting too excited?

[Abra]

So I don't actually have to worry about getting too excited? Nope, no worries. If you remember to do stabilization, you should be fine. Immerse the senses.

[Renim]

I'm not sure. Some people have issues with whenever they engage in sexual acts in dreams that they wake up (they are unable to keep in the dream). I've never had that situation, but I've heard of a lot of people that have. Now, I think for a WILD you can get too excited before you're fully into Sleep Apnea(or whatever) and wake up or botch the attempt. But, when you're in the dream you shouldn't be able to wake up from excitement (unless something obviously scares/kills you).

[HellsWake]

Personally I find that I wake up early from LDs if I become too excited or emotional in some way. I find the best way to counteract this is to practice meditation, both daily and in dreams to help keep calm and balanced. This way I can enjoy my dreams more without destabilizing.

[Mattofla]

What I do is put on a pokerface. You can be excited, but don't scream in excitment for 5 minutes.

[oniman7]

First of all, Nathan Kun, I hate your avatar... the movement distracts me from reading your post. Anyways, it depends on you. If I get too excited, I wake up. But it's not just excitement, it's any surge of emotion. The reason is that my pulse goes up and my body temperature usually rises slightly, causing me to wake up. Like somebody already said, you could try meditation if you have the time. Just do it before you go to sleep every night. You also have to find a reality check/stabilization technique that works right. For example, more than once I have tried to rub my hands together, only to do it in real life and wake up. Closing my eyes and spinning wakes me up. Touching things sometimes works, depending on how lucid I am. One thing a lot of people neglect as a stabilization technique is to reality check. Even after you use it to realize you're dreaming, you can use it to remind yourself you're in a dream and it keep it grounded longer. I once had a disembodied voice tell me to listen to all the noises in the dreams, and it would stabilize me (I probably read that on the forum somewhere.) Maybe try calling on your own disembodied voice to help you stabilize? Sorry I went off on a tangent there. Anyways, if you find yourself easily awakened by excitement, then just learn to calm down and do your stabilization techniques. If not, I envy you.