I am terrified of sleeping

It's long, but please help.

I am only 16 in a few days, but already is lucid dreaming not a big deal any more, which is why I don't wake up too soon from them. They have turned into what seems like the longest dreams of my life. Lately, I have been unable to have normal dreams. It's like a phase when you keep thinking of the same thing whether you want it or not, or constantly humming a song you don't like, or forcing yourself to do something pointless, like when you decide to do something just 'to do it', like suddenly scream in the classroom. Don't think this is something I do, I don't have Tourettes or anything. ANYWAY, this is what happens in my dreams, I can't not think about what I don't want to think about. Like the way you think: "I have to concentrate on not thinking about a horrible, deformed monster coming from behind right now," and it appears. Almost all my dreams turn lucid sooner or later (it could also be that I only remember the lucid ones, but it's still a problem).

I've experienced most things in dreams. My dreams turn scarier every night. Tonight I couldn't sleep because of the holidays having me usually stay up until 5 in the morning. Today was school, but when I woke up from this, I didn't feel that I was able to go. Everything was scary. Even completely normal things, like walking through a house or talking to someone I know, is depressing or scary. I don't really read about dreaming on line, although I read about lucid dreaming before I started doing it. I read a list of negative claims about them, like: *negative claim* > *"real", positive comeback*

One of these claims was: "You might not be able to have normal dreams any more." Obviously, there was some bullshit response about even "experts" being lucky if they have 1 or 2 lucid dreams a week. Well, lucky experts.

A series of events caused my penis to grow weird, skin-colored pieces of wood with those sharp things on the end, those that will become longer twigs with leaves on them in a few years. Hard to explain.

Also, as I explained, I rarely read about LD online. Which is why I had never heard of "do not look in a dream mirror". Oh God, I wish I didn't. I am scarred for life of the deformed monster I saw. There are no words. I have an imagination wilder than Dante's. "Deformed" doesn't really explain it. I'm sorry to tell those who read this who have never looked in a dream mirror, because sometimes you don't have a choice but to do what you fear in dreams. NEVER look in a dream mirror. Horror movies aren't scary. Dreams are. And I have never been more of a nerve wrack. In my case, real life is a happy place while dreams, which I used to love, is hell, where everything, no matter how normal, horrifies me more than words can describe. Before you tell me to "keep looking at the image in the mirror", I can't, because each second is worse than watching my family die.

And the weird thing is, REM sleep lasts for about 20 minutes depending on how long you've slept. This dream was one long, depressing dream. I would wake up after a long time of dreaming, then fall asleep, back to the dream again, but there were no breaks as I can remember. I never lost my lucidity. If you know you are dreaming, can you at "will" keep the dream going, even if the REM period would normally be over?

I don't have nightmares when sleeping at day time, but I can't do that, I would fuck up my grades at school which are very good.

Does anyone feel the same? :shock:

You need to see a psychologist. This is probably a very deep-rooted problem.

Alrighty, then.

Hey MBakke, Congratulations on your newfound venture into lucid dreaming! It sounds like you are very talented for being a newbie.

Nightmares of horrific monsters are VERY common, it's nothing you need to see a psychologist about. And even though you know they aren't real and can't hurt you, they are still scary because...well...THEY'RE RIGHT NEXT TO YOU!

I'm stinks you are distressed by these nightmares, but you are in luck because since you are a lucid dreamer, you can do something about it.

I suggest reading Chapter 10 of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and learning techniques to overcome your nightmares and transform them into something more positive. The chapter is posted for free on the Lucidity Institute website. Follow the suggestions to confront (and possibly befriend) the dream monsters you meet.

If you continue to experience problems because the tErRoR! that you feel, then try some ways to regulate your emotions (probably fear, disgust, etc) better. ONe suggestion to help calm yourself when scared is to breathe in the emotion (fear) and breathe out the opposite emotion (courage/fearlessness). Hopefully you will be able to gain more control of your nightmares and lucid dreams. Best wishes in dreamland!

Emotions in dreams are EXTREMELY intense, way more intense than in waking life, at least they are for me. I'm guessing that's the case with you too. Emotional regulation, like dreamhigh said, could really help you out. You don't take any supplements to sleep/dream, do you? If so, those could be causing the nightmares, as things like melatonin can make your dreams waaay more vivid than usual.

If not, then I would talk to someone. Since this is interfering with your waking life and affecting your sleep, you may need to seek a counselor. They will know how to help you! :)

Good luck, dear. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

Man, it really does suck. I actually agree with XeL. A psychologist would be advicable. I don't know about the weird thing on your penis, but I'd DEFINITELY go to a doctor about it (you probably already have). I doubt it has anything to do with the lucid dreams.

There are probably therapies to get off the lucid dreams. Again, I advice you to go to a psychologist.

Thanks for replies :) The penis was only in the dream. My penis does not grow trees.
I suspect maybe my recent nightmares are caused by my messed up sleep rhythm. I haven't encountered any mirrors lately. It's not the person in the mirror that scares me, it's the visuals of it. What I have problems imagining, my subconsciousness apparently does just fine. I never suspected that. And yes, my emotions are much stronger in my dreams, which is why something as simple as talking to a random person can be scary at times. In other dreams, I feel just fine, dominant and secure. I feel better about watching my reflection and try to morph it into something less frightening, and probably, the more I watch it, the less I will find it scary, like many horror movies ruined themselves by showing the monster too much.

Hahaha. I know this is a somewhat serious thread trying to find help for an individual, but

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Originally Posted by MBakke

The penis was only in the dream. My penis does not grow trees.

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was absolutely hilarious. To keep on topic, though, all it really sounds to me is that you could stand a little reservation... or control. You are a very talented dreamer, in light of the horrific things you've experienced... but the next step here is being able to make ORDER out of CHAOS. This mentality you exemplify in your dreams can and probably is walking life inspired.

With a little self control and realization, the terror you feel in dreams should melt away lending itself to amazing and bizarre adventure.

Good luck on your endeavor.
From what you've posted, I believe deep down that you are afraid of this control, possibly afraid of your own potential. I would definitely recommend reading more and more about LD online, or in used book stores, Knowledge is power and the willful suppression of knowledge is self inflicting. You might believe that you're saving yourself from harmful knowledge (such as your freaky mirror situation... to which i personally have never heard warning of, nor experienced monsters in them)

Take light in the fact that you have a very talented and beautiful mind. It can be used for your greatest potential. "The Power of Creative Dreaming" by Pamela Ball is a great reference point, very user friendly, to help you actively work your dreams.

I once looked into a dream mirror, the only difference was my head was a little bit bigger. I was even wearing the same shirt I went to bed in.

hope this gets better for you. i kinda of know what this is like, one time i saw homer simpson in my dream and i freaked out... i couldnt fall asleep for 3 hours i was so scared. the next day i remembered the shaking, sweat, and my heart poinding and thought "wtf homer simpson isnt scary..." maybe brains just release a chemical for fear for no reason.

Yup, psychologist is best option. Other than that, it seems like your fear of LDing is part of the problem, I would think, being positive towards LDing would help out some, I would recomend fighting the monster, but don't know if you like that kind of thing... talking with it? Be-friend it? Whatever floats your boat.

Well, I had reaccuring dreams that I knew I was dreaming, but I'd rather just want to get out of it. Before you go to sleep, try not to even mention to yourself "I'm afraid to go to sleep, because of _____." But, rather put your mind on something that interests you, something you like, or someone. Pleasent thoughts usually bring pleasent dreams, especially for me. If it is lucid, than you should know you can do almost anything you want. If you can't make things disappear, than try turning them into something else, or get a magician to do it for you. I heard if you spin, the whole dream setting changes, so try that and see if it works :)

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Originally Posted by siuol

hope this gets better for you. i kinda of know what this is like, one time i saw homer simpson in my dream and i freaked out... i couldnt fall asleep for 3 hours i was so scared. the next day i remembered the shaking, sweat, and my heart poinding and thought "wtf homer simpson isnt scary..." maybe brains just release a chemical for fear for no reason.

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Yeah, this one dream isn't scary any more. It wears off over a few days. But new dreams will always occur that will make one on edge for a week, even though it isn't really scary at all. I can imagine that Homer Simpson would be pretty scary, though. x)

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Originally Posted by Hukif

Yup, psychologist is best option. Other than that, it seems like your fear of LDing is part of the problem, I would think, being positive towards LDing would help out some, I would recomend fighting the monster, but don't know if you like that kind of thing... talking with it? Be-friend it? Whatever floats your boat.

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No, actually, I keep hearing that I am afraid of LDing, but, no, not really. I have no idea why my reflection wasn't imagined correctly, maybe because I spotted the mirror so fast? I don't know. It's not about a monster, it's about the visuals, like you don't want to watch a live beheading. Watching it again won't really make it any better. It might not be like that in this case, though, but I haven't encountered any mirror to look in after this.

So you simply want a different scenario? If you are lucid, why not teleport, fly away, go on a jet, wake up, change the dream, etc? Whenver I see something I don't like in a LD, simply leave or kill it.

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Originally Posted by Lynn

Well, I had reaccuring dreams that I knew I was dreaming, but I'd rather just want to get out of it. Before you go to sleep, try not to even mention to yourself "I'm afraid to go to sleep, because of _____." But, rather put your mind on something that interests you, something you like, or someone. Pleasent thoughts usually bring pleasent dreams, especially for me. If it is lucid, than you should know you can do almost anything you want. If you can't make things disappear, than try turning them into something else, or get a magician to do it for you. I heard if you spin, the whole dream setting changes, so try that and see if it works :)

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This wouldn't be a case where this would work. I didn't need to change the scene to get rid of the ugly reflection, I just needed to close my eyes and run away, done, and get on with my dream. But if I encounter it again, I will surely morph it into a regular me and maybe talk to my reflection.

Hey.
I have the same problem lately.They usualy say that what we see in the mirror its the other us.I keep having those dreams all the time and i know how terrifying it is.Like the worst thing could ever happen.It was the mirror before now that thing its chasing me everywhere.I have been practising LD for 3 years and iv kinda messed up some stuff.But anyway...i think you should think more possitive bout LD and that mind sound silly bt one time i saw that creepy thing in the mirror i start talking about god and using bible knowledge and it turned to me bt then again became the same thing.If that keeps coming u should go to a doctor.Idk if that has something to do with split personality.Anyway..good luck.

I haven't been lucid when looking at a mirror, but i do recall just in a dream i did look. Now i have seen many things in my life though im not that old, scary movies barely frighten me as i know all the effects. When i looked i didn't see as much distortion as expected.. I had read that not to look in a mirror, obviously this was not deliberate as as i was lucid. Instead i saw darkness upon my face, as if i had seen my "dark side" the darkness spread around my face to show a face as if in anguish and excruciating pain. Imagine you go up to a real life mirror, then look at it and look at what you may call an imperfection.. (i.e pimple, double chin, dimples etc.) Now try tripling that, whilst your emotions/feeling change towards this imperfection. It seemed the dark, or evil side of me had been the imperfection and everything had been in pain. I cannot get the picture in my head clearly.. But in the days on, i thought about it a lot and for some reason started being really nice.. Now i am not as conscious about it but if i ever get a lucid dream stable enough, i WILL go to a mirror.

I have this fear of lucid dreaming. I haven't gotten them regularly yet, but I have OCD. In a world in which things I imagine can come to life, I can imagine getting horrible OCD and telling myself "don't make that grudge character appear" or something, and it appearing because I thought about it. I have experienced something similar during OBEs, a few years ago, in which I imagine some horrible pain occurring, and actually feeling it, as far as the part of my brain that senses pain is concerned.

Toughen up, until you do, you'll just be scared.

That's all that needs to be said, just think about it

hi im gonna get straight to the point here
so here is your problem: your freight for encountering scary things in your dreams pushes you into a viscious circle wich makes it worse.. simply "wanting" something to go away in a dream isnt going to work.. not in this case because "wanting something to go away" is the same as accepting/telling yourself its present & dangerous, thus getting you more scared-> more vulnerable.
So the solution to your problem is finding a way to make it go away..i suggest at daytime you think the problems in your dreams trough& write your sollutions down somewhere in your dreamjournal so that when you sleep u can have easy acces to these toughts..i think the easiest way to do this is using kind of tools/objects
for example my first lucid dream had monsters in it from which i was afraid at first but then i became lucid & i summoned some machine guns etc. and shot them all down..
this might sound stupid or wathever but it works.
lets say your penis grows a tree. simply spawn something like herbicides to kill the tree. a mirror scares the hell out of you? put it in a grinder and grind it to sand (dont just break mirrors.. it will make it worse..)
also things that help to !prevent! bad things to happen is as soon as u become lucid create urself some kind of object.. like a pendant.. remember its your dream so you are in control.. you can give the pendant all the powers u can imagine..
in short: easiest way to control a dream is trough creating tools/objects etc.. fastest way to learn this technique is by writing it down, preferably in your dreamjournal.
once you understand that these scary things are no match for your powers they will dissapear and never return..ever..
its like a bully.. once you beat his ass once or twice he wont bother you anymore.. same in dreams ;)

good luck & happy dreaming^^

Last time I looked into a dream mirror, my reflection made faces at me. I called a mirror repair man to fix it, thinking the mirror was broken.

However, the time before that I looked into a bream mirror and saw a horrible ape-human like thing that scared me so bad I jumped awake and was a little wary of looking into mirrors (even in waking life) for a few days.

When I was younger, most of my nightmares were lucid. In your case, you seem to be having a whole lot of nightmares. I would say if it causes you a lot of distress to see a psychologist or even a physician as they can probably do something about it. But if you are up to the challenge, I would stick with it and see what you can do as far as lucid dreaming with more control.

In my own case, monsters ceased to be a problem when I began to fight back. Even turning on them and challenging them with an "oh yeah? You wanna piece of me?" attitude drives them away. Some people say not to fight dream monsters, but it worked with me. If the monster is in the mirror, I'd just stand there and taunt it or else grind the mirror into sand like RebelArmz says. I think the important thing is the attitude. Remember, it's your dream and they are on your turf.

I had lucid dreams every without fail. Which I wish I cld stop it it's taking up my sleeping restin time. I always woke up tired, and headache when interrupted. However im sOmehow different than you in this way that my dream is always in a form of themes. There were somethings I had to figure out myself, there's always an objective fOr my dreams and therefore there's always a need to make decisions(reasonable ones due to some kind of 'dreams order' present) and so it always felt like as if I never really slept before on any night. I'm so tired of lucid dreams..and yet. Somehow I felt that it's sth necessary. Lol I jus needed a good night rest, but somehow my dreams won't let me off. Making me super super tired and getting headaches when wakin. I therefore wld appreciate ideas. Thx