Thread: My first ever lucid dream. Unprepared, jarred

Hello everybody.

I'm 33 years old, and I had first heard of lucid dreaming about 10 or 11 years ago from a former co-worker. He explained the basics to me, and though it definitely sounded at least somewhat intriguing at the time, I never really looked into it further. The concept slipped into the back of my mind, buried somewhere and all but totally forgotten.

Fast forward to about a week ago, a half hour after I take a small dose of a certain nutritional supplement (not entirely sure of the rules regarding these matters, so I will leave the supplement unnamed) used as a sleep aid. Quite literally, less than a couple minutes after I laid down and closed my eyes, I found myself somewhere else - in the kitchen of a house a relative used to live in, and it was almost every bit as vivid as waking life.

In a weird way it felt almost as if I had never fallen asleep, but I knew full well that I was indeed asleep, and dreaming. I'm not sure what caused me to realize that, but I very clearly remember thinking to myself "I'm dreaming!".

In the span of what seemed like the next few nanoseconds, I remembered the gist of what my co-worker told me a decade ago - and then I unintentionally turned my dear Mother, who was standing in front of me in the dream as I made the realization, into a demon. I flinched and recoiled, eyes clamped shut... disturbed over both that vision that was so horribly wrong, as well as the fact that I created it for some inexplicable reason. It just popped into my head, I couldn't seem to help it... next thing I knew, the transformation was in its full grotesque progress.

When I opened my eyes I was looking at the wall of my room, almost totally unable to move for a few seconds. Sleep paralysis, it seems like after some reading. It wasn't horrible unlike some other accounts of it, or really even that unpleasant. Just annoying. But if it lasted longer or came with the waking visions I've read about, I could see it being different.

I'm pretty sure I let inexperience with lucidity, and fear and doubt get the better of me there, at least as far as the demonic transformation nonsense. I'd like to go lucid again sometime, but it's troubling... that horrid thought incubating in my head, almost by itself seemingly. I'm worried if I find myself lucid again, I'll find it hard to keep negative thoughts out of my head. Has anybody had experience with anything similar?

Also, the manner in which I started dreaming was one of the most odd (but pleasant) experiences I've ever had. Has anyone ever found themselves in a lucid dream immediately after laying down and closing their eyes?

Again, I've never had a lucid dream before this. And certainly not a wake-induced lucid dream, I've read those are very difficult to induce, especially for beginners. But the more I read, and the more I think about the experience I had, and how that transition from laying there with my eyes closed to suddenly being in a dream world felt ... the more it feels like I may have had a WILD experience, without the wake part. Is that even possible?

Any and all thoughts are most welcome... thank you guys for reading.