Hi!

Last night I had the most terrifying experience of my life. I should start by saying that I was lucid dreaming, I know this as I lucid dream every night and have done so for over 20 years (taught myself how to do it when I was little as I used to have nightmares and wanted to stop them). I was completely aware that it was a dream and that I was still asleep, though for the first time I could not change anything, I could not redirect the dream. It was as if someone else was in control. I was not only aware that I was dreaming but could feel and sense both my physical body and my dream body. I woke up several times throughout the night but every time I fell back asleep I ended up right back in the same dream. Every time I woke I was drenched in a cold sweat (btw it was 76 degrees in my house so I know it wasn't because I was over heating). It did not feel like the nightmares I had as a child, it had a movie like feeling to it, much as though I was watching a virtual reality movie in first person. I had all my senses firing in the dream, just as they do in every lucid dream I have. One of the big differences is the amount of detail I remember, usually I don't remember much of my dreams upon waking yet this time each time I woke up through out the night and fell back asleep it became more vivid, more engraved into my mind. I had never experienced terror like that before. The dream started off like any other lucid dream I have about zombies (this time they were of the rage virus variety) but as things in the dream started to get worse the more fear I was filled with. When my wife and children were separated from me in the dream something in me seemed to break. I could not handle it any more. It got so bad that when I woke up at 4:20 in the morning I forced myself to stay awake so I wouldn't go back to that world.

I know it wasn't a nightmare, nightmares no longer scare me. I know it wasn't a night terror as it lasted for hours and hours, reoccurring every time I fell back asleep even when I was trying to stay awake. I need to know what was happening to me. It was like my dreams were hijacked by some demonic presence that was feeding off the terror I was feeling. All the research I have done thus far has told me nothing, what happened to me does not match any description of any sort of sleep phenomenon I could find. If someone has any answers it would be greatly appreciated and will help my peace of mind. I am actually afraid to go back to sleep, which is new for me since I love to lucid dream.