Lucid dream where I couldn't get out of bed.

This is a rather long post, but it is one of the weirdest and most interesting LD’s I have ever had. I don't know what to make of it though. So I would love to hear what you guys think. The dream lasted quite a long time considering how messed up it was, felt like maybe 15 minutes. This is just a short version. Hopefully I haven’t left out anything important. In short it feels like I was in a contest with my subconscious.

I layed down in my bed to relax after a shower, and unintentionally fell asleep. At one point I realized I was dreaming about lying in my bed awake. I did a realitycheck. Lucid.

I tried to get out of bed to go on an adventure, but the dream felt very unstable so I decided to chill, wait and increase lucidity. Once I was ready to make another attempt I found that I was “stuck” in my bed. This is the second time this has happened so I recognized it immediately.

The last time summarized: was a lucid last year where I could get out of bed, but every step away from it felt like stretching a rubber band, and as I moved my vision would morph and fade into the view from my bed. After several tries I decided to call for my sister to come help me. (Which didn’t make sense since I live alone) She answered, but couldn’t be be bothered to help which pissed me off. After a while I ended up setting myself on fire, hoping to burn whatever was holding me down. It woke me up.

This time was different. First of all there was no rubber band feeling, rather the difficulties with getting out of bed varied. And each time I found a solution, a new problem would arise. For example, I often had trouble moving my sheets. I could move my arms, but they were like a ghosts and nothing happened. Once I learned how to make my hands move the sheats I suddenly felt like my body weighed a ton, and once I learned to cope with that I would get more and more dizzy and disoriented the further from bed I got. As soon as I had moved a few steps my vision would become that from my bed, looking at the wall. Every single time I ended up back in bed, staring at the wall.

In the aftermath of the last dream I had decided that the best way to deal with a dream like this was to take the opportunity to meditate in bed while lucid. I tried but it didn’t feel right. I couldn’t stand the thought of giving in to this thing. I wanted to beat it.

After many failed attempts I decided to just chill in bed and call out into the apartment, trying to get some female DC to come entertain me. Didn’t work. But I could suddenly feel a presence from behind the wall. The wood in the wall turned into the type of “curtains”(English sorry) that consist of vertical metal sheets, and you can look inbetween them. There was somebody in my livingroom. And there was a warm orange light shining through. They were moving back and forth. I asked them to come in, still hoping for a woman if I was going to be stuck. But I got a feeling it was male.

A presence moved into the room, but I couldn’t see it. I felt helpless and I got a bit scared. At this point I had already tried between 10 and 20 times to get out of bed so naturally I was a bit pissy about the whole situation and I was more in a fight response than a flight one.

It never showed itself directly but instead moved back behind the “wall-curtain”. Moving, making noises, laughing… I got the impression that there were others as well. Sitting in my sofa. I tried many times to get up. But as soon as I found a solution to one problem new one presented itself and I was back on my back under the covers.

I talked to the character. Tried to get an understanding of the situation, or some help.. anything. No reply. I gradually lost my voice till I could only make hissing noises. Suddenly I heard myself snoring. I usually don't snore, but then I am coming out of a flu and I also rarely sleep on my back. The loud snoring was present through the rest of the dream, contributing further to my frustration.

Eventually the curtains were slightly opened, and I could see a man there, couldn’t make out his face. He would move back and forth playfully. Making an opening and peeking through for a second before closing it. I thought it was funny, and since I had no voice I decided to communicate in the only way I knew how and just give him childish waves with my hand whenever he opened one.

After a while he stopped and I was back to trying to get out of bed.
This time, after a couple of tries I figured out the trick. I had to keep my eyes closed. So long as I had my eyes closed I could move around naturally, not being transported back.

I was ready to deal with the situation. I put on air, built myself up to the point where I felt like a god of destruction. Ready for a possible fight. Honestly I felt like fighting at this point. It had gone on long enough. And as far as I was concerned the thing doing this to me was some asshole demon making fun of me. After a couple more failed attempts I had the closed eye technique under control, and I searched the apartment looking for him. When I eventually found him, I grabbed him by the shoulders… No words were said. I couldn’t speak, and he apparently wouldn’t. So I did what I felt most like and I punched him in the face as hard as I could.
He disappeared. I could tell he was still in the apartment. But I didn’t care. I wanted to go somewhere else. I've spent plenty of time being lucid in my flat.
I slipped up and opened my eyes, and had to restart.

This time it felt more like a false awakening, though not quite…and I was a bit worried that I was loosing my mind, so I decided to at least put some clothes on before I left the apartment. I managed to find some clothes without my sight and I headed out the door. I gradually managed to learn how to see without my eyes, it wasn’t clear yet. but clear enough to navigate. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I just walked, my mind was focused on what had just happened and learning to see with my eyes closed.

I ended up in an indoor gym. People playing football and land-hockey. I was frustrated and needed to let off some steam so I just started chasing after the balls like a maniac, ruining the game. After just half a minute of this I punched some kid in the mouth for being fat and looking at me wrong. At this point my closed eye vision was perfectly clear.

I wanted to leave the gym, but I suddenly found myself back in bed.
False awakening. I bought into it for a little while, but suddenly I was back in bed and I realized I was still dreaming. I got up with my eyes closed and walked into the apartment before waking up for real.

What was this?

A couple of things come to mind.

First, I had a few dream experiences similar to this, only in most of them I was paralyzed in the bed and could hear people walking around behind me or very nearby, and they were sort of ignoring me or talking about me, but would never come into my field of vision. Usually in these dreams I will find myself laying where I can look out a window and see things outside, or else I'm just staring at a wall for a long time. The thing about these dreams is - they were when I was taking supplements, and I believe they were caused by 5HTP or Alpha GPC. It also usually caused loud music to be playing in the dream - so loud that I wanted to make it stop.

I also have had similar dreams to this, but where I'm not in my bed but lying on a street or in a field somewhere, and I try to get up and walk, but it's like I'm really drunk or messed up and can hardly balance. I"ll be walking while slowly capsizing to one side and there's nothing I can ado about it. I believe what really caused these effects is a little too much awareness. I don't think it was always caused by the supplements (not entirely sure) but at least usually. Oh, and in thee dreams (both types) I always had trouble talking, it sort of felt like if I talked I would actually be speaking out loud, laying in my bed. It also took a great deal of effort, as if I was trying to force my real mouth open and speak out loud. I also think in some of these dreams, when I would move, like when I was walking that I was moving my legs and maybe my arms under the sheets - and I could feel the strong resistance. In one of them I also could feel cloth against my skin - the bedsheet, and I dreamed I was wearing pajamas, a bathrobe, socks and mittens!! The dream was explaining the feel of cloth against my skin. I believe all of these effects are related to a little too much awareness, so that real-world signals were coming in and disrupting the dream.

Another thing that occurred to me is out of body experience or OBE. In many ways it sounds a lot like how people describe it, including the sense of some kind of tether attaching them to the body.

Another possibility. By any chance did you happen to see a post that went up last night - a total necropost on a thread from 2013, about sleeping with one eye open? It was fascinating - the whole thread was. Very short and sweet, but really cool. It's possible if you read it you might have done the same - sleeping with one or maybe both eyes open, so whenever you opened them you could see the room and that would pull you back into your body. The dream body being separated form the physical one but when the sensory input from your eyes started coming in you couldn't maintain the dream body's separateness anymore. Seeing through closed eyes sounds like forcing the dream vision to work despite your body or subconscious knowing that it keeps getting the mixed signals. If that makes any sense. So at times you were seeing both worlds superimposed on one another.

I wonder if this is after-effects from the recent fever? :huh:

I think part of this might actually just come from the truth. "I am laying in my bed" and that attention makes it stay true.

Funny update, I got lucid while dreaming about lying in my bed again this morning, but this time before I even had time to move, somebody very kind immediately hopped in with me, so I never bothered to see if I was stuck or not :chuckle: Apology accepted hahahaha.

#Darkmatter
Lots of really good theories there! I just read the thread about sleeping with open eyes too, very cool and it sounds like people have very different experiences of it. That could definitely have been a part of it. Reading your post made me think about another lucid dream where I slept on my back(almost never happens.) I was outside walking but I had this really annoying backpack and I couldn't seem to get it off. I ended up waking up from struggling with the backpack, and realized I was laying uncomfrotably on my back.

So that might be the answer... that sleeping on my back is too uncomfortable for me, causing awareness of the waking world.

It would have been cool if it was an OBE. I have never tried to induce one, and I'd have ro read up on it. It's on my list :)

As for the fever, I don't really feel sick anymore. But who knows. I can't remember if I was sick the last time it happened.

#Sensei. I am not sure which mechanism of shaping dream reality you are talking about here? Hopefully a new one to learn :yddd:I considered the possibility that the problem was a matter of expectation while I was still in the dream. I have started to get decent at breaking expectations that are causing trouble, but I had no luck with that this time.

Sleeping on your back is also a big trigger for sleep paralysis - that might be what you were experiencing?Or maybe just some of its symptoms. I believe it's very common in SP to have one or both eyes open and see waking reality overlaid on your dream, and be struggling but unable to move.

Could be, I've never had SP as far as I know, so I wouldn't know what it feels like. But this really just felt like a lucid dream with a twist. And reality checks also said it was a dream on several occasions.