I just had a lucid nightmare

Hey guys.. I just woke up about 5 minutes ago from something so unpleasant that I was in tears from the fear. And I'm a someone who hasn't cried in years.

Since I decided I'm not going back to sleep for the rest of the night, heres my experience.

So I went to bed at around (my) regular 2-3am time. Was sleeping all well and whatnot, having a normal random dream. In that dream, I was just chilling with some friends, drinking a bit and just relaxing. We were at (we'll say, Alex's) house at the top of a hill, and we decide to go to (we'll say, Mark's) house half way down the hill from Alex's. But before that, I asked to have an MDMA pill from Alex.

Here's where things go wrong: as we were walking to Mark's house, the "pill starts to kick in" and the road immediately becomes steep, and very slippery. There was no way to stand on the road without sliding down. I was trying to use my feet and hands to stop sliding but it wouldn't work either. Alex and I (and Mark somehow) all ended up sliding down this VERY long slide of a road and end up in some garage. So we took the car back up the road to Alex's house. Alex and Mark decide that they want to slide all the way down the hill's road in the car this time. But half way down there's a right bend in the road and the car is moving wayyy too fast to safely make the turn. So as I figure out we are about to go over the edge, I start yelling and screaming at the top of my lungs (in the dream; but it may have been happening in real life too).

Then the scene changes instantly to as if we were in some sort of amusement park simulation fright ride and the fall wasn't real. I was still screaming into the scene change while Alex and Mark were laughing at me. So we got off the ride and walked to (we'll say, Brian's) house. But when Brian and I got there, I looked around and saw that Alex and Mark were gone. So I think, "Huh... thats weird." but didn't think much of it. Then there were a couple more scene changes with some horrific things happening to me, I just don't remember what they were (I'll edit when I remember). So after the 3rd and 4th scene change, I'm back at Brian's house. I'm pretty terrified at this point, so I asked Brian to pinch my arm to see if i would feel it. Sure enough, I wouldn't feel it.

At this point, I knew I was dreaming. I immediately tried doing a triple backflip and did it perfectly. So for that moment I was like "hmm I guess this is cool, at least i can have some fun". But that moment was short lived because the scene changed to me being at my aunt's house in a different state. I was playing with my baby cousin and all of a sudden there were balloons everywhere, and he was throwing darts, popping them. He ran out of balloons and started throwing darts at me. I was so afraid that I was going to get hurt that I forgot it was just a dream, so I was just running and running down a dark long hallway. Baby cousin was gaining in on me and finally landed a huge sharp dart in the back of my head.

I scene changed back to my aunt's house and "woke up" in the guest bed. My aunt was there and was telling me I was just having a bad dream. To be honest, I was SO glad that I "woke up". Then I pulled myself out of the bed and stepped on a dart and the pointy end went straight through my foot. I kept thinking in my conscious mind to really wake up, but I just kept "waking up" in different places, different situations. So I eventually thought that it was the MDMA I took in my dream way back when, and none of the dream were really a dream, but a drugged reality. I was going CRAZY... I felt like I was turning into a lunatic.... telling my family that I had to go to a psycho ward (all in my lucid nightmare). So then my real life cellphone starts ringing and my dream self recognizes it as the Ward's office telephone.

As I was getting tested for psychosis, they kicked me out because they supposedly had to go to lunch. So as I'm walking the parking lots all freaked out and hysterically crying, I see my dad. I see him all very happy and oblivious to my woes. But he's with his old truck that he sold in real life. He opens the tailgate and I see all this camping gear and stuff just how I remembered it to be before he sold off the truck. But lets remember I'm so caught up knowing I was a psycho that I told my dad to start driving his truck fast, and I flew out the window and stood in front of the truck so i would get hit.

So I got hit and I finally truely wake up from the jolt my body got. Similar to those dreams where you fall off a cliff and wake up with a violent twitch when you hit the bottom.

As soon as I REALLY woke up, I was terrified.. I have no real clue what I'm scared of, but the whole waking up in the dream over and over and over and over thing was freaky as hell. I thought the dream MDMA caused me to be permenantly like that, like I would never come back to reality.


So theres my experience, sorry for making it so lengthy. I had a lot of time to waste from when I started this until daylight.

For those of you who don't want to read all of this, cliffnotes:
If you want a crazy unforgetable lucid dream, take a drug in your dream. (not a real one before you sleep!)



And finally...
How can I prevent something like this from happening again? I don't want to have to commit suicide in my dream every time i want to wake up. :(


EDIT: I'd like to add that I have never had a lucid dream before this, although I did know what they were. I never attempted one, it just happened on its own randomly.

Shut off your fear. It has a tendency to amplify itself.

That's quite rough. You had a false awakening which means that you are still dreaming but you wake up in your dream thinking its real life. You can have multiple false awakenings which is what you experienced. The best way around that is to do a reality check everytime you wake up. What I do is check that I have 5 fingers on each hand and that they are normal. You could also trying to breath through your nose with it clogged and you should be able to in a dream. Practice these reality checks everyday especially when waking up so that it'll become a habit and anytime you wake up in a dream, you'll like check, find its a dream than have fun until it wears out or you could try waking yourself up. BTW, congrats on your first lucid dream, too bad it had to be a nightmare :P

I had a similar experience once, to make it quick in my dream i was high as a kite on who knows what weird shaman plant (i know this because a friend told me in my dream that i had called him before ingesting the plant).So all my friends where looking at me terrified and mad.I thought i had killed or raped someone but they wouldnt tell me and i couldnt remember..i kept trying to remember what the fuck did i do but couldnt...After what it felt hours of feeling like a madman and feeling insanely high i woke up crying and screaming...i went to the bathroom to check my pupils then got some coffee and decided to stay awake.

So i can understand the terror of it..

Exactly... I'm about to go to sleep right now and I'm really hoping it doesn't happen again.