Ptsd, Nightmares, And Lucid Dreaming

I'm a natural lucid dreamer. I also have post-traumatic stress syndrome.

My particular case of PTSD stems from about eight years of being terrorized by my stepfathers (two of 'em). It's not bad, as PTSD goes; it causes hypervigilance (I'm always checking to make sure I'm safe), very light sleep (from when I was a kid, and wasn't safe even while asleep), and nightmares. As the years pass, it's slowly fading; and I think I sometime during the next 3-4 years they will tell me I no longer have PTSD. I'm wonderfully glad I don't get panic attacks; I had a few, early on, and they're miserable things.

In any case, the main thing I'm interested in are the nightmares, the light sleep, and the fact that I'm a natural lucid dreamer, and how those might be connected.

My first memory of a lucid dream (or any dream that I can still recount to this day) is from age 9. That's also the age I was when my mom married the first of those two stepfathers. It was a dream about a tornado, a mild nightmare in which I had a brief lucid moment.

Over the years, I've had quite a few nightmares that turned into lucid dreams. Sometimes, the fear stayed; sometimes, it went away. In most cases, I was able to control the dream slightly or more completely, or at the very least wake myself up.

My non-lucid nightmares have changed, too. Now, most of the time, I'm no longer immobilized or helpless; many times, I fight whatever monster or situation is frightening me or investigate whatever puzzle I can't seem to solve; sometimes, I even win. The chief problem now with non-lucid nightmares those with predominating sadness rather than fear.

So:

Did my nightmares force me to learn lucid dreaming? Or is it because I sleep lightly that I have lucid dreams, and thus can alleviate my nightmares?

Is the increasing control during my non-lucid nightmares due to my lucid dreaming experience, or is it because I'm getting over what happened to me when I was a kid?

I think lucid dreams come naturally to you because you're hypervigilant as you must carry over this heightened awareness into your dreams.

And I think the increased control in non-lucid nightmares is down to both your lucid dreaming experience and that you're coming to terms with what happened. Subconsciouly you understand the dreamworld better due to your dream experiences and also your waking experiences must affect the content of your dreams.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Callista

The chief problem now with non-lucid nightmares those with predominating sadness rather than fear.

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I'm sorry to hear about your history, Callista.

The one positive that seems to have come out of it is that, for one reason or another, you've been given the gift of Lucid Dreaming. You seem to be using your Lucidity to work through the nightmares, or at least cope with them, which is wonderful.

Since you're already fighting monsters and solving puzzles in your scary dreams, I have no doubt that if you can achieve Lucidity in your current nightmares, where sadness is the predominant emotion, you will very quickly find a way to address the source of sadness in the dream directly. As with other nightmares, this should almost immediately reduce the subconscious' need to keep having that kind of dream.

I wish you much success as you work through this. Stay positive and let us know how it goes!

Well, with so much progress already made, I really can't help but stay positive. It's just a matter of time. And I've pretty much gotten used to the nightmares. :)