Lucid Nightmare

[Kae]

I'm simply going to be sharing a lucid nightmare I had today and yes I do mean lucid as in I was aware I was asleep and I was trying to influence it, you can either share your own strange dreams if you want or you can discuss mine if you like.

I wake up it's early, time to work but it's my day off and I'm tired, I decide to go back to sleep, but the light emanating from the window slipping through the cracks of the old curtain won't let me, I cover myself
I wake up, it's early but something's off, the room's different, it's bigger and it's filled with stuff, inane meaningless but colourful things, my body though, it's different I can tell, it's bigger and shorter, with big burly hands, I get up, and start to walk but I fall down, I move, I can tell that I'm giving the right commands but the body won't respond, everything fades to back.
I wake up, it's dark, I'm in a couch in the distance there are two silhouettes of people watching something on a TV that makes noise and images that seem completely unintelligible to me, this time my body's thinner, with small delicate hands, I try to get up but I fall, suddenly I'm on my feet and these people are telling me something, but it's either beyond my comprehension or lost to my memory, I can tell however that they want something and that I don't want to give it up, I try to run, but I don't have full control of this body, however I manage to stumble my way to the door and as I nervously open it, the light from the outside blinds me and I close my eyes.
I wake up, I'm in the middle of the street, on the floor, my hands dark and dirty, filled with callouses, I try to move but I can't, I ask the faceless people passing by for help but they ignore me, I try to move again and this time I manage it, I'm dragging this limp body, this flesh prison around, I blink.
I'm walking now, in an apartment complex I know I live downstairs so take the stairs down to what seems like a basement area, but when I'm done I'm up on the balcony, holding my now extremely thin and soft hand up covering from the dazzling bright sunlight hitting my face, I turn left, there's a door there which looks like the door to my apartment but I know it's not, I walk towards it but I collapse, I try to move but this body barely responds, someone's there in the balcony, this time he has a face and he looks tired but it's no face I recognise, I ask for help, he yells something in no language that I can understand, however I know he's asking someone else to help catch me, I try to get up and run but I fall, seeing no other option I use what little strength I have to jump off the balcony, I close my eyes as I fall.
I wake up, I'm in an apartment, I can tell I live here even though it looks nothing like my apartment, I'm desperate, I have to pay rent it's already past due, I open my wallet because I know I have enough, lots of coins, bills fall out more than could realistically fit in a wallet I think for a moment, as I count the exorbitant amount of cash I realise, it's not enough, I can't pay, someone knocks on the door, I know it's the landlord so I don't answer but my brother is there, he heads to the door and I tell him to stop but he doesn't, the landlord enters as well as that man from before now holding a baseball bat with them a lot of other very angry looking men, I try to explain to the landlord that something came up and I don't have enough but he won't listen, the men walk towards me with obvious aggressive intent, everything fades to black.
I wake up, I'm in a coffin, I can tell for a moment I feel relieved, at least I can finally rest, but I get up and now I'm somewhere else, it's unfamiliar but it seems comforting, nothing looks like anything though, at least not things I have the capability to describe through language, but I can't be here I think.
I wake up I'm back at the apartment again I'm tired, but I get up anyway, this feels like me, I head to the kitchen to cook something, but I'm not there anymore, I'm still in the dream, but I just want to wake up, I try to force myself to wake up but there's no body, I can only think, not even scream, I try to wake up and everything goes black again.
I wake up I'm in the couch again, then I remember, I don't own a couch, it's still that damned dream again, the silhouettes are still there, I try to run towards them to get answers but the body won't move, it continues to be there limp, I give up I close my eyes.
I wake up again, seemingly for real, yet that feeling that I'm still trapped in that unending dream won't go away, even as I type this hours later after shopping and being nagged by my family over the phone yet again because I never visit, it just won't go away.

So anyway that was it, I know it's not terrifying like to other people, but I have my doubts about my perception of reality and being unable to tell when I'm dreaming by such a long chain of waking up over and over again doesn't really do me any favours.

 

[Asita]

Funnily enough, my experience with Lucid Dreaming is largely confined to nightmares, wherein I get partial control. Like, I can (and have) dreamed that I was falling out of a plane into the lion exhibit in a zoo. So, I make the 'logical' decision to slow my descent by spreading my arms and legs to increase my surface area and aerodynamic drag. Somehow that worked and I spent the rest of the dream effectively floating in place. That's the tame example. My nightmares get...a bit bizarre.

For illustrative purposes, here's a little dream I remember from...I suppose it was high school? If there was an inciting incident to it, I don't remember ever knowing it, but I do remember that I was running through...basically the House on Haunted Hill. You know, maze-like floor plan, old timey furniture, intricate leaf-like carvings in the woodwork (how I remember that, of all things, is beyond me), thick layer of dust and cobwebs over everything. Kinda the classic Haunted Mansion look...which is very apropos because I was being chased by a partially mummified Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck who were intent on putting me through the same process.

Eventually, I ran into a corner room and found the way out blocked. They had me trapped and were standing on just the other side of the doorway. So I go full Inception on the dream (mind you, this dream happened before the film was even announced), put my hands out to the wall, and then jerk my arms to the left like I was spinning one of those roundabouts you'd find on a kid's playground. Cue then the wall cycling through who knows how many possibilities as it 'spins'. After a few seconds it comes around full circle, with Mummy Mickey still there and largely unfazed. After a few more spins, I finally get a better handle on it...and the next spin stops on a mine, allowing me to run out, jump into the minecart and ride off.

As I said...bizarre.

Another one that stuck in my mind had a less distinct antagonist. If I were to describe it simply, think something in the vein of The Ring's Samara, I suppose. Not fast, but can come from anywhere and if it catches you, it's over. Well...it cornered me, and as it reached for my throat I basically "noped" out of the dream. I literally yelled "CUT!" and suddenly the setting became a movie set. I walked offstage leaving a very confused monster behind me as I acted like a classic prima donna (primo uomo?), refusing to go on with the scene for whatever excuse (but really because I was scared). The rest of the dream was spent with the stagehands trying to convince me to proceed and me trying to figure out a different direction the dream could go in.

 

[Masonicon]

I also remember both of these:

1. when everyone else become zombie-like creatures from purple fog and I encounters robotic figures wearing gasmask and black armor
2. I also remember a dream about people become zombie-like creatures from having their pineal glands plugged by fiber optic-like contraptions and this song played in the background of this dream

 

[Shadyside]

I had a good somewhat lucid dream on High School of the Dead that could actually work as an OVA. Might wright it down later.

 

[Crystal Violet]

So anyway that was it, I know it's not terrifying like to other people, but I have my doubts about my perception of reality and being unable to tell when I'm dreaming by such a long chain of waking up over and over again doesn't really do me any favours.

I have wondered about this because you say that it was lucid but it was still a bit incoherent. I mean that you were in one place and then in the next. After each time you "woke up" in the dream were you instantly aware that you were still in the dream?

I have incoherent dreams mostly but I have had lucid dreams before. In the incoherent dreams I sometimes believe I realise it is a dream but when I wake up I realise I was playing a role and that my decisions were made by the dream and not me. But with a lucid dream I feel like I am me and that I do actually have control. I can always tell I am lucid dreaming because I look for the same clock on the wall behind me wherever I am in the dream. I do not need to see the clock for it to be lucid but the actual act is what makes me know.

My lucid dreams are usually pleasant or neutral but I was having many lucid nightmares when I was about 20 and taking malaria medication. I will give some examples.

I was in my family's home and I could hear an old phone ringing out in the hallway. IRL my family did have a landline in our hallway at the bottom of the stairs. I walked out of the room and could feel that the house was empty expect for a hostile presence. The upstairs hallway was unnaturally dark even though I could see the daylight through the skylight and the hallway was about three times as long. I did my clock trick and new straight away that I was lucid dreaming but I could still feel the hostile presence downstairs so I tried to go back into my room. The door handle fell off and I felt like something was coming down the hallway so I quickly ran downstairs to where the light was. The phone stopped ringing when I was next to it and I could hear voices coming from it even though the receiver was down. I took a deep breath and thought "okay Janine something bad will happen but it's not real and you will just wake up" but then the floor started to feel wobbly and front door flew open. A bunch of silhouettes that I couldn't see because the light was bright behind them rushed in and started carrying me out the door. It was so bright that I was completely blind but I could feel them tearing off all my clothes and throwing me into a sort of container. My hands and knees felt fused to the floor of the container and it started filling up with ice cold water. I woke up when the water reached my belly.

Another dream. I was an adult in the dream but back in the school of my 3-month exchange in the UK. I looked at the blackboard and the teacher was completely still and when I looked around all of my schoolmates completely still and had no faces. I saw I was wearing my school uniform skirt, blouse and jacket that they had in the UK when I was 16 but I felt I was in my adult body so I knew it was a dream. I stood up to look at the clock to check that it was lucid. The floor felt warm and I realised that I had no shoes or socks which made me self conscious. I went out to the corridor and it was full of ghostly shadows and the floor was flooded to my shins. A huge spider-like monster climbed out from one of the rooms and I ran back inside to open the window. On the ground below there was barbed wire and I knew that if I jumped into it I would wake up so I climbed out but woke up before I could jump.

Okay one more, a short one! I was sitting at my computer and realised that the screen was completely blank. This was already enough for me to suspect it was a lucid dream for some reason (IDK why) so I checked the clock as usual. Since I knew it was a dream I went over to open the window to see what interesting things were outside and I saw packs of vicious dogs jumping at the window. I was scared but not that worried since it was a dream until some more dogs came running through the back door. I ran towards the stairs and saw more dogs at the top. One of the clenched its jaws on my leg and I could actually feel it. Then I woke up!

Sorry if these descriptions were boring and too detailed!

 

[Crystal Violet]

For illustrative purposes, here's a little dream I remember from...I suppose it was high school?

It's always high school. Why is that? Is it really so traumatic for all of us that it starts infecting our dreams?

Well...it cornered me, and as it reached for my throat I basically "noped" out of the dream. I literally yelled "CUT!" and suddenly the setting became a movie set. I walked offstage leaving a very confused monster behind me as I acted like a classic prima donna (primo uomo?), refusing to go on with the scene for whatever excuse (but really because I was scared). The rest of the dream was spent with the stagehands trying to convince me to proceed and me trying to figure out a different direction the dream could go in.

And that worked?! I must try something like that next time!

 

[Crystal Violet]

I had a good somewhat lucid dream on High School of the Dead that could actually work as an OVA. Might wright it down later.

Again with the high school!

 

[Houseman]

I had a good somewhat lucid dream on High School of the Dead that could actually work as an OVA. Might wright it down later.

I sometimes write as a hobby, and I'm constantly world-building in my head. Most of my ideas come from dreams. Go for it!

 

[Xprimentyl]

I've never had a lucid nightmare, but I have suffered sleep paralysis multiple times over the past few years. Sleep paralysis is when you ARE awake, but your higher motor functions haven't made it out of the sleep cycle yet. It's horrifying, the feeling of paralysis/being restrained coupled with the typical disorientation of a waking, conscious minds leads to visual and auditory hallucinations straight out of hell. My first episode, one I know I've mentioned here before, was a charred skull on the pillow next to me screaming so loud, my ears felt like they were going to burst. Other more common ones are shadow people in my room, often kneeling next to me and berating me and threatening me and animals (wolves) jumping on my bed and sniffing my ears and growling.

Once I did some research on the condition and ruled out the paranormal (which I don't believe in, but the first experience left me little to logically fall back on,) I tried to approach it more clinically and with curiosity, but it's still terrifying every, single time.

 

[SupahEwok]

I've never had a lucid nightmare, but I've very rarely had true nightmares in general. I've had a few lucid dreams. Pretty much every time, I immediately levitate myself in the air and go flying, and try to hold onto it as long as I can before I wake up (which is always within a couple of minutes).

 

[Kae]

Funnily enough, my experience with Lucid Dreaming is largely confined to nightmares, wherein I get partial control. Like, I can (and have) dreamed that I was falling out of a plane into the lion exhibit in a zoo. So, I make the 'logical' decision to slow my descent by spreading my arms and legs to increase my surface area and aerodynamic drag. Somehow that worked and I spent the rest of the dream effectively floating in place. That's the tame example. My nightmares get...a bit bizarre.

I think what makes lucid nightmares, well nightmares is specifically the ability to influence some parts but not others, because if you could influence it you'd likely make it less of a nightmare, unless you're currently going through some psychological issues like guilt which make you want to punish yourself or something, but anyways that's just a guess I know nothing of psychology.

I do wish the cut thing worked, I guess it's because of my metaphysical existential angst but I figured the key had to be within my thoughts which nowadays it's the only part of me I'm sure is real, but then again I am going mad.

I have wondered about this because you say that it was lucid but it was still a bit incoherent. I mean that you were in one place and then in the next. After each time you "woke up" in the dream were you instantly aware that you were still in the dream?

I have incoherent dreams mostly but I have had lucid dreams before. In the incoherent dreams I sometimes believe I realise it is a dream but when I wake up I realise I was playing a role and that my decisions were made by the dream and not me. But with a lucid dream I feel like I am me and that I do actually have control. I can always tell I am lucid dreaming because I look for the same clock on the wall behind me wherever I am in the dream. I do not need to see the clock for it to be lucid but the actual act is what makes me know.

I guess, it was lucid in the sense that I could think, make choices and recall reality, while I was aware it was a dream because I specifically remembered going to sleep it was also completely indistinguishable from reality, like I've mentioned this isn't helped by the fact that I often wonder if "reality" is truly the real world and if it's not a product of my imagination or a dream, another thing about it is that I may be reading too much into it but I do believe every part of the dream reflects on some level my insecurities, including the jumping around so it didn't really feel incoherent, like maybe it's logically incoherent but perfectly emotionally coherent, I meat least to me.
Well the answer to your question is that I always think I'm in some sort of nightmare, even when I'm awake so it was easy for me to assume it was a dream, not entirely sure I was fully aware though, I don't think it would've been as unsettling to me if I had been.

And I see, I'm not sure if I was entirely playing a role, I don't normally have dreams to be honest, at least not ones I can remember since technically we do dream every time we're asleep, so I wouldn't know if these dreams in which you are a pawn are common, as I can't really recall many of them.

 

[Kae]

I've never had a lucid nightmare, but I have suffered sleep paralysis multiple times over the past few years. Sleep paralysis is when you ARE awake, but your higher motor functions haven't made it out of the sleep cycle yet. It's horrifying, the feeling of paralysis/being restrained coupled with the typical disorientation of a waking, conscious minds leads to visual and auditory hallucinations straight out of hell. My first episode, one I know I've mentioned here before, was a charred skull on the pillow next to me screaming so loud, my ears felt like they were going to burst. Other more common ones are shadow people in my room, often kneeling next to me and berating me and threatening me and animals (wolves) jumping on my bed and sniffing my ears and growling.

Once I did some research on the condition and ruled out the paranormal (which I don't believe in, but the first experience left me little to logically fall back on,) I tried to approach it more clinically and with curiosity, but it's still terrifying every, single time.

Sleep Paralysis is horrifying, I hate it, the only thing worse that I can remember is the time I collapsed from hunger, it's the same thing that you can't move except that you're agonising from hunger and vomiting your stomach acids at the same time, which smells horrible, like seriously make sure to eat people, you really don't want to experience that.

 

[Asita]

It's always high school. Why is that? Is it really so traumatic for all of us that it starts infecting our dreams?

Clarification: It was a dream that I had while I was in my high school years, not a dream that took cues from those years.

And that worked?! I must try something like that next time!

*shrug* As I said, bizarre dreams. What occurred was not really much of a conscious decision, it's just something that my dream-self improvised on the spot when faced with a hopeless situation. It's probably better characterized as partial lucid dreaming than full lucid dreaming. I get just enough 'admin access' to 'pause' the story, but not enough to fully break out of it.

 

[Crystal Violet]

I've never had a lucid nightmare, but I have suffered sleep paralysis multiple times over the past few years. Sleep paralysis is when you ARE awake, but your higher motor functions haven't made it out of the sleep cycle yet. It's horrifying, the feeling of paralysis/being restrained coupled with the typical disorientation of a waking, conscious minds leads to visual and auditory hallucinations straight out of hell. My first episode, one I know I've mentioned here before, was a charred skull on the pillow next to me screaming so loud, my ears felt like they were going to burst. Other more common ones are shadow people in my room, often kneeling next to me and berating me and threatening me and animals (wolves) jumping on my bed and sniffing my ears and growling.

Sleep paralysis is just horrible! Your experiences are so similar to mine! It's usually a sort of faceless wolf pressing down on me and shadow people or dancing goblins in the corners! It's terrifying!

Well the answer to your question is that I always think I'm in some sort of nightmare, even when I'm awake so it was easy for me to assume it was a dream, not entirely sure I was fully aware though, I don't think it would've been as unsettling to me if I had been.

Oh no! It cannot be be healthy to go about life in an unsettling existential limbo. If it affects you so that you wonder if real life is actually night (not just a dream) maybe you could see someone about it? It must be a source of anxiety.

Sleep Paralysis is horrifying, I hate it, the only thing worse that I can remember is the time I collapsed from hunger, it's the same thing that you can't move except that you're agonising from hunger and vomiting your stomach acids at the same time, which smells horrible, like seriously make sure to eat people, you really don't want to experience that.

Did this happen in Mexico? I could see that happening in Mexico. I was in Mexico during one of the two times in my life I've been shot.

 

[Crystal Violet]

Clarification: It was a dream that I had while I was in my high school years, not a dream that took cues from those years.

Oops sorry! I would blame my bad English but truth is I did not put the effort into reading it correctly. I will do better next time!

*shrug* As I said, bizarre dreams. What occurred was not really much of a conscious decision, it's just something that my dream-self improvised on the spot when faced with a hopeless situation. It's probably better characterized as partial lucid dreaming than full lucid dreaming. I get just enough 'admin access' to 'pause' the story, but not enough to fully break out of it.

This is something I have put some thought into before. Some tribes who ayahuasca train to call upon their "guardian spirits" when they meet an "evil entity" during their trips. I don't believe these spirits exist but perhaps they are training their brain to fabricate them as a mechanism when they are having a difficult moment? If this is true it could be the same thing happening with bad dreams. Maybe we can train ourselves to generate a variable to rescue us from the nightmare?

 

[Kae]

Oh no! It cannot be be healthy to go about life in an unsettling existential limbo. If it affects you so that you wonder if real life is actually night (not just a dream) maybe you could see someone about it? It must be a source of anxiety.

There are too many sources of anxiety for me to give that any priority, I won't stop telling people about how the world is ending, I don't think I remember what being relaxed is like anymore, but it's fine I've never not been like this, I don't think I'd know what to do if I was calm, like I'm not joking I've been in permanent existential angst mode since I was like five years old, so this is fine, this is just how I exist, I mean assuming I exist at all, which I might not.

Did this happen in Mexico? I could see that happening in Mexico. I was in Mexico during one of the two times in my life I've been shot.

I do live in México, so yeah it happened here, but it can happen anywhere, even in "1st World" countries people die from hunger, but yeah sometimes things get pretty bad, I lived in Tijuana 2009, when there was a drug war going on, I witnessed a few shootings and a kidnapping, things weren't cool that year, though to be fair I don't things can ever be cool as long as we remain under this horrible system of capitalism, but I'll shut up about that, people have heard enough about my apocalyptic predictions for the future.

 

[lil devils x]

I have always had sleeping issues. I was a pretty extreme sleepwalker all of my childhood into my 20's, then it luckily just stopped. I also suffered night terrors. It was terrifying to wake up in the middle of the woods in pitch black and not know where you were or how you got there with your feet all cut up from who knows what you stepped on. Waking up in the street and all sorts of random places was scary as hell. After I fell into the waterfall pond and almost drowned, my mom started sewing bells into my nightgowns so she could hear my jingling and wake up before I made it out of the house. I had injuries a few times that put me in the hospital. When we moved into the two story house, it was especially bad because I fell down the stairs while sleepwalking. After I moved in with my friend's family, and I sleep walked and injured myself on their brick fireplace, I started tying my feet at night so that I would only fall into the floor and not go further. That was safer than not knowing where I was at and I wished I had thought of it sooner and would have saved me much grief and injuries.

Most of the times though I have good dreams and I remember them. I hate nightmares and try to wake myself up, it is the worst when you can't wake up and it just keeps torturing you by teasing that you are awake when you really aren't. Sometimes I can control parts of dreams and sometimes I cannot.

 

[lil devils x]

Oops sorry! I would blame my bad English but truth is I did not put the effort into reading it correctly. I will do better next time!



This is something I have put some thought into before. Some tribes who ayahuasca train to call upon their "guardian spirits" when they meet an "evil entity" during their trips. I don't believe these spirits exist but perhaps they are training their brain to fabricate them as a mechanism when they are having a difficult moment? If this is true it could be the same thing happening with bad dreams. Maybe we can train ourselves to generate a variable to rescue us from the nightmare?

I try to wake up by changing my breathing, sometimes it works and other times it just tortures me more. I have never been able to wake myself up from Noping out of a dream though.

 

[Crystal Violet]

There are too many sources of anxiety for me to give that any priority, I won't stop telling people about how the world is ending, I don't think I remember what being relaxed is like anymore, but it's fine I've never not been like this, I don't think I'd know what to do if I was calm, like I'm not joking I've been in permanent existential angst mode since I was like five years old, so this is fine, this is just how I exist, I mean assuming I exist at all, which I might not.

I do live in México, so yeah it happened here, but it can happen anywhere, even in "1st World" countries people die from hunger, but yeah sometimes things get pretty bad, I lived in Tijuana 2009, when there was a drug war going on, I witnessed a few shootings and a kidnapping, things weren't cool that year, though to be fair I don't things can ever be cool as long as we remain under this horrible system of capitalism, but I'll shut up about that, people have heard enough about my apocalyptic predictions for the future.

Weird. I was there around two years after that and things were still fucked up. Someone shot me because I was standing behind the wrong wall when they were trying to shoot someone else but I was glad that Mexican hospitals are really good. I was robbed because I took the wrong taxi. I was left butt naked in a jail cell for 6 hours because I didn't know how bribes worked. I caught a stomach infection for drinking the wrong water after 8 hours in a packed bus. More than one person tried to get rid of the "ghosts" inside me. I know this isn't what all of Mexico was like but it was my experience.

 

[Kae]

Weird. I was there around two years after that and things were still fucked up. Someone shot me because I was standing behind the wrong wall when they were trying to shoot someone else but I was glad that Mexican hospitals are really good. I was robbed because I took the wrong taxi. I was left butt naked in a jail cell for 6 hours because I didn't know how bribes worked. I caught a stomach infection for drinking the wrong water after 8 hours in a packed bus. More than one person tried to get rid of the "ghosts" inside me. I know this isn't what all of Mexico was like but it was my experience.

Well I wasn't saying it stopped immediately after, I only lived in Tijuana on 2009 I just moved out of Tijuana on early 2010, I was a dumb kid then so I didn't keep up with the news and stuff.

Well I've lived all over the place, North to South, East to West but culture seems to very a lot, Tijuana in particular is very weird because it's where all the deported people end up, so you have a lot of people from small rural communities and the south which tend to be very superstitious, but you also have a lot of foreigners like Hondurans, Guatemalans, Haitians, so on, you have Chicanos, like a lot of people from LA from all walks of life and it's basically impossible to stereotype Tijuana as a whole, too many different peoples, so I'm not surprised some people tried to cleanse you of bad vibes, that's normally what they try to cure, which some herbs but I'm not familiar enough to know which ones, but they brush you with them while chanting and stuff, sorry I'm not spiritual at all, and I was brought up as Catholic and Christian fundamentalist so I'm not super familiar with more traditional Mexican spirituality,

But yeah the Police fucking suck, my deep hatred of them is one of the main things that pushed me towards being an Anarchist, they spend half of the time harassing homeless and poor people and they spend the other half extorting bribes out of people, I hold them in nothing but contempt and I'm sorry you had to go through that, anyway Tijuana is pretty dangerous due to the high amounts of unemployment and poverty very much due to it being the land where all of the immigrants to the USA get abandoned so I wouldn't recommend it at all, besides it's pretty ugly, I'm guessing you were there on business but if you want to visit as a tourist, Rosarito and Ensenada (Which are right next to Tijuana) are better choices since they're both safer and the tourist areas are fairly good, I personally would recommend Cancún though because it has everything, the Pyramids, the beautiful beach, the beautiful environment of the rainforest and amazing underwater caves, my sister(She lived there for 3 years) says the club scene is pretty good but I am both anti-social and hate drinking so not something I would know.