Being stuck in lucid dreams?

[GoldenAxer]

I got this problem where lots of people say they want to be capable of lucid dreaming, and I want to try the other way!

I've never been able to do anything but a lucid dream. I've never had nightmares as a result. I got horrible dreams like my parents' heads were chopped off and I got burnt alive with large men wielding flamethrowers while I was hiding under a bathtub when I was 4-years old but it wasn't a nightmare because I was lucid dreaming. It was like watching an interesting horror film, not like I was so immersed in it that it actually happened to me. Actually, it was intense but sort of funny too.

I always knew it was sort of a dream, and if it got too bad I couldn't 100% control it but I could just die quickly and reset and start over in a new story like a video game after game over and you hit continue (although it's more like I could take out the former game cartridge and put in a new one and try a whole new game with a whole new world rather than have to continue in a previous one).

Does anyone else have this problem? It's like I want to be able to have a real nightmare for once. It sounds like the level of immersion has to be so deep if you don't know it's a dream. I was always only half-immersed.

Also, does anyone have any ideas on how not to lucid dream and have a fully immersive dream, maybe even a proper nightmare?

[SandandWaves]

When you are having a lucid dream, which I have had on and off all my life.
This takes a lot of work-training while asleep. Ok, so... here goes...
while you're in this type of dream, to train your brain to.. for example: if there is a big animal about to eat you, or about to attack, imagine you have a sword in your hand, or something in that matter to protect yourself, you need to change this type of dream by changing the events in that dream. It does take work. Takes practice. If your real stressed before sleep, though, It will be real hard to do this while asleep- so sometimes it won't work.

I have only been able to change things up in my lucid dreams here and there. .
Sometimes I can do this and not, it only depends on, if I remember to do this while dreaming and how stressed I am before sleep.

[SandandWaves]

Also, I when I remember to do these things in these type of dreams, when I am know this is only a dream not real, I will pray 'wake me up'

[GoldenAxer]

I might have miscommunicated but my hope is actually to lose all control and awareness of the dream. I often have too much control and awareness that I'm dreaming, so it kind of kills some level of immersion for me.

One reason I tend to become very aware that I'm in a dream and start having lots of control is that I tend to die in my dreams over and over. I think I've died over 100,000 times in my dream. And I don't wake up when I die in my dream. It's like I float outside my dead body and find a new body to inhibit or a new story/setting if I'm getting tired of the current one.

[GoldenAxer]

Also, I'm often not actually me in my dream, which reminds me that I'm in a dream. For example, I might be a 6-foot tall blonde, or a red-head, or a woman, or a child when I am actually an adult IRL, or an adult when I am actually a child IRL. So I just have to look at myself or in a mirror and see that I'm not me and this is a dream I can halfway control.

[SandandWaves]

I know so much about dreams- I have been always studying about this for many years. Since I was a baby I have had and still have these. These : Been having Parasomnias since age 2. - Parasomnias such as Confusional Arousals, Night Terrors, REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, Nightmares, Sleep Talking. "everyone needs peaceful sleep" For some reason, I just can't ever.
ok, also, some dreams-- mean things and some don't. This one that you are having about dying means... a change is coming 'in your real life'
I know of a website if you want it, I will give it to you in our instant message inbox.
when did the lucid dreaming start before your drinking alcohol or after? I don't drink and have the lucid dreams a lot, and I too am aware. There is a medication that you can get from your doctor that I once had that they gave to me, that is suppose to Stop this type of dream. It may not work on you like it didn't stop mine and gave me unpleasant side effects. It is called Minipress, which also helps a lot of other things. Have you tried talking to a doctor- the kid of doctor to treat like stress, etc. not like physical pains.

[GoldenAxer]

I've actually only been able to have lucid dreams as far back as I remember. For example, I remember this dream as a 4-year old boy that I had after visiting a museum in Hiroshima that showed the horrible aftereffects of the nuclear bomb, like black and white photos mountains of skulls, and horribly disfigured people.

So I had a lucid dream -- not a nightmare -- the following night where I was in such a nuclear apocalyptic environment with adult men in biohazard shoots with weapons scouring the nuclear wasteland for survivors. In that dream, my parents died in the bombing but I was still alive with ragged clothes trying to hide and scavenge for food. Yet I got caught spotted by two of the soldiers and ran and hid under a metal bathtub amidst the rubble. I thought I was safe but the soldiers came up to the bathtub and started heating it up with a flamethrower and so I burnt to death. I had some other stories in that dream after but I recall that one vividly.

Still, it wasn't a nightmare for me in the sense of making me feel afraid or bad. I actually felt like this is such an interesting dream since a part of me knew it wasn't real. It was like watching a really interesting horror film (and horror films never scared me either as a kid since I always realized that what I was watching wasn't real).

[SandandWaves]

I just was thinking, I I should have explained that the minipress, changes the dream for you instead of us thinking to do it. What we really need though, is for these lucid dreams to stop, yet, I think am glad to have the lucid dreams because it is letting me know that something is gonna change. so I'd rather keep having these dreams. It sucks that these dreams are bad while dreaming though.

[GoldenAxer]

I kind of wish I could just know what it feels like to have a dream that's not lucid. It sounds so interesting to me like in the case of the difference between playing a video game controlling a character and being actually transported inside the television and becoming the character.

I wonder if the way I experience things like books and television and films might have something to do with it. For example, horror films never scared me much since I can't immerse myself and suspend my disbelief enough to think what I'm watching is actually happening. But it's not just the ability to feel afraid watching horror films that I lack.

As another example, if I watch a tragic and sad film, I don't feel that sad either. I just find it an interesting story. Actually watching or reading tragic stories unfold tends to kind of cheer me up and make me feel happy after the tragic ending since I'm left with the thought like, "Well, this is only fiction and it also reminds me that my life is not so bad!"

My wife is very different though and can have immersive dreams that aren't lucid. When she watches a horror film, she's actually scared. When she watches a tragic film, she actually feels sad and possibly even for hours after the film ended.

[GoldenAxer]

Minipress sounds interesting although I don't seem to have high blood pressure. I suspected I had it once since my father had a mild case of it but got tested for it and I seem to fall within normal parameters.

[SandandWaves]

I just remembered something with these lucid dreams... sometimes I wake... and it stops that dream. Sometimes it will continue though if I fall back to sleep right away. Since you don't want it, and wake up ever from these lucid dreams, try to not go back to sleep.

[GoldenAxer]

I hate it so much when that happens, like if the alarm clock interrupts my dream! It doesn't matter if my dream is horrific or tragic since I enjoy and love those dreams too. It feels like being permanently interrupted in the middle of watching a really interesting movie that I can never see again. I try to force myself to resume the dream and go back to sleep but then it's more like daydreaming and not even lucid dreaming. The level of immersion is like zero in that case, not even half-immersed.

[SandandWaves]

I will need to talk about this another time, am falling alseep, sorry

[GoldenAxer]

Good night!

[Pyrofox]

Need a mental tool to wake up. Something that will break your dream. I lucid dream all the time all the times I sleep I lucid dream XD. I have to use a celadon fawn as a mental tool to pull me out of the dream. And when I wake up its morning. And I generally don't remember the dream XD. All I know is that I was dreaming XD.

[GoldenAxer]

I was thinking about trying sleep supplements like melatonin. I think it's possible that my issue boils down to never being able to reach the deepest sleep. My wife complains that I toss and turn a lot at night and maybe I can't reach that super deep sleep.

[Pyrofox]

Chances are you sleep too deep >.> if your lucid dreaming. From what I've found is I don't have a 1st or 2nd parts of rem sleep I jump to 3rd. phase I dream immediately I gotta be like punched in the shoulder to stop dreaming XD. .

[GoldenAxer]

Oh, I have to totally rethink that in that case! I thought my problem was sleeping too lightly in the way I can only lucid dream. I never thought about the idea that I sleep too deep.

[Pyrofox]

If I'm comfy like got a soft blanket around me I can sleep anywhere XD. On mental comand XD.

[GoldenAxer]

I tend to be one of those who has a very difficult time falling asleep (less so as I get older) since once I'm lying down, my mind just goes hyperactive thinking about the most random subjects like the history of potatoes or why lightsabers don't clash. Once I do finally manage to fall asleep though, it's pretty hard to wake me up.

[GoldenAxer]

I wish I had that ability to sleep on mental command though! That's like a superpower to me! My wife sorta has that too like, "It's nap time! [5 minutes later, she's asleep]." Meanwhile, I sometimes take a whole hour or longer to fall asleep and often miss a lot of sleep on days when I have an early appointment even if I hit the sack early.

[Pyrofox]

Yeah I had the same issue when I was half my current age I'd get migranes and I just kinda realized I need to really just relax. Ever since its been lucid dream after lucid dream but thankfully I don't remember them XD.

And if you never had a migraine its hyper light sensitivity and complete pressure all around the skull. And every noise whether its bird chirping or a car honk felt like getting blasted by what one can only imagine what being outside of a nuke's "radiation zone" But you would just get absolutely wasted when the shockwave would roll into town. Pretty much get launched from your chair or couch psychologically.

[GoldenAxer]

I fortunately never experienced a migraine. I've read descriptions of them and they sound rather awful, but the worst headaches I've endured were just mild ones like when I'm hungover.

I had an extreme case of overthinking though when I was younger, and especially when I was just lying or sitting still by myself. I'd lose night as a teenager reflecting upon a stressful day or week's events, constantly reliving the stressful experiences in my vivid memories and accumulating even more stress and restless thinking about them.

I got over that by learning to challenge my thinking patterns to the point where I no longer get stressed out much thinking about things that already happened (spilled milk sort of thing), but I still have a hyperactive mind. It's just that now instead of getting all upset and stressed focusing on bad memories, I end up thinking about silly subjects that tickle my curiosity until I'm so tired that I can't think anymore and fall asleep. :-D

[GoldenAxer]

* lose [a night of sleep] ...

[Pyrofox]

Maybe I think maybe its your subconscious being too hyper active.

[GoldenAxer]

One of the things I was thinking about besides that possibility is that I don't seem to respond to works like fictional books, shows, and films like normal (perhaps sane) people. :-D

Like my wife doesn't like to watch tragic films unless she's in a very specific mood, since they tend to make her upset as though the fictional events in the film actually happened. She can immerse herself so deeply into the film as to be so moved by it. Whereas I'm never moved anywhere near as much because there's always a part in the back of my head thinking this is just a film with actors and special effects; it's not real. So I have trouble immersing myself so deeply.

And it's very much a similar case with my dreams.

[Pyrofox]

Thats where I think your subconscious is a little less mentally there in terms of emotionally there 50% of your brain maybe isn't perceiving the emotion. But the like other 50% that is still very much emotional and empathy based and its colliding with the natural factual analytic side of what men we actively use on a regular basis. As a result when you sleep and relax the subconscious snatches the reigns and then ends up taking the whole brain for a weird dream. It sounds like.

[GoldenAxer]

That's an interesting angle I have to think about. One curiosity is that while I've had only lucid dreams as far back as I can remember, I was apparently hit by speeding cars twice and hospitalized both when I was a boy. I have no recollection of it but my parents told me about it years later. We lived on this mountain and right next to a blind spot on a steep road so cars driving too fast often didn't see me when I was playing on the road.

I might have sustained some neurological damage there related to the frontal cortex because I've always been a bit of an oddball when it comes to emotions. I can function in social environments and laugh and socialize and have a great time, but I have very different emotional interpretations from usual in certain contexts. For example, music designed to be slow and soothing actually makes me restless and stressed out, while high-tempo aggressive music makes me calm down and feel relaxed. There's always been something a little bit off with how I experience and regulate my emotions.

[Pyrofox]

Your dreams very well could be everything you want to say but you bottle up subconsciously and it ends up playing like you are saying what you are thinking only your saying it in your dreams and not actually to the person while your awake. Like talking I guess subconsciously and your brain interpets that conversation with your self and then uses your memories to create what is your lucid dreams. Cause for me at least when I dream its always like fragments of what I know is my past just getting merged all together to make a new landscape.

[GoldenAxer]

A lot of my ones tend to be a bit fantastical and immature like I dream of being a warrior fighting on a medieval battlefield and then I get my arm chopped off or a soldier taking cover under enemy fire only to get shot in the head. I tend to die all the time in them but the dream doesn't end when I die. I just sort of reset it and start a new story. I think I played too many video games and watched too many action movies growing up! :-D

[Pyrofox]

Sounds like a lot of cases where you are unconsciously regretting you didn't tell friends when they like screwed up big time and its haunting ya.

[GoldenAxer]

That's an interesting interpretation. I can't really think of a conscious feeling of that though. If I have it, it must be buried quite deeply. But I'm also a chatterbox and a bit of a drunk so I can't think of things I've failed to share with my friends! I'm one of those who will share embarrassing stories with even a stranger if they will lend an ear and seem to enjoy it (though I try to make it funny with the way I tell them since I don't want to end up boring them to death).

[Pyrofox]

And that is why you have buried the thought. Is cause you are so uncomfortable with the thought that you keep it buried.

[FinalFantasyBro]

I remember one time, I dreamt that I were in the bad side of Los Angeles while there were a gun fight happening, I probably gotten shot.