[summerglass]

I've got this really odd sleeping problem that's been ongoing for about two years - I keep having extremely realistic dreams, I'd say they're semi-lucid in that usually I'm aware of what I'm doing and actively go around looking for telltale signs that I may be dreaming. Typically once I determine that I am indeed dreaming, it's a desperate struggle to wake myself up before things get really nasty, since every dream is inevitably an awful nightmare, the wake-up-gasping-and-bathed-in-cold-sweat sort. I'd say I have these about three to five times a week.

The oddest thing is I keep having to come up with new tricks to determine if I'm awake or to wake myself up, because my dreaming-mind (or...whatever it is) seems to learn every time I come up with a new technique, and finds a way to counteract it by the next few dreams - simulating pain very realistically, simulating the sound of my alarm, etc, etc. There seems to be very few recurring themes, it's always a different scenario, different scare tactic, etc.

It's starting to become quite a bit of a worry since I've accidentally hurt myself a few times in real life, mistakenly believing I was dreaming or just trying to determine if I was dreaming.

I've been pretty much ignoring it, but it's suddenly hit me that it may be an actual problem I need to address, since...well, two years and counting. Any ideas why it's happening? It's also punctuated with the occasional episode of night terrors.

[(JD)]

Hi I also lucid dream. I can offer two ideas for you. One is to determine if you are dreaming, put your hand through a wall. Hehehe of course, do so gently because if it's not a dream, you'll hurt yourself. From what I know, this is one aspect that the dream world allows to occur, and doesn't stop you from not putting your hand through. (Let me know?)

The second is that since you are lucid dreaming, change the dream! This is one main reason for learning to dream lucidly... and if you work on this, then it may permanently change your nightmares to good dreams.

Determine if there is a theme or two that runs in your nightmares, and consciously work on what you would want to change it to...the outcomes etc. This will help you find those fixes when you are dreaming.

[Inedible]

When you know you are dreaming, you can ask for help. It isn't like being awake, because you are reaming and dreams can shift very quickly. In his books, Carlos Castaneda talks about how Don Juan taught him to practice looking at his hands as a way to stabilize his dreams. When you catch yourself dreaming you describe it as having not turned bad yet. You expect them to turn bad, and expectations in dreams tend to produce very fast changes. That brings it on faster. So try to stabilize the dream when you can and ask for help. I can't be more specific, because it depends on your beliefs. It goes along with the expectation thing. If you have someone or something you believe you can rely on, then asking for help knowing you will get it can be a powerful positive expectation and it can counter the negative expectations you already have.

Reading tends to be a problem in dreams for people. If you read some text and look away then return to it, the words are often different - if you can read them at all. It seems a lot of people find that words just don't seem to mean anything in dreams. This doesn't really work for me, but I don't know anyone else who can re-read the same text in dreams without the words changing. What works for me is my digital watch. The time on my watch changes when I look back at it. Often it skips ahead several hours.

[summerglass]

Originally Posted by (JD)

Hi I also lucid dream. I can offer two ideas for you. One is to determine if you are dreaming, put your hand through a wall. Hehehe of course, do so gently because if it's not a dream, you'll hurt yourself. From what I know, this is one aspect that the dream world allows to occur, and doesn't stop you from not putting your hand through. (Let me know?)

That's the funny, thing, actually - I've tried that trick before! It worked - once. I couldn't do it again because the subsequent times I attempted it, my dreams just...make it impossible for me to put my hand through the wall. As I said, my nightmares seem to learn. It's pretty weird.

Originally Posted by (JD)

The second is that since you are lucid dreaming, change the dream! This is one main reason for learning to dream lucidly... and if you work on this, then it may permanently change your nightmares to good dreams.

Oh, man...I've tried, I swear. I don't know why but I can't seem to. I've actually stood there in my lucid dreams and thought 'this is just a dream, a lucid dream, it's in my head and I can change it' - then I try, and as if to spite me, it doesn't work and something extra horrible happens.

Originally Posted by Inedible

So try to stabilize the dream when you can and ask for help. I can't be more specific, because it depends on your beliefs. It goes along with the expectation thing. If you have someone or something you believe you can rely on, then asking for help knowing you will get it can be a powerful positive expectation and it can counter the negative expectations you already have.

I'm not really sure what you mean by 'asking for help'...do you mean while I'm dreaming, or?

...Also, as of last night, I seem to have graduated into hearing voices from my nightmares for some time after waking up. I admit I kind of flipped out for that period of time. But it's. Very scary.

[Inedible]

Yes, ask for help while you are still in the dream. I don't know your belief system. If you believe in anything out there or up there or wherever, you don't have to work through this by yourself. Being lucid in your dream helps you to recognize that you are dreaming and that it is time to ask for help. Although I don't really have much use for religion anymore, I did convert to Buddhism in 1997 and I still have good luck with asking Guru Rimpoche for help in nightmare situations. In the back of my mind, I am far more likely to call on my favorite Buddhas than I am to ask for Angels to save me. My dreams change from nightmare situations to something more positive and relaxing. If only things worked so quickly in real life.

I also endorse asking for help while you're still in the dream. Or you might be able to take control of the dream yourself.

I have a fear of heights, particularly of bridges. I used to have a recurring nightmare that I was crossing a bridge that would take sudden twists and turns, or become roller-coaster-like in its construction, or become less and less structurally sound the farther across it I got. I always woke up in a panic before reaching the other side of the bridge. One of these bridge-crossing dreams became lucid, and I found myself miles above the deepest part of the ocean, perched precariously on something that was not much more than a tightrope. I told myself, "Well, this is my dream, and I'll decide what happens in it. Nothing bad is going to happen to me, so I'll just follow this bridge and see where it goes." For some strange reason it led me to my grandmother's back yard. I never have figured that out, but I haven't had a bridge nightmare since.

[summerglass]

Originally Posted by Inedible

Yes, ask for help while you are still in the dream. I don't know your belief system. If you believe in anything out there or up there or wherever, you don't have to work through this by yourself. Being lucid in your dream helps you to recognize that you are dreaming and that it is time to ask for help...My dreams change from nightmare situations to something more positive and relaxing. If only things worked so quickly in real life.

Originally Posted by LovebirdsFlying

I told myself, "Well, this is my dream, and I'll decide what happens in it. Nothing bad is going to happen to me, so I'll just follow this bridge and see where it goes." For some strange reason it led me to my grandmother's back yard. I never have figured that out, but I haven't had a bridge nightmare since.

Goodness, that's interesting. I hadn't thought of that...I'll give it a go, though I admit I have my doubts that it'll work since I'm not particularly spiritual or religious - I am astoundingly lacking in opinion on the matter as a whole, actually. I imagine it'd work better if it was a strong belief I already held, but I'm not too certain - I was convinced that if I could remember that I could control a dream while dreaming lucidly, the problem would be solved. And that earned me a nasty surprise...which shows I probably don't have the mental presence of LovebirdsFlying, I suppose.

I imagine I should stop rambling about my doubts and just give it a go, though. Still, something bothers me very deeply about it. It's like my mind is trying to challenge itself.

This is the first time I've ever tried to solve the problem by asking for help from others and immediately following it, I had the worst session of my life, involving things like hearing voices from my nightmares after waking, something that felt like anxiety attacks while dreaming, and now I'm utterly exhausted. It's like this other time, when I challenged the voice in my dreams, saying 'this isn't real and you can't hurt me', but then I started to choke - I woke up with my hands clamped over my own nose and mouth. It was, um, upsetting.

...I apologise for my long paragraphs. Two years worth of experience.

[(JD)]

Try to stand firm in your intentions for the dreaming. If there are certain things that "always" occur, then while in conscious state determine what outcome you want from those events. Repeat them to yourself so they become a habitual thinking. Then, when dreaming, draw on them and even confirm your wishes... THIS is what WILL happen NOW.... stop, that isn't what I want THIS is what I want... such as those sayings.

Perseverance.

Remember, the brain uses dreaming to work through issues and memories it hasn't filed correctly, or hasn't filed yet. Give it direction and it will do what you want eventually.