Thread: NEED HELP - Trapped In Lucid Nightmares?

I have been lucid dreaming regularly since 2007 and have never had any problems with dream control until now.

For the past few months, I've been having frequent "lucid" nightmares that seem to last forever, where I'm aware that I'm dreaming but I have zero control.
There's not a recurring theme, but the way it happens is always the same – there's a bad event/situation/person, and I try desperately to wake myself up, but nothing works.

Finally, I am relieved to wake up safe in my bed... only to realize that it's a false awakening and the nightmare is starting all over again.
This happens over and over – false awakening after false awakening – for what seems like an eternity.
After a while, I become convinced that I am not actually dreaming, but trapped in hallucinatory world, or I've that died and gone to hell and will continue to live this nightmare over and over again forever.

Do you know if this is a common problem?
How can I stop/control these nightmares, or at least wake myself up when they happen?

If anyone has any ideas about the source or solution, your thoughts would be VERY much appreciated!!
Thanks guys,
x Amity

First, keep in mind that your REM cycles only last so long; at the end of one, you'll wake up. They will not go on forever.
I used to have non-lucid nightmares like this way before I knew about LDing, and had a few bad ones with FAs around a month ago. I never got them again though; I think I may have gotten them because I was trying too hard to LD, or (the more obvious reason) there was something in my life that was stressing me out. It might have been a combination of both. In false awakenings, or any lucid for that matter, you can think of your physical body, command the dream to "stop it now and wake you up", or fall backwards into nothingness. In one case I did this and entered a black void, but it was better than being stalked by something horrifying in my bedroom. If those things just result in another FA, there's not much you can do, but always know that you'll eventually wake up! There's no such thing as an "eternity" in dreams.

Like you, I've had great control up to the past few months but recently got these uncontrollable nightmares... they're probably caused by stress or trying too hard. At least those are my thoughts.

Update: I had another lucid nightmare cycle last night, although the theme was a lot less disturbing this time... it was more frustrating than scary.
You can read it here but it's a pretty long entry...
Basically, I kept finding myself in this room with the devil, who said I had to complete a certain task within 20 minutes and I would be judged on my performance.
I dunno what the deal is with all these demon dreams lately, since I'm not a religious person and it's not something that I give much thought to in waking life.

Originally Posted by Puffin

In false awakenings, or any lucid for that matter, you can think of your physical body, command the dream to "stop it now and wake you up", or fall backwards into nothingness.

Puffin: I tried your suggestion of falling backwards, and I was sure it worked... but it ended up being yet another false awakening (which I soon realised, when the nightmare started repeating itself again.)

I will keep trying some other suggestions and hopefully I will gain control of them soon.
Thanks again for everyone's help!

I unfortunately can't help you stop or control those nightmares, but I do know how you can wake yourself up. Now this may sound strange at first, but I have had many lucid nightmares, and this has never failed to wake me up.

The next time you have a lucid nightmare, you should try to bite your tongue and blink your eyes to wake yourself up. You should bite your tongue only hard enough so it will hurt a little, you don't want to bite it off.

I'm sorry I can't answer the rest of your questions, but I hope this will help you a little.

Thanks guys! I will give these a try.

Try closing your eyes really hard and opening them, works like a charm!

Good luck!,
-Optiphobia

I never had really bad nightmares, or at least I just did not get too upset about them. I had some nightmarish lucid dreams and false awakenings, nothing really bad, but I think it could have turned bad and then caused something like a vicious cycle of lucid nightmares.
When I have a nightmarish situation, I remind myself that I can just experience it in a way like watching a movie. For example, when I get gnawed on, even when it starts hurting, I know it is only my dreambody. I can stay somewhat detached and tell myself to stay relaxed. Then I experiment with the situation.

I think trying to wake up is not the best solution, because I once did that and had a false awakening, making me believe for a moment the nightmarish thing was real (my jaw was dislocated). When I looked at it in a mirror I realized, that it did not look just too weird and realized I was still dreaming. So I personally rather chose to stay lucid and aware in the dream and solve the thing.

I would be curious to hear some of those nightmares and why they are so scary.

Originally Posted by Kilpikonna

I would be curious to hear some of those nightmares and why they are so scary.

A lot of the nightmares have been REALLY messed up, and I have no idea where the ideas are coming from!
Some recent examples:

Eg. 1:
I had a large family with about 10 siblings, all girls except for 1. They ranged in ages from a baby girl less than one year old, to a high school girl in her late teens, and I was the oldest. My real-life father had us locked up in a house, and would choose a few of us each day to bash/burn and rape. My real-life mother was being starved by my dad, and every day he would force her to walk an enormous distance to a remote place, where he would skin a layer of her flesh off. He would cook and eat some of her, and he would stash some for later in an unused locker at his workplace (a police station, in the dream.)
I would wake up feeling SO relieved that I was back to my normal, safe family environment.
But soon after, my dad would come home and I would realise I was still in the nightmare.

Eg. 2:
I was possessed by a demon who forced me to basically hack myself up with a large blade, severing tendons and cutting through bones. I also slashed the face and body of the woman next to me. I then took off my clothing and brutally squeezed by breasts until fluid started pouring out and I was left with bloody, dangling flesh hanging off my chest. I was flown to an emergency hospital and went through the entire treatment and healing process, although my body was usually still covered with splints when I "woke up".
It wasn't long before I would feel myself being possessed by the demon again, and it all started over.

These nightmares are really disturbing for me so I hope I find a solution soon...

Originally Posted by Amity

A lot of the nightmares have been REALLY messed up, and I have no idea where the ideas are coming from!
Some recent examples:

Eg. 1:
I had a large family with about 10 siblings, all girls except for 1. They ranged in ages from a baby girl less than one year old, to a high school girl in her late teens, and I was the oldest. My real-life father had us locked up in a house, and would choose a few of us each day to bash/burn and rape. My real-life mother was being starved by my dad, and every day he would force her to walk an enormous distance to a remote place, where he would skin a layer of her flesh off. He would cook and eat some of her, and he would stash some for later in an unused locker at his workplace (a police station, in the dream.)
I would wake up feeling SO relieved that I was back to my normal, safe family environment.
But soon after, my dad would come home and I would realise I was still in the nightmare.

Eg. 2:
I was possessed by a demon who forced me to basically hack myself up with a large blade, severing tendons and cutting through bones. I also slashed the face and body of the woman next to me. I then took off my clothing and brutally squeezed by breasts until fluid started pouring out and I was left with bloody, dangling flesh hanging off my chest. I was flown to an emergency hospital and went through the entire treatment and healing process, although my body was usually still covered with splints when I "woke up".
It wasn't long before I would feel myself being possessed by the demon again, and it all started over.

These nightmares are really disturbing for me so I hope I find a solution soon...

Reading this was terrifying, it makes me terrifyed the same thing will happen to me. Im glad it was just dreams. Demons can never force you to cut yourself.

To begin, I feel very badly for you. Nightmares suck. I was plagued by them as a child, and that is why I took my screen name.

Three things you can try:

1) While lucid, ask the DC who is harassing you "are you with the Christ?". I know it sounds super religious, and I know how out of style organized religion is at the moment, but this has worked for me to intimidate and scare away aggressive DCs.

2) Stand up to the DC who is harassing you. Tell them that this is your dream and they are not welcome in it. If they attack, stand your ground, knowing that it is your dream, and that you can not be harmed. Should you stand up to these characters in your dreams, I will bet that it will carry with it an empowered feeling into your waking life.

3) Reach into your pocket for a magic wand, or imagine that there is an axe behind you, then turn around and grab it. Take the hurt to the DC that is harassing you before they can harm you any further. Again, I bet that standing up to these characters in your dreams will make you feel empowered in your waking life.

Good luck.

The only way to stop your lucid nightmares from happening is to face the nightmare and tell them your not afraid and say they are not real. The reason they keep happening is because your not facing your fears. I'm not an expert or anything but I think this is a good idea. Also if your tired of having these lucid nightmares, Or nightmares in general. Try meditating daily and start relaxing and see if that helps. Maybe you have a psychological problem. Do you have stress? Is something troubling you in your waking life? Are you having troubles at work, school, etc? Usually nightmares happen due to stress. You should start meditating for a couple days and see if anything changes when you dream again. Sorry if none of this makes sense just trying to help. ^_^ I hope your nightmares will go away. Nightmares can be a pain. Trust me.

Originally Posted by Skarr

The only way to stop your lucid nightmares from happening is to face the nightmare and tell them your not afraid and say they are not real. The reason they keep happening is because your not facing your fears. I'm not an expert or anything but I think this is a good idea. Also if your tired of having these lucid nightmares, Or nightmares in general. Try meditating daily and start relaxing and see if that helps. Maybe you have a psychological problem. Do you have stress? Is something troubling you in your waking life? Are you having troubles at work, school, etc? Usually nightmares happen due to stress. You should start meditating for a couple days and see if anything changes when you dream again. Sorry if none of this makes sense just trying to help. ^_^ I hope your nightmares will go away. Nightmares can be a pain. Trust me.

I think this is actually pretty good and well meant advice. Lucidity in dreams is awesome and can turn nightmares into learning opportunities. I was bothered at first by the frustrations of knowing I was dreaming but not being able to wake from them and to have the false awakenings as well, but if you are lucid enough and you face the fears and frustrations, they turn from nightmares into angels.

Thank you Amity for sharing!

I have some ideas how to improve your situation. As you are most likely aware from practicing LDs, what we are thinking about before falling asleep has a huge impact on our dreams. That is the principle of MILDs after all.
To have pleasant dreams, you need to have happy/pleasant thoughts before and while falling asleep. That is why Puffing can be right, that stressing out about having LDs could cause nightmares. It does not matter what causes the stressful thoughts.
I suggest you to practice having pleasant thoughts while falling asleep. There are different ways to accomplish that, but I will give you some ideas and you develop something that suits yourself.
If you have a lot of stress or troubles, then it helps to calm those revolting thoughts a bit. This can be done by writing them down into a journal, by telling them to someone - like saying a prayer, or to imagine packing them into a treasure trunk. Just some examples.
Next you fill your mind with happy/pleasant thoughts, this will drive away the last troubling thoughts. If "bad thoughts" keep on pushing in, that is fine, you can put them in the treasure trunk, or just allow them to pass. You could start with thinking about the good moments of the day. It is good to appreciate the good stuff. This also can be done a bit like a prayer. A prayer to God/the universe/yourself/guardian angels or whatever. You can also think about some nice dreams you have, something you enjoy or find beautiful. Also remembering really great lucid dreams is good.

As the nightmares are changing so much, it is a bit tricky to really prepare yourself and have a plan. One thing I would do after such a nightmare is to immediately when waking rewrite the whole thing in your mind. Change the plot so that you were able to take control and save the situation. Take the time to think about something that makes sense to you. You can do that also with all the past nightmares you still remember.
When you then have again a nightmare, you might be able to come up with something to take control.

If you are able to talk in your lucid nightmare, try the narrative technique for taking control. For example you could start like a commentator or narrator to say: And a horde of angels appeared. The angels came and drove the demon away. (Just experiment with this)

Your feelings of fear and dread perpetuate the nightmare witch perpetuate more fear. Control your feelings of fear, face the nightmare.

Thank you so much everyone, for your kind words & great advice.
I will take on what you've said and keep you posted on how it goes.

Oh, and I also step into the role of the threatening DC, and then notice what is going on from it's perspective, and can get insight about whatever issue might be tormenting me. I have heard of a DC pummeling the HECK out of the dreamer, and she was able to become lucid and ask why it was hurting her. It told her it was hurting her because it was unable to reconcile two *seemingly* conflicting ideas. The DC couldn't reconcile that she could love other people AND herself at the same time. It wasn't even a big fear or problem or issue in her life, just a subconscious freakout because new information conflicted with old programming.

have you started any new medication? certain drugs can cause nightmares and others will paralyse your ability to do anything in the dream as well as keep you in it for what seems like eternity..

What I have found useful is to rewrite my nightmares, and also to playact them out. It's my theory that giving the body a physical experience of standing up to the nightmare figure and doing something different from the nightmare will carry over into the dream. Gives the dreamself a different program, so to speak. I have a friend who plays my dream characters, and also sometimes I just do it in front of the mirror or alone, pretending the other DC's are there. I have also done this with dreams that are not nightmares, but that I want to improve, and I have noticed my dreaming life improving quite a bit.

Oh, and I also step into the role of the threatening DC, and then notice what is going on from it's perspective, and can get insight about whatever issue might be tormenting me.

This is brilliant! Role reversal ftw!

You're lucid, having the time of your life and all of a sudden it becomes a nightmare! How do you wake yourself up?

The first thing you need to remember is that it is YOUR dream and YOU control it. You don't have anything to be afraid of, and can make anything you don't want in your dream to go away.

Another thing to note is that you can try to change the dream scene. If there is a door nearby, walk through it and imagine the scene you want on the other side. You can also close your eyes, imagine a new dream scene, and when you open them expect to be there!

If you still want to wake up, here are some ways you can do that:
Tell yourself to wake up. This is the most common method, and has a high success rate.
Think of your real body, lying in your bed. If you think about it hard enough, you should wake up!
Blink Rapidly in the dream. This often will jolt you up, and you will be out of your dream!
Kill yourself in the dream. Find a way to kill yourself, and you will probably wake up. (quoted straight from the FAQ section)

It's almost like reading the FAQ section can prove to be helpful! Shocking right?

Those sound quite disturbing and very scary indeed.

There's a lot of good advice in this thread, and I don't think I have anything useful to add, but I can relate to what you're going through.
I had recurring lucid nightmares during my early teens, and they would also repeat over and over again after false awakenings.
They weren't as disturbing as your's though...

In each one of them, I would suddenly feel a dark presence, and after having experienced this so often, I always knew what it meant.
I was being hunted, by some sort of dark, evil and foul creatures.
Every time I ran for my life. I was so scared that I never looked back, I had no idea what these creatures looked like, but I certainly didn't want to find out.
I would always get exhausted really fast and get painful cramps in my stomach region, but I forced myself to keep going.
Occasionally one of the creatures would hit me with what I'm assuming was a whip and it hurt quite a bit.
Rarely I got caught and I felt one of the creatures eating my legs as I desperately tried to claw myself forwards using my hands.

During these dreams I only had one thought in mind: "Wake up"
But I didn't know how, and nothing worked.
I even sometimes tried killing myself by jumping off bridges or running in front of a car, but the dream would just restart after a false awakening.
So I just kept running until one day I had enough.

I don't know why, but one time, after having had this dream for at least 2 years, I was so furious.
I was mad at myself for not facing those creatures, because I had regular "heroic type" dreams where I would fight off monsters, and it was no problem.
But in these nightmares I felt weak, I had no control, but this time, it was enough.

I turned around, thinking that the worst thing that could happen would be to be eaten alive again.
When I saw the creatures for the first time I just went completely mental.
I lost control and just charged one of them, even though it was probably 10 times my size and ripped it's head off.
The other creatures, realizing that I was able to defend myself, ran away.

I have never had this type of dream again from this point on. (though I obviously do have the occasional nightmare)

I'm not sure if this of any help to you, I just wanted to let you know that you're not alone, and that you can overcome these nightmares.
Good luck!

I agree with standing up to the attacker as Hyu said. At some point anger overrides the fear and propels you forward.

If you're looking for tools to use in the meantime, a friend of mine told me she uses a blue door. Everytime she gets into a nightmare or a dream she doesn't want to continue, she has this blue door she immediately creates and walks through it. Each time she does this she finds herself awake in bed. Of course, I suggested she has two doors... a blue door as the last resort, but also a red door. The red door gives access to an armory with a variety of weapons. Heh, but that's just because that seemed more creative and fun than just exiting the dream.

What I used to do for my nightmares is run. Once I created hundreds of balloons and simply floated away and into another dream. Another one I prayed. Yet another I fought back. Some I even let play out because my curiosity overrode my fear. My most recent tool though, if I really want out immediately, is this great 'abort button' I've created. I'm not even sure how I created it... but my consciousness reaches outside of the dream and pushes this big ole red abort button and I immediately wake up. I've done this about three or four times in the past year... works like a charm.

Eventually I simply decided to understand these nightmares... the creatures behind them. Some of them can be reasoned with. Some are great for target practice. Although, once I changed my perspective and viewed the nightmares/demons as a teaching tool and a creative outlet for me to experiment on, it became quite enjoyable. Sadly though, I no longer have very many nightmares.

Your options are limitless. Just find an option that interests you and go with it. Even if it means you end up turning into Sailor Moon to do it.

Update: I had a lucid nightmare where I stood up to my attacker, however my recollection is very vague and I didn't feel entirely connected with my body in the dream.
My journal entry is here (this one is only short)...
Fragments: Overcoming A Lucid Nightmare - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

I think I'm really getting somewhere with this!
Thank you SO much for everyone's awesome advice!

All you have to do is destablize the dream. Just close you eyes cove you ears and jump up while spinning and often you wont hit ground and then you wake up.

Well done, Amity!