Thread: I can never wake up from lucid dreams (intentionally or not). What about you?

I've had a good number of LDs where I've wanted to wake up because they degenerated into nightmares, and I have also done some pretty intense activities where I was sure I was going to wake up (even sometimes thinking about waking up), but I didn't.

Is anyone else like this, where they find that they can't wake up from lucids whether they want to or not? I think this is a double-edged sword because in one case you could be thankful for the dream not destabilizing upon flying super fast or becoming excited, but on the other hand, if you're in a nightmare...

One part of me would love not being able to wake up as I'd have so much time to do whatever I wanted. I've never experienced it though and I'm pretty sure a small voice in the back of my head would whisper something like: "You're trapped here forever" if it would happen.

Have you tried turning those nightmares around every way possible? If you have I'm sorry for you. Must be hard to watch something you love turn into something unpleasant.

I can usually wake up whenever I want to. I can only think of one exception.

Originally Posted by Matte87

One part of me would love not being able to wake up as I'd have so much time to do whatever I wanted. I've never experienced it though and I'm pretty sure a small voice in the back of my head would whisper something like: "You're trapped here forever" if it would happen.

Have you tried turning those nightmares around every way possible? If you have I'm sorry for you. Must be hard to watch something you love turn into something unpleasant.

I've never felt like I was going to be stuck in my dream for a long time; I don't really get horrible premonitions like that, just those involving immediate or upcoming events in the dream itself.

Occasionally a lucid will start to get out of hand and in this case I'll try to exert force and command the dream with total confidence, saying something like "stop or else".

The dreams I actually deem nightmares are the ones in which I cannot stop the nightmare from actually occurring. In these, I always just think "ugh, for crying out loud... I'll just have to suck it up," and then I endure whatever the nightmare may involve. I maintain a sense of aggravated authority in case the dream decides to lighten, but this usually doesn't happen.

Nightmares are a normal part of dreaming, lucid or not, so they don't really make me want to stop LDing.

It's kinda hard to relate as I've never experienced any really unpleasant LD's, I remember reading a DJ entry you made a while ago in which you were getting cut with a knife and it hurt real bad. All I can think of is to ridicule whatever's making the dream into a nightmare. Or perhaps closing your eyes for a very long time. Good thing you don't let it affect you too much though!

It really depends on my dream. If you read one dream I just added to my dream journal "My Little Alternate Universe" you will see that even though I knew I was dreaming, I couldn't escape. Although, it turned into a pretty great story.
Then there are other dreams where I can simply imagine my body asleep in my bed and I will wake up. Its sorta weird.

It has to do with whether you're a light or heavy sleeper, which is probably due to the size of the RAS (or whatever it's called). I'm a light sleeper myself.

I usually just open and close my eyes and that will wakes me up.

something that I was taught by a guy who has LDs since he was a kid is to look at a point in your line of vision (doesn't matter where) and ufocus your sight so every thing is blurred and do nothing. In seconds you find yoursely in bed with a memory of a dream in your head

To wake myself up, I hold my breath. Supposedly, when you alter your breathing in your dream, it changes your breathing accordingly for your physical body as well. This is also true for eye movement (which is why there is rapid eye movement - REM - during dreams). In theory, not being able to breath physically while asleep will cause one's body to wake up (both from sleep paralysis and a dream), since this is a survival instinct. Basically, when one is unable to breath while asleep, they need to wake up in order to find what is causing them to not breath. So far, holding my breath in a dream has woken me up and gotten me out of sleep paralysis when I have tried it. I have only tried it several times, so I do not know if this is always true, and whether it is true for everyone. It may be worth trying though.

Usually I just focus on 'opening my real eyes', instead of just my eyes in the dream. It's actually the first thing I learned how to do, when it came to lucid dreaming. If things get too crazy, I just squeeze my eyes in the dream, focus on using every part of my (dream) being to open my waking world eyes, and then I just 'pull them open.' Hardly ever fails, except for when I'm having an extremely vivid dream (like when I'm on B6 or something).

Depends on how much sleep I've had. If this is going down at the optimum 4.5 hours of sleep WBTB WILD, it's pretty impossible. If this is going down at my normal nap WILD...then I can just blink wrong and wake up. During most of my DILDs it just varies. Sometimes they'll last so long that I'll want to wake up just so I can remember them, but find myself in a series of FA's. So yeah, it depends on what type of lucid and how much sleep I've had. Statically speaking, it's probably easier for me to wake up from an LD than not.

I have had one LD where I really wanted to wake up and desperately tried everything I could think of to wake me up. I was fully lucid, but had no control at all. At times I could feel my real body, but stll couldn't wake myself up. Usually I can, but that time was different.
The dream was something like.... I was literally tortured in many different ways by some evil dude. Seemed to be some kind of big shot. Worst dream I have EVER had. Getting out of it was really surreal though, what you would expect from dreams anyway (I didn't...). I basically cried out something like: "why are you doing this?! what do you want from me??". The guy said pretty calmly what he wanted, don't remember details about it though. Was like signing a paper (not contract) or smth like that, but the task was really pointless. I didn't have to sell my soul or whatever, just ridiculous task I would've completed even if some random guy asked me to. I got out of the dream pretty much the same moment I did what he wanted.

well, if you can never wake up from your lucids, then how did you post this thread? lol joke.

i have my own way of waking up. i meditate. you sit there, get as comfortable as possible, and close your eyes. you ignore your surroundings, and just let your thoughts flow. when you open your eyes, you should be in your bed awake. only did it once though, probrobly won't do it very often, in most cases, who'd want to wake up from an LD before at least like a few hours dream time passes?

I tried ignoring surroundings and tried to focus on reality during that dream, but it is really hard to do if somebody is stabbing you at that moment Might just work if it isnt that intense...

It really depends on the dream for me. I remember one instance in particular that was especially difficult for me to wake up from:

It was a DILD, nothing unusual really. However, it wasn't long before the dream went rogue, taking back its power over me (though I'm still lucid at this point). I attempted to wake myself up to "reset" the dream, but upon opening my eyes I found myself in a bed that wasn't mine. A false awakening... As I lay there, an evil spirit spoke, warning me not to look at it or terrible things would happen. I knew, however, that the only way it would let me wake would be if I did. I proceeded to spend the next, what felt like, half hour to an hour struggling against a force on my chest and neck to look at this demon, but the little part of me that was still unaware wouldn't let it happen. Several times I attempted to wake myself with a technique I'd call "bursting" where I close my eyes and imagine myself thrusting my being through the wall of the dream and back into reality, but every time I did I ended up back in the same bed with the same force on my chest and the same demon whispering in my ear. When I finally worked up the strength and courage to look the demon straight in the face, I woke up.

This is my most memorable instance of being held in a dream by some unknown force (and by unknown force I don't necessarily me a presence or being, just that there is something keeping me from removing myself from the dream). Probably one of my more terrifying dreams now that I think about it. Of course, there have been times when this "thrusting" technique I mentioned earlier has worked wonderfully, but the success rate of it still seems to be around 50%.

It is really easy for me to wake up from Lucids. I've never had a lucid nightmare, so it's basically just annoying...

I've never had a problem with waking from lucids, unless i'm frozen in fear from the nightmare.. That's only happened once though :/

I trianed myself when I was a kid (7-8 years) to recognize a recurring nightmare and wake myself up from it. Now, it's still very easy for me to intentionally wake myself up. As far as waking up unintentionally, that only happens when I'm doing something the highly stimulates your senses, like dream sex

I have decided to wake up on purpose in my LDs only maybe 5 times. Sometimes it was after a long LD when I started to get worried I might not remember it otherwise. Only once I had a bit of trouble to really wake up, as I did get into a chain of false awakenings. That was actually quite interesting and on each false awakening I managed to notice faster by starting to do reality checks. I just intent to wake up.

Nightmares do not have to be a part of dreaming nor LDs in my opinion. When something scary or unpleasant happens in a LD, I just concentrate on relaxing (instead of resisting or getting scared/uncomfortable). Then the negative emotions go away and with that the situation does turn around. I believe that is something one should also do much more when awake - I try to. Maybe that is why even in my nonlucid dreams unpleasant stuff does usually not turn to a real nightmare.

Wow, I'm jealous I've never tried to wake up from a LD but have tried to hold onto them many times. But I've never had a lucid nightmare either.

I can wake up easily on command in a lucid dream if I want to (I usually don't!!!). It's just a thing that is natural for me I guess.

Interesting responses, everyone! I've learned some cool techniques that may make it easier to wake up next time. I'm definitely going to try the breath-holding and opening my real eyes.

I can wake up manually in a dream when it's later on, however, I can't wake up in the early stages of the dream.