Serious Problem

I started trying to have lucid dreams and was successful after about a week. Since then, I am not able to get up. I'll go to sleep, set my alarm clock at a high volume, and still sleep through it. The first night I had about 6 hrs to sleep before my alarm went off. I end up waking 12 hrs later and still tired. The next night, I get 8 hrs of sleep before I have to get up. I wake up about 12hrs later again. What is happening? Why can't I get up anymore? I've been trying to get lucid dreams after my first one, and cant help but keep trying. I dont think I'm making myself tired by trying to "overwork" my brain, but something is definitely happening to me. Its not like I can just quit trying to have lucid dreams because it is somehow a part of me now. I cant quit trying if I wanted to and right now I want to (at least for a time) so I can start waking up like normal again. Has this happened to anyone before?

Thanks,
Ryan

Wow you sleep for 12 hours straight and your alarm clock doesn't wake you up? That's insane. If this continues maybe you should think about seeing a doctor because unless you've had some real lifestyle changes to cause you to need so much extra sleep I can't see any reason why this would happen. And I don't think it has anything to do with lucid dreaming.

How exactly did you manage to LD? Are you using an induction technique? Methods?

I agree with Nina. Before you should worry about lucid dreaming you should find out why your body is requiring so much sleep. Mononucleosis or depression to name a few.

I'm saying that this just started happening after my first LD.

I doubt this would be a reason since it would be really obvious, But you aren't by any chance constantly changing what time you go to sleep and wake up at are you? I ask this since(if you don't know) your body is supposed to have a "biological clock" or something like that where you get acustomed to going to sleep at certain times and waking up. This can be pretty easy to mess up and take a few days to correct...whether or not just going to sleep and waking up at the time you're supposed to on your own or requiring sleep aids to get to sleep at the earlier time.

I don't see how this could be linked to your lucid dream, unless you somehow screwed up something in your subconcous. There was a topic, I think, about exploring one's subconcious a while ago..

Other then that idea and those listed, you might want to see a doctor...Then you can get tons of medicines that cause 800 side effects. ;) (I had to add that...)
Good luck finding out what's wrong ( not trying to sound like a jerk or use sarcasm)

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Originally posted by Viper
I started trying to have lucid dreams and was successful after about a week. Since then, I am not able to get up. I'll go to sleep, set my alarm clock at a high volume, and still sleep through it. The first night I had about 6 hrs to sleep before my alarm went off. I end up waking 12 hrs later and still tired. The next night, I get 8 hrs of sleep before I have to get up. I wake up about 12hrs later again. What is happening? Why can't I get up anymore? I've been trying to get lucid dreams after my first one, and cant help but keep trying. I dont think I'm making myself tired by trying to "overwork" my brain, but something is definitely happening to me. Its not like I can just quit trying to have lucid dreams because it is somehow a part of me now. I cant quit trying if I wanted to and right now I want to (at least for a time) so I can start waking up like normal again. Has this happened to anyone before?

Thanks,
Ryan

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Wow, doing the math, it appears that you have been staying in bead for 18 and 20 hours at a time. This would hardly be plausible if you had a job. Or if you had an important hobby or advocation to get up for. But it seems that Lucid Dreaming is your hobby and you are staying in bed for it.

But this is not a workable strategy. Let me explain this in two ways. Studies have shown that people deprived of sleep for several days will finally have intensified dreams when they are allowed to sleep, or will even begin to hallucinate their dreams while awake. So it seems that dreams are stored up. Inversely then, we can suppose that after a certain point of over-sleeping, dreams are run out. We can see in Religious-Ascetic Spiritual Traditions that it was more the custom to minimize sleep in order to intensify the Visionary Experiences during what little sleep would be alotted.

Now, about being 'tired' after sleep the entire day away... well, the word should rather be rendered as 'lethargic'. If one oversleeps then one is not so much 'tired' as 'lethargic'. Lethargy can be partially remedied with a vigorous bout of intense exercise -- running a few miles or a set of aerobic exercises. Otherwise, one will feel 'heavy' and slothful until normal waking and sleeping patterns are resumed.

Ordinarily we see this pattern of oversleep in Depressed Individuals, where the lethargy which follows on to oversleep tends to exaserbate the depression. It is a positive feedback loop in a bad situation, making everything worse.

Well, enough is enough and any more is too much. If one has not had the Big Dream in 8 hours, then it is time to throw in the towel and wake up. One needs to have other priorities in life than dreaming. With that much time, one could train up for a Marathon. One could write a Novel. Instead, every hour over 8 in sleep is a veritable waste of time. No one has ever had an Important Dream much after sun up.

Actually, something similar happened to me when I began to conciously try to have LDs (I've had them naturally since childhood). I don't hear my alarm anymore either. Well I must hear it because I turn it off, but I go back to sleep and don't remember it. I used to set it for WBTB, but it doesn't work anymore. And after a night of active LDing, I usually need more sleep than usual that morning and the next night. But I've always had odd sleeping habits. I don't think I really go into sleep paralysis the way most people do. I sleep walk and talk. If I spend all night running in my dreams, I wake up feeling tired and my legs hurt like I've been running all night. I suppose I could be actually, but you'd think my feet would be dirty :-P I think it has something to do with your conciousness not getting enough rest. If you are really active in your LDs, perhaps you should stop until your sleeping habit normalize. Going to see a doc might be helpful too. You say LDing feels like it is a part of you now. Maybe your mind is making you sleep more because it enjoys the dreamstate more than waking life, which would be a problem and could be a symptom of depression.

Leo, is there any particular reason that most of your posts are so full of absolutes and judgements? I mean honestly, who are you to make assumptions and judgements about this person's life or their priorities based on one query? And your assumption that sleep is useless after 8 hours is wrong. Everyone's body is different, some people need more sleep, others need less. I actually find that 8 hours leaves me a bit groggy and 8 1/2 to 9 does the trick. I suppose I should just force myself to get up and feel off all day, because I am obviously wasting my time. And sometimes, I do intentionally sleep for 10-12 hours just to dream. On these occasions, I've had very important dreams well after the sun was up, in fact, the last one is usually the best. But I guess that "No one" you're referring to excludes me, as I must be an inherently wicked and lazy woman that values dreaming above all waking things because I function better with 9 hours of sleep. :shakehead2:

I was actually going to ignore everyones reply but I felt compelled to say something because of the last post and somebody partly understanding. All I said was that I started trying to LD and the first time I finally did (about a week later) the next couple days I couldn't wake up on time for classes. It only happened 2 days and actually on Saturday I seemed to be fine. So I dont actually think it's a problem anymore. Hopefully though, next week will be fine for me. Although I haven't LD'd since that first time. Sorry I said anything to begin with.

I'm glad that you're sleeping better. You shouldn't be sorry for asking advice, even if people don't understand. Some people think that LDing is just another way of dreaming, but I've found that it is different and can quite frankly sap you energy sometimes. I hope this doesn't deter you from trying to LD. This could be an isolated incident. Now that you've had one, you'll probably have more anyway. When you do, just try not to over exert yourself mentally, and keep track of how you feel afterwards. Sweet Dreams :D

Interesting side effect. Myself, I get that tired when I have several LD's in a night partly becuase I keep waking up to make notes. I don't recall having this kind of occurence with my first LD but then that was a long time ago.