Lucid dream, the most horrible experience in my life. HELP!

First, I’d like to say that I’m new here so please don’t hate me if I write something stupid or in the wrong place. Also, English is not my native language so don’t hate me if I spell something wrong. I would be very grateful if someone could read this and tell me what I did wrong, because I’m kind of freaked out right now.

Think I dreamed a lucid dream tonight. It was cool but extremely scary. Mostly scary.

Background: I started to read about lucid dreams about three weeks ago. I’ve kept a dream journal but only remembered two dreams. This was my first lucid dream.

My dream:
I’m walking on a street in the neighborhood where I grew up. Suddenly, I notice that the trees look different than usual. It's hard to describe but I get a sense of unreality. I do a reality check, and put my finger against the palm of my hand and notice that it slides through without meeting any resistance. It makes me aware of that I’m dreaming and I feel excited about it.

I decide to try flying. It's not like I jump up in the air and start flapping my arms, I simply lean forward as if I was standing on the edge of a cliff and the ground disappears underneath me and I sail through the air. I am no longer in my childhood neighborhood, now I’m flying over a mountain landscape I have never seen before. At first, I experience a exciting feeling of total freedom. Then the scary part began.

I become aware of gravity, and it tears my body down and I feel very heavy. Kind of like when you’re riding a roller coaster and it turns quickly, and you really feel it in your stomach, though the power is down. I’m not starting to fall, but the gravity is now so strong that it becomes a physical pain. It's like someone has hung heavy weights on my body and the pain increases more and more. It feels like gravity is going to tare my body apart and it hurts like hell. I become aware of how high up I am and experience terrible vertigo, even though I’m usually not at all afraid of heights.
I now think that I want to wake up and repeat it in my head but nothing happen. I'm starting to panic and I feel trapped. The feeling of freedom I experienced before is now completely gone and all I feel is trapped and claustrophobic, which is strange because I’m still flying freely over the landscape. Somehow, I realize that I’m going to die. It sounds stupid now that I’m awake, but I guess I wasn’t thinking logical at the time. However, I experience a lot of agony.

I start to think that if I just come down to the ground again, I will wake up. I tip over and start diving towards the ground and I fall head over heels, head first. I clearly feel the wind against my face and I realize that I will be crushed when I hit the ground. Now I have completely and full panic. I can no longer control my body and the ground comes closer and closer. Eventually, with a tremendous effort of strength, I manage to straighten up. I sail once again through the air, but now so low that I almost touch the tree tops and I can’t fly any higher. I'm quite sure I will soon crash into a super-high tree. I am so afraid that I do not dare to move at all and I remember thinking that I was going to be stuck there forever and that I’d never wake up again. Then the world begins to blur more and more and suddenly I’m lying in my bed again, completely soaked in sweat. It took me ten minutes to calm down.

What the hell?! Aren’t Lucid Dreams supposed to be pleasant experiences? Everything I've read have said that you can’t fell pain in dreams. Why did I do that? And why couldn’t I wake up? Is not the thing about lucid dreaming that one can control them? Was it even a lucid dream?
It was among the most horrible things I have experienced when I thought I was stuck there forever. Now I’m afraid to go to sleep, because I might have another lucid dream and never wake up again.

Who said you can't feel pain in dreams? As far as I know, you can feel anything in a dream that you can feel in real life, which is good news and bad news I suppose. A lot of us are just reckless enough not to worry about pain.

You don't always have perfect control in lucid dreams. My dream control isn't very good, but I prefer exploration to manipulation anyway. You can learn better control over time.

Of course you aren't going to get stuck in a lucid dream and never wake up. I know the feeling though. When I was little, my worst nightmares were always those where I knew I was dreaming but I couldn't wake up. I felt so trapped. That stopped when I really got interested in lucid dreaming, and now I wish I could stay in the dreams longer but my problem seems to be just the opposite.

I suppose dream exploration is like any other exploration. There is always risk involved. You don't just float around in a state of bliss, and things don't always go your way.

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Originally Posted by cedward1

Who said you can't feel pain in dreams? As far as I know, you can feel anything in a dream that you can feel in real life, which is good news and bad news I suppose. A lot of us are just reckless enough not to worry about pain.

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I read somewhere that you can’t get hurt in your dreams. Now I realize they probably meant that you won’t have any wounds left when you wake up, not that you can’t be wounded. That explains it! Is there any way to avoid pain in the dreams anyway? Even though it’s not real it feels real. I’m not a big fan on pain.

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You don't always have perfect control in lucid dreams. My dream control isn't very good, but I prefer exploration to manipulation anyway. You can learn better control over time.

Of course you aren't going to get stuck in a lucid dream and never wake up. I know the feeling though. When I was little, my worst nightmares were always those where I knew I was dreaming but I couldn't wake up. I felt so trapped. That stopped when I really got interested in lucid dreaming, and now I wish I could stay in the dreams longer but my problem seems to be just the opposite.

I suppose dream exploration is like any other exploration. There is always risk involved. You don't just float around in a state of bliss, and things don't always go your way.

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This might sound childish, but how can you be sure? I mean really sure. If someone fails to wake, he won't be able to tell about it.

In dreams,lucid or otherwise, we can feel everything we feel in waking life - unfortunately including pain.Fortunately, none of it is real - it's all just in your head.

This also means it responds to your thoughts.

Dreams operate according to what are called Dream Schemas. Basically this means that if you get frightened your dream will become a nightmare. This is one of the things you must understand about lucid dreaming.

But when you fully understand that it's only a dream and that even though you can feel pain nothing can really hurt you (i's only an illusion of pain - just as everything you see in a dream is also an illusion). When you fully understand that then you also understand that there's nothing to be afraid of.

If you fall from high in the (dream) air and smash into the (dream) ground you won't be hurt. Your dream body might, but that just means you'll start a new dream or dream that you smashed through into another world or you'll just wake up.

Once you've understood these things then nothing will frighten you in a dream anymore and if you find yourself flying you'll know that falling can't harm you at all. Nothing can. So don't be afraid of anything (it's the fear that causes the illusion of pain) - instead leap happily toward danger and know that you'll be unharmed.

Dreams are real, to your brain. That means your brain will interpret sensorial input as real input, and not internal input. In simple words, in a world you can feel the sun in your skin, and so can you feel a knife in your arm. This is real, just like real life, because there are the same electrical signals. Just the source is different.

There is no possible way to get physically hurt in a dream (lucid or not), because your ego body (your dream body) is something else than your real body. Many lucid dreamers killed themselves, stroked themselves with swords and axes, and they always returned to tell the story. Besides, there is not a single report of someone not being able to wake up from their dreams. At most, you can dream for around 1 hour, but after that, your REM cycle ends, and the dream ends. There are no exceptions of dreams lasting 5 hours or a day. It's just not how the body works, no matter the dream content.

I'm hoping you already guessed (even if at a slow dimension) what led to that kind of experience: fear. Emotions play a very important role because they affect your Dream schemas. If you are afraid of spiders, then you can expect spiders to some times show up in your dreams. Especially if you're state of mind is clouded in fear.

Fear in a dream is aceptance of it as real. Which the dream is not. Everything your brain tells you it's real in a dream, it's fake. From what you see, to what you feel or weird. You aren't really being hurt, you just feel it because your brain is trying to reproduce reality. But in the end, you have to remember it's all a dream. A wall, a monster, they are even less solid than wind and dust. When a lucid dreamer can't fly in a dream, or summon an animal, it's exactly like you: they haven't fully "understood" it's a dream, so they aren't confident that they can do anything.

As a last piece of advice, I suggest you to take a read on the dream journals around here. For me, they are more than just original stories: they are sources of inspiration. From the experienced lucid dreamer to the person that started dream recall 4 days ago, they all explore a reality that slowly opens itself for them. We all here strike into this new "reality" in order to overcome our fears, to explore the world, and to discover who we are. If you experienced such a vivid lucid dream to the point where you were afraid of not waking up, imagine if you had a positive and fearless mindset: you would (and will) be overwhelmed by the feeling of joy :)

I'm going to be afraid to be afraid tonight!
Thanks for all the answers, you are all so friendly and well informed. I feel a bit calmer now.

I’m not afraid of dying in my dream, I get that it’s just a dream and all that. I'm worried that I won’t find my way back to my physical body, and if I’m away for too long it will die and I will be trapped there forever, searching for something that no longer exist. I mean, a lot of people die while sleeping.. :paranoid:

I know it’s silly, I just can’t get these thoughts out of my head. Well, I’m going to bed now. I hope I dream normal safe dreams. If I don't come back, you’ll know what has happened. Wish me luck!

If your in a dream and you never wake up, its called a coma. Or maybe your dead and in heaven, depending on your beliefs

I'm not dead or trapped somewhere, and I didn't have any scary lucid dreams - as far as I can remember.

Is there any way to force myself to wake up while having a lucid dream? So I don’t have to panic next time.

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Originally Posted by Darknis133

If your in a dream and you never wake up, its called a coma. Or maybe your dead and in heaven, depending on your beliefs

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Yeah, so I figured. Not a very comforting thought.

It is true that people die in their sleep, but it is generally due to a heart attack, blood clot or something similar, people don't just die - especially at a young age. I guess what Im trying to say is, if you are healthy you have absolutely nothing to worry about. be confident in your waking life and that wil transfer to your dreams. Happy dreaming!

Wait - I'm not sure I understand. Do you believe that when you're dreaming you actually leave your physical body?

If that is true (which I do not believe) then wouldn't you run exactly the same risk every time you dream? Why would lucid dreams be any more dangerous?

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Originally Posted by Insikt

Is there any way to force myself to wake up while having a lucid dream?

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If I want to wake up I usually ignore my dream body and try to roll around and move my physical body. Another method is to kill yourself in a dream, but it's not always pleasant. You really have nothing to fear though because your physical body is always with you, so you never have to search for it.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Wait - I'm not sure I understand. Do you believe that when you're dreaming you actually leave your physical body? If that is true (which I do not believe) then wouldn't you run exactly the same risk every time you dream? Why would lucid dreams be any more dangerous?

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No… that’s not what I meant. It’s so hard to explain..
Of course I don’t leave my physical body. I’m still laying there in my bed all the time. But I do enter a different world while dreaming, a world created by my brain, right? And in this world, I do stuff like running and jumping, which my physical body is not doing. So in a way, I do leave my physical body, but only inside my brain. (I’m so glad that no one knows who I am right now haha)
And the world I enter is defiantly not this world, because I’m quite sure I can’t fly here. While I dream, lucid or not, my brainworld is as real to me as as this world. So basically what I worry about is being trapped inside my brainworld, to somehow not be able to get back. I mean I tried – so hard, but still I was trapped there. Scary.
No, I don’t think that lucid dreams are more dangerous than normal dreams. I don’t think that dreams are dangerous, not really – I’m just…worried.
But when I’m lucid I know that I’m dreaming. I am aware of that I’m inside my brain and that’s what freaks me out. I feel like I’m not supposed to be there. In normal dreams I’m also in my brainworld, of course, only I’m blissfully unaware of it. I realize that I was dreaming when I wake up, but then there is no reason to panic because I know that I did get back.

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Originally Posted by Duncan

It is true that people die in their sleep, but it is generally due to a heart attack, blood clot or something similar, people don't just die - especially at a young age. I guess what Im trying to say is, if you are healthy you have absolutely nothing to worry about. be confident in your waking life and that wil transfer to your dreams. Happy dreaming!

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Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. Are there any statistics of witch state of sleep people are most likely to die in?

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Originally Posted by Oreoboy1996

If I want to wake up I usually ignore my dream body and try to roll around and move my physical body. Another method is to kill yourself in a dream, but it's not always pleasant. You really have nothing to fear though because your physical body is always with you, so you never have to search for it.

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How can you controll your real body while sleeping? That would be good to know, then I could just slap myself and wake up. What's unpleasant about killing yourself in dreams, does it hurt?

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Originally Posted by Insikt

How can you controll your real body while sleeping? That would be good to know, then I could just slap myself and wake up. What's unpleasant about killing yourself in dreams, does it hurt?

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It's hard for me to explain how to feel your real body. If you can feel it, then you just need to focus on lifting your arms and legs to wake up. You will know it's your real body if it feels like someone is holding down.

Killing yourself in a dream can hurt if you expect it to hurt. I jumped off a building in a dream and it didn't hurt when I hit the ground. I have also shot myself before and there was a sharp pain for a few seconds.

I'm not sure the human mind is capable of sustaining REM sleep for more than an hour or so at a time. There are biological mechanisms controlling this, it isn't just the dream itself. Eventually the body will wake itself up. Now, there seems to be a subjectivity about time within a dream, so it may seem much longer than this. There are people in this forum that have had dreams lasting for "days", but they always wake up.

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Originally Posted by Insikt

No... that's not what I meant. It's so hard to explain..
Of course I don't leave my physical body...

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Ah - thank you for explaining. Now I understand. And I also understand your being afraid after that terrifying experience you described in your 1st post above. Anyone would be scared after that!!

By any chance have you seen Inception? A lot of people have learned some very wrong things from that movie. It deals with lucid dreaming - in a way, but it's also just a fictional movie and it takes great liberties with the truth. There's no such thing as a dream within a dream, and there's no way to ever be trapped within a dream.

Heh - that movie was the introduction to lucid dreaming for a lot of people, which is a good thing, but then when they do an internet search and start discovering that lucid dreaming is real, unfortunately they begin to think these horrible things from the movie are also real. We have to talk a lot of them down from this.

Here is what I want you try at first. Have you ever tried meditation? I think this might help all those feelings you have been experiencing.

Get into a comfortable position like a comfortable chair or crossed legged on the ground. You want to be totally relaxed while staying awake. Close your eyes, then completely clear your mind. Any thoughts you might have just let them float away, that means if you hear any inner voice just genitally make it quieter. Keep doing this for around 30 minutes if you have time, it is basic meditation but its effective. Maybe try to do it before you go to sleep, sort through your feelings. Keep practicing this each time before you go to bed to calm yourself.

So I suggest trying the above and see what kind of results you get. I completely understand the feeling. I use to have a lot of night terrors where I would wake up and be in complete fear like I was sick with the emotion fear and was having an emotional vomit of it. Not saying what you are experiencing is a night terror, just saying I have experienced unpleasant things while sleeping as well. So hope it goes well for you. :D

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Originally Posted by zoth00

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As a last piece of advice, I suggest you to take a read on the dream journals around here. For me, they are more than just original stories: they are sources of inspiration. From the experienced lucid dreamer to the person that started dream recall 4 days ago, they all explore a reality that slowly opens itself for them. We all here strike into this new "reality" in order to overcome our fears, to explore the world, and to discover who we are. If you experienced such a vivid lucid dream to the point where you were afraid of not waking up, imagine if you had a positive and fearless mindset: you would (and will) be overwhelmed by the feeling of joy :)

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I have read some journals now, and it was very interesting. Everyone seemed to enjoy their dreams so much. I get that, it was an amazing experience to fly at the beginning of my dream. What I don’t understand is how you all can be so fearless. Haven’t you ever felt trapped or worried that you won’t find your way back once it’s time to wake up?

I find the phenomenon of sleeping itself frightening. I’ve always had poor dream recalling, so for me the hours of sleep every night has in a way disappeared. I go to sleep, then I wake up and there’s nothing in between. I haven’t really been aware of the “dreamworld” until recently. I’ve known, of course, that people including myself dream at night, but since I don’t remember it I haven’t paid it any attention.

Once you become aware of that you’re dreaming, that you have “left” your real body totally unprotected in your bed, how can you not feel worried about that? Someone could stand next to your bed with a giant axe preparing to separate your head from your body, and you would still be flying around happily in your dream, unable to protect yourself. Your house could for example be on fire. Don’t you think about that at all while having LDs?

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

Ah - thank you for explaining. Now I understand. And I also understand your being afraid after that terrifying experience you described in your 1st post above. Anyone would be scared after that!!
By any chance have you seen Inception? A lot of people have learned some very wrong things from that movie. It deals with lucid dreaming - in a way, but it's also just a fictional movie and it takes great liberties with the truth. There's no such thing as a dream within a dream, and there's no way to ever be trapped within a dream.
Heh - that movie was the introduction to lucid dreaming for a lot of people, which is a good thing, but then when they do an internet search and start discovering that lucid dreaming is real, unfortunately they begin to think these horrible things from the movie are also real. We have to talk a lot of them down from this.

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I haven’t seen inception myself, but a friend of mine have. He talked a lot about it, something that you can enter other people’s dreams and make them tell you their secrets and stuff like that. So your right, it has probably influenced my feelings about dreams.

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Originally Posted by pepsibluefan

Here is what I want you try at first. Have you ever tried meditation? I think this might help all those feelings you have been experiencing.

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Feels good to know I’m not the only one being afraid. Okey, thanks for the suggestion. Some questions:
1. What will happen with me and my mind? Will it be like lucid dreaming or is it safe? (I know dreaming is safe too, but you get what I mean.)
2. Does it have to be quiet around me? There are a lot of loud noises in my house, do I have to find some earplugs or something?
3. Lights on or off?

** Oops! I was responding to the post just before your last one!

No. Because we have a built-in alarm system - movement in your room if there shouldn't be any will wake you up. Plus it's no more likely that someone will sneak in to kill you or your house will catch fire while you're sleeping than any unexpected accident can happen at any time. You seem to have anxieties about sleep.

Just realizing that you've slept thousands of times through your life and nothing has happened yet should help. As you say, you dream several times every night, and you always woke up. You do understand that this fear is completely irrational, right?

It might help you to read a book about the neurobiology of sleep. You dream mostly while in REM sleep, which happens only at certain times, and it can only last for a short while - up to maybe an hour toward the end of the night. And actually we all wake up briefly at the end of each REM period, but only for a moment and only slightly - we usually don't remember it in the morning. And at the end of the night - we always wake up. There's no more possibility of not being able to wake from a dream than there is of makig a face and it getting stuck like that - these are just fairy tales grandmothers used to tell kids to frighten them.

My thoughts based on your problems and what others have said.

Dreaming is a natural physiological, psychological, evolutionary (so on so forth) there's no way dreaming will kill you.
You will never become lost in a dream world. There are fixed physical limitations to how long you dream, sleep cycles only last 90 minutes and much less than 90 minutes of that is spent dreaming.
As for unintentional waking, focus on the fact you are in your bed asleep, turn your attention to how it feels like to be lying in bed. Or just close your dream eyes and then open them again in a few seconds, you'll probably find you're opening your physical eyes.

Always remember you are the master of your 'dreamworld' :)

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

** Oops! I was responding to the post just before your last one!
No. Because we have a built-in alarm system - movement in your room if there shouldn't be any will wake you up. Plus it's no more likely that someone will sneak in to kill you or your house will catch fire while you're sleeping than any unexpected accident can happen at any time.

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I don’t know if I trust that alarm system. People sometimes enter my room while I’m sleeping and that doesn’t wake me up. How could my sleeping body possibly tell a friendly person from a unfriendly? Also, I find it very difficult to wake up in the morning. I have four alarm clocks and I still oversleep sometimes. You’re right about that it’s unlikely that anything will happen to me just because I’m asleep. But still, I can't get the fact that it can happen out of my head.

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You seem to have anxieties about sleep. Just realizing that you've slept thousands of times through your life and nothing has happened yet should help. As you say, you dream several times every night, and you always woke up. You do understand that this fear is completely irrational, right?

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I’ve never been anxieties about sleep before. I haven’t even thought about it until I started reading about it. Yeah, I guess it is irrational to be afraid of it, but that doesn’t make me less afraid. I don’t even know why this freaks me out so much. I like mountain climbing and play soccer and stuff like that, and I don’t have any phobias or anything. I'm not usally a frightend person.

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Originally Posted by Insikt

I haven’t seen inception myself, but a friend of mine have. He talked a lot about it, something that you can enter other people’s dreams and make them tell you their secrets and stuff like that. So your right, it has probably influenced my feelings about dreams.


Feels good to know I’m not the only one being afraid. Okey, thanks for the suggestion. Some questions:
1. What will happen with me and my mind? Will it be like lucid dreaming or is it safe? (I know dreaming is safe too, but you get what I mean.)
2. Does it have to be quiet around me? There are a lot of loud noises in my house, do I have to find some earplugs or something?
3. Lights on or off?

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1. When you meditate all that happens is everything goes quiet and peaceful, there is no dreaming what so ever (Unless you fall asleep during it.) You will find a sense of calm and self center and total relaxation.

2. In my opinion I would prefer things to be quiet so you have an easier time letting thoughts go. If you don't feel comfortable with it you can do it also when people are around, once you train your mind to block things out it will make it easier. You don't need ear plugs, only if the sound is really bothering you that much. When you hear the sound don't think about it like for example "What is that sound?" it takes practice and it will get to the point when you hear it you will think of nothing but "...."

3. Either or, whatever you feel more comfortable with. :)

If you have more questions just ask, I am here for total support and so is everyone else. :shadewink:

Ok. That doesn’t sound too bad. I’ll defiantly try it.

It is very nice of you all to take time to answer my paranoid questions. I'm so glad i found this site. :happyface:

I may be new here.. But I'm going to kind of go against the other opinions here. Forget lucid dreaming for now, you're having some incredibly irrational paranoia that is not normal. Dreams can not kill you. Yes, people die in their sleep- from other causes. There is always a reason for death, but not dreams. I'd talk to someone else other than a forum for now about your fears. If they don't dissipate shortly, a doctor could always prescribe something to help you sleep.

For now, realize that your mood impacts your dreams. You're on this forum talking about lucid dreaming and your only experience is frightening you. Forget about that. Just think happy thoughts before going to sleep and you'll be fine.