I know I'm not the only person who has experienced this: during an uncomfortable or undesirable dream, I (while in the dream) try to wake myself up as to escape it.
This has happened to me for as long as I can remember. I start to become slightly 'lucid,' realize I'm dreaming, yet have trouble controlling my dream enviroment, and in the dream try to do things to wake myself up-- such as rubbing my eyes, grabbing my face, screaming, etc.
Sometimes it works, and I'm groggily pulled toward reality.
Other times it does not, such as in my dream last night, and it is a deeply frightening feeling of entrapment.
Has anyone on this forum experienced these, and if so, are there any reccommended methods you have discovered to wake up? If not, any advice as to how to chill out and control the negative environment your subconcious is in?
For example, last night I was in an unfirmilair area filled with an overwhelming sense of loss and confusion. Every exit I saw and tried to persue turned in to an unescapable route. Even when I tried to wake up, I was still in this place, hopeless and frustrated. Maybe if I would have had confidence, I'd have been able to warp the landscape into something passable as I have in rare other dreams.
Anyway, advice or comments?......

I love how no one answered to this. I think this is relative to the Dreams section of this thread. Answer... come on... you'll ALL get a cookie and 5 dollars paypal. <3

I want a cookie!!!!


I have had a experience like yours before....

I think that maybe this phenomen is so commonly recognized that it's automatically passed by as far as forum readers go. But I think there's more to it than simplicity. This stage I speak of is the first before acquiring luicid dreaming. I heard advice as to when one enters this stage such as 'spin around' or 'stare at your feet' but have rarely been able to become lucid for more than a few moments. My point is, when you reach this dream stage, what methods can help you to prolong it and thus become fully lucid?

btw i make mad slice and bake holliday cookies as well as gourmet ramen and steak.

I have no concrete answers, one thing that helps me is that I spend a good 15 minutes each night visualizing a peaceful scene, and remind myself that in a few moments I will be asleep and nothing that happens in my dreams can hurt me.

Although, there have been a few instances where I had to tell myself while dreaming that "I need to wake up, now!!!!!"

This just really irks me, bc it seems to happen almost every night. I realize I'm dreaming, but when I try to control it, it's like my subconcious somehow knows I'm doing it half-assed and refuses to comply by providing me with even more crazy and upsetting scenarios.

Kittin what you are describing is Hypnogogia or hypnopompia - find out what you can about them on the net and see how well (or not) they fit with what you experience...

Let us know how you get on...
Cheers -

Ben

"Hypnagogia (also spelled hypnogogia) are the experiences a person can go through in the hypnagogic (or hypnogogic) state, the period of falling asleep. Hypnopompia are the experiences a person can go through in the hypnopompic state, the period of waking up. The term hypnagogia often encompasses hypnopompia as well. Hypnagogic sensations collectively describe the vivid dream-like auditory, visual, or tactile sensations that can be experienced in a hypnagogic or hypnopompic state. These sensations can be accompanied by sleep paralysis, the sensation that the body is temporarily paralyzed after waking or before falling asleep." -wikipedia.

I def think that this is a satisfactory scientific explination. It reminds me of a novel I read, The Coma by Alex Garland, where the main character is in a coma and continuously re-lives situations subconciously that provide him with clues as to how to 'wake up.' We have all at one time or another been in a state where we feel out of contol or powerless. I believe that maybe this happens specifically to humble us (from God, or whatever name you give it). Maybe humankind should learn to get off its' high horse and see things from a dif perspective. Its the ultimate key to peace.

For me, the key to controling my dreams, was in always being aware that I was dreaming.
I use to, on occasions have nightmares. This ceased totally, upon my being conscious that I am dreaming. I haven't had a nightmare or bad dream now in almost 30 years...honestly.
Now i have had what would normally be a bad dream or nightmare, but because of my awareness i felt no concern or fear, in fact i have on some occasions laughed in my dreams and the perilous or normally frightening situation quickly vanished.
Waking up became no problem then.

I've had my fair share of nightmares, but more often than not, it's just 'bad dreams.'
Now, let me inform you all of something that is extrememly relevent to this topic.
I have never had sleeping problems or insomia, but for the past two years off and on when I've been living with my boyfriend, I've been taking some sort of sleeping pill before bed, which I believe leads to me having these crazy dreams. My bf is, I suppose, an insomniac. It is rare that he can go to bed without taking a pill containing diphenhydramine (Excedrine PMs, allergy meds, even Seroquel). By living with him, along with his late night activities on the computer (playing games, chatting etc; it all provides noises that disturb me such as typing on keyboard, lights, him laughing or coughing or moving on the chair, etc), I have also gained the inability to sleep unless he is sleeping. These late nights don't work when you have work in the mornings, so when he would take sleeping pills, so would I. The Seroquel was rare, but I did notice having crazier, scarier dreams on the nights I took it.
The thing is, even if I don't take sleeping pills, and even at times before I ever even tried one, I've been having these crazy, uber-realistic dreams I can't usually escape.
I have been getting better at obtaining some sort of clarity during them, but usually it doesn't last or I'm just not strong enough to pull myself out of it. Advice helps, and I'll use it in the future. There's nothing worse that being trapped in an awful situation you can not escape.

On a serious note you should really stop taking sleeping pills unless prescribed by a doctor from your post it looks as if you have not.

Please be careful your body might be trying to tell you something....

uuhhh...ookk...

Oh, I will reply to your post if you send 5 $ through paypal...I'll make it ten posts..

Oh, yeah, my Mom started doing this shit before she went all pshyco b/c of
Menopause or something. Are you like going through early menopause??
Yep, that would most likely explain the whole shit right away.




O.K. Now all I have to do is send you my e mail and postal address
where you can send me that 5 bucks, sweetie.

Seth, I agree, even the local Kroger check out lady noticed I have a sleeping problem when I cam in at 2:30 am to buy buttermilk. We started talking and she reccommended Melatonin, an herb. Basically what the deal is, is my bf has sleeping problems and we live together so if he can't sleep, and is on the comp playing games or whatever, I can't sleep. So, I have adapted weird sleeping patterns over these 3 years, and now occaisionally take execdrine pm or benadryl (they have the same major ingredient, diphen), but ex pms and such have acetophinomen (sp?) which screws up your insides, so that's not good. We've also on rare occaisions taken seroquel (which I was, at a time, prescribed for sleep). I would say that mostly, he needs to take something to put him to sleep, and because I'm a server and tend to work late and have to get up early (but upon returning home still have all kinds of crazy energy), we have gotten in the habit of taking pills. I know its not good, we're gonna switch to herbs or have just him see a doctor. But what I have found, is when we do take pills or even when we dont, we both sometimes have crazy dreams we try to wake up from. I have been having these even before I knew him or even took anything to help me sleep. I don't know what my dreams are trying to tel lme, but impending doom, and various forms of water, are always an aspect.

Btw, I've been having, for the past month or so, reacurring dreams that focus on the end of the world. Water, like I said, is always a big part. Sometimes it's a beach with huge incoming waves; others its murky pools filled with dolphins; others include deep, mysterious rivers/lakes I fall in to or water from floods that suround dilapidated houses. A lot of the 'end of the world' dreams have something to do with aliens or the paranormal, and even John has had these, alien/impending doom/water dreams. Also, during these dreams i will wake up sweating, so sweaty that the pillow is wet, my hair is slicked back, and my feet are cold from my wet socks. These uber-realistic dreams continuously haunt me. Even if they are 'scary,' sometimes when I wake up, I want to slip back in to them, bc I want to see what happens next.