I have been having some crazy dreams the last two days.

[NOW tense]

Poll question: I have been having some crazy dreams the last two days.

They are nothing new I have had them my whole life from time to time. I become conscious that I am sleeping. I then try to wake up but I am trapped in a dream state. That is when the panic starts. I have tried to just go with it, but the dreams will become really dark the longer I stick around. I am conscious of what is going on around me if this happens, when taking a nap with the T.V. or radio on. When in bed I know my Wife is next to me and so I try to wake her up for help. Once I wake up I fall back to sleep in seconds and the process starts all over again.

Does anyone else have this type of dreams?

Poll result (22 votes)
Yes.	(15 votes, 68%)	Vote
No.	(5 votes, 23%)	Vote
Go seek help you crazy person.	(2 votes, 9%)	Vote

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Contact a sleep clinician

[NOW tense]

2. They are too powerful and interesting

I am not sure I want them to go away.

[Kaleko]

20. Sounds like you're lucid dreaming.

Also, your sig line and your chosen nickname tells me you are much more aware than you let on in this thread - and not just in the dream state but in the waking state as well.

I trust that you know better than anyone else what to do when the panic starts to set in .

[NOW tense]

26. Thanks

They are great metaphors. As for not panicking when your in the moment it is hard to keep your cool.

[Yes We Did]

3. OMG... I have chills!

I used to have these all the time. I hated them. I would be screaming... or at least I thought I was screaming. But I couldn't... It makes me wonder if I would be one of those people who don't really fall asleep then you have surgery and they put you under... Scary.

[NOW tense]

4. But it feels good when you actually wake up.

It is like a battle.

I have had surgery it didn't happen, or at least not that I remember.

[Yes We Did]

6. I don't miss them one bit.

I was really young when I had them, but I remember them VIVIDLY. I use to have a lot of fucked up dreams though. LOL. I used to dream that me and my parents had a ceiling of glass, and my grandmother would scale the outside of our house, break through the glass and start shooting like in scarface.

[Yes We Did]

7. Oh...

I got one for ya... This is what I deal with now. I started having Ocular Migraines while I'm sleeping; wake up temporarily blind in one eye.

Now, I know I was having them... once every couple months, but NOW I dream about it all the time.

How'd you like to dream about that shit and not know if it's real or not because it really happens sometimes?

[NOW tense]

10. My Wife has them too.

She has been making one of our rooms into a meditation lounge all day. When I was telling her about this post she looked at me and told me

"that is all life is, just one big dream. You never really wake up"

It kinda just blew my mind.

[Yes We Did]

25. I guess I'm kind of lucky then.

I don't get the headache afterward like most people do... yet anyway. I just get the temporary blindness. Usually goes away after a couple minutes though. My mom gets them too, but hers last for longer and she gets the headaches.

[Buzz Clik]

5. I don't have these with great frequency, but I have them.

and they are truly upsetting.

I have found a correlation between my state of exhaustion and/or outside sources of stress and the frequency of these dreams.

[blonndee]

8. That has happened to me a few times.

I've learned to get UP and turn on the lights when I do wake up, and stay up for a while watching TV (nothing scary or dark) or reading, or doing something active for a while so that I can get into a totally different state of mind. It may end up screwing up my sleep for the rest of the night, but even that is so much better than what you're going through, IMO.

[Venceremos]

9. Sounds stupid but

I have these kind of dreams and it seems food related. If I eat chocolate or drink too much milk before going to sleep then I have them. My sister has them and thinks hers are also food related, but her trigger is spicy foods.

[FatDave]

24. I've heard popcorn works for a lot of people.

I haven't had much luck with it. Weed on the other hand... That will keep me fully conscious through all stages of falling asleep. I actually see the dream materialize. I usually lose focus just a little ways in though, and then I'm just dreaming normal.

[DearAbby]

11. I would get them

when my sleep is disrupted by partly waking to go to the bathroom. I walk to the bathroom in a partial dream state, but my sleep is disrupted enough. What I can do then is to dictate where the dream is to go...And for awile the dream is really cool, problem is, it usually goes to a real dark place.

Then it gets to the point to where I want to wake up, I can feel myself laying in the bed, but I can't move. I have this real loud buzzing noise in my head, and chest feels like someone is sitting on it.

I have had these dreams since I was a teen, told my mom. Even went to a Doctor about them. He thought they were seizures and gave me medication for them. I took the medication for awhile, but it didnt stop the dreams.

I stopped taking it.

After many years, I found that if I am not disturbed during my sleep...or if I am awaken, I have to stay up for an hour, then go to bed. I dont have the dreams. It has been at least a couple years since my last one.

This thread caught me because I have had a few dreams lately that have troubled me...but they are not these types of dreams.

[DearAbby]

12. I wanted to add....GOD I AM GLAD I AM NOT ALONE

sometimes I would feel like I am going nuts, It's was difficult to explain these dreams...people thought you were ART BELL fodder.

[NOW tense]

15. I am glad I am not the only one either. n/t

[FatDave]

23. Your second paragraph describes sleep paralysis.

It's almost a textbook example. It can be scary, but is completely harmless. It's a common side effect of lucid dreaming, which as others have mentioned is what you guys are experiencing. You're in a state between asleep and awake, mind fully conscious but body still unable to move. For some reason there's often a strong sense of somebody or something being in the room with you. A lot of night-time supernatural visitations (aliens included) come from sleep paralysis. But your mind is conscious enough in this stage that if you understand what is happening, you can just wait it out. It only lasts a minute or so.

False awakenings are another possibly scary occurrence. You may try to wake up, think you have, but realize you're still dreaming. I've been three dreams deep before.

Lucid dreaming can actually be incredibly fun if you don't let it freak you out. I know, that can be hard, but try flying next time. Look at the sky, it's always incredible. If you want to change a dream scene, spin around very fast. The scene will blur, and when it comes back together will probably be different.

If a dream character is antagonizing you, stand up to them. Demand to know who they are. Tell them you're not afraid. If you know you're dreaming, you know you're safe. Again, that can be tricky, because logic is a suggestion at best in dreams.

It can be freaky, but there's a lot of people (myself included) who try to have lucid dreams on purpose. Read some information on it, it's all over the web. If you can keep from freaking yourself out, you have a playground in your head with unlimited possibilities. For me, it always just comes down to flying.

Also: Rent a movie called Waking Life.

[Fireweed247]

29. Waking Life

That is one of my favorite movies!

[FatDave]

30. Super perfundo on the early eve of your day.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

13. Lately I have been dreaming that I am being choked, I wake up gasping for breath.

[phusion]

14. Don't panic

when you realize you're in a dream state then see what you can do within your dreams. Don't let it turn into a dark experience. Watch "The Waking Life" for some more insight and ideas.

Roll with it!

[NOW tense]

16. I thought you were saying

Don't go to Widespread Panic.

[Synicus Maximus]

17. Is this the dream where you are standing in sort of sun god robes

on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?

[lonestarnot]

18. No but strangely enough, I didn't recall dreams for the most part, for the past few years.

Seems like I have been too exhausted to remember them or something, or maybe I never dreamed, because I never slept well?

[FLAprogressive]

19. I get these a lot....it's scary. Sometimes, if I'm sleeping on a couch, I'll have to roll myself off

of it so I can wake up.

[HughMoran]

21. I hate these sorts of dreams

Mostly always happens when I fall asleep on my back. I get trapped on my back and can't move - I know I'm in a dream but can't wake myself. I get almost conscious enough to move (roll onto my side), then fall back into the nightmarish dream again. I hate when this happens.

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. me too! I feel helpless. happens maybe once or twice a year.

[Fireweed247]

22. It sounds like a Lucid dream

Can you control it? When the panic starts maybe you can somehow change the scene to getting into a hot tub or walking the beach in Hawaii. It could be really cool if you learn to control it and it might even help you get over whatever it is that is bothering you subconsciously.

Have you read anything by Charles Tart? He is an expert in altered states of Consciousness...he was also one of my psychology professors at UCDavis.

Terminology in Lucid Dream Research
http://sawka.com/spiritwatch/terminol.htm

[NOW tense]

27. Thanks

I will try to control them next series.

[Incitatus]

28. I sounds like sleep paralysis or a lucid dream

I get them

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html

[Catshrink]

31. I keep having this dream that the US has an African American president.

Oh yeah.

[timtom]

32. When I was about 14.

I was paralyzed and a shadowy, featureless figure loomed over me. I think this figure grabbed my "package" and I couln't wake up.

Then, in my acid days, this was a recurring theme (minus the shadowy figure). I would struggle and finally wake up and get up to get a drink of water only to find myself still asleep, dreaming I was awake. I struggled and struggled and finally woke up only to repeat the cycle again.

Haven't had the experience since 1969.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. I've been in that 'between wake and sleep' state. It's too weird. I don't like it.

[IDemo]

35. I have 'flying dreams' every so often

When I become aware that I am dreaming, the first thing I do is take advantage of it and go for a float around the house, or wherever the dream is taking place.
I've found that lucid dreams seem to occur when it takes a long time to get to sleep, as if caused by the slower rate of change from conscious to unconscious.