I’ve been having occasional lucid dreams for the past few years, initally without any problems. However, in recent months, I seem to have developed a problem with vision in these dreams.
When I start to awake from lucid dreams, the first thing I’d lose would be my vision, before waking up completely. I learnt that by grabbing hold of and feeling objects from the dream I could stay in the dream and then, sometimes, the vision would start to come back as well. However, nowadays I seem to be having increasing problems maintaining vision once I become lucid. Sometimes, I can stay in the dream for sometime, feeling objects, flying through the air and feeling the rush of the wind against me - but I can’t see.
I think the problem is that I can feel my real eyes. When I start to wake up, even though I am still in my dream body, the first real thing I can feel is my real eyes (I guess because they aren’t paralysed during REM sleep?) and , although I am still moving the rest of my dream body around and feeling things from the dream, I can feel my eyelids against my eyes and know that I have my eyes shut. Now, pretty much whenever I become lucid, I lose my sight and, despite remaining asleep, can feel that my eyes are closed. Even though I know logically (even in my dream state) that this shouldn’t be stopping me from ‘seeing’ my dream, it is doing. If I try to open my eyes, I open my real eyes and wake up.
Has anyone else experienced this? Do you have any suggestions for how to overcome this?
I have really no idea… I know i lose vision right before the dream fades, but have never experienced something like this. It sounds in a way like a mindblock, which means you kinda expect this to happen when you turn lucid and thus it will.
a similar thing happens to me Rachel. i enter a lucid dream and pretty soon it starts to fade dark and i end up opening my real eyes by mistake. nice to know its not just me ! any advice from anyone on how to stay lucid when you can’t see and start to surface out the dream would be much appreciated. i was wondering whether it had something to do with false awakenings? like ( i dont know if you agree Rachel) you go to darkness and can feel your eyes and think you’ve come awake so you open your real eyes. maybe if i kept my eyes shut and kept trying to influence a dream it would work?
sorry to jump on your post like this Rachel, i wanted to see if what i had was similar to you
This same experience has happened to me in my most recent LD. It was pretty frustrating, not being able to see, but I didn’t want to do anything overly dramatic to get my vision back because I wanted to stay in the dream for as long as possible. I too felt my real eyes and sensed that they would open if I tried too hard to get my vision back. I just walked around for a bit feeling the walls and such.
As far as advice on how to fix this as it seems to be reoccuring for you, I thought after waking that I should have shouted “Clarity Now!” or “Increase Lucidity” or “Enhance Vividness” or something and try to stop focusing on my eyes, as the ones that would allow me to see inside the dream were not actual eyes. I have had good results shouting encouraging phrases like those above when I become lucid but the scenery is hazy and clouded. If this happends to me again, hopefully it will bring back my vision as well.
On a side note, the Lucid Dream I had where I couldn’t see was in a hot shower where my brain rationalized that the steam from the water was keeping me from seeing. It actually caused me to become Lucid, but I never was able to conquer this imparement.
Some advice from my (one) experience with this:
Keep your eyes closed. Don’t squeeze them shut or anything, just don’t move them. You don’t even need to open your dream eyes. Just try to see through your closed eyelids. That worked for me at least.
try experiments to contridict you idea that you arent dont feel your eyes like touching them or looking in a mirror maybe glasses i had this problem and i pulled my glasses down things got more vivid or make sure your lucidity is peeked rubbing your hands together etc
aslake, the good tips in order to regain your vision are rubbing your hands, grabbing objects and feeling them or spinning. Yet the trouble with Rachel is that those efficient tricks seem not to work.
Are you doing a spiritual practice Rachel? Something like yoga, tai-chi, meditation?
i was wondering whether it had something to do with false awakenings? like ( i dont know if you agree Rachel) you go to darkness and can feel your eyes and think you’ve come awake so you open your real eyes.
Well, I think it’s my real eyes I’m feeling, although I could be wrong. Maybe initially I felt my real eyes as I started to wake up from lucid dreams and now every time I become lucid - even when I’m staying within the dream - I think that I should be able to feel my real eyes and create this problem?
I have previously been thrown by false awakenings where I think that I’m starting to wake up and feel parts of my body and that I am only partly in the dream. For example, I was eating crisps in a dream and started (I thought) to wake up. I could feel that I was lying on my bed but was still eating - and tasting - salt and vinegar crisps. In my fuzzy logic I thought that part of me was awake but that my arm, hand and tastebuds were still in the dream
Are you doing a spiritual practice Rachel? Something like yoga, tai-chi, meditation?
I do Tai Chi and meditation - I think it was meditation that started me off having lucid dreams in the first place as they spontaneously started after a few months of meditating.
Thanks for all the suggestions - I’ll try them out, although I only have lucid dreams every few weeks so it might take a while to test them all out and see if any of them work for me!
I think it could perhaps be related with this. Some kinds of meditation may “deconstruct” dreams. A good think IMO would be that you take advantage of those non visual dreams in order to practice tai chi, energy stuff and meditation in them. It said to be very efficient cause during non visual dreams, energy is no more into the images but into the dreamer. And even if it doesn’t work well, you have something to do while waiting images to reappear.
! any advice from anyone on how to stay lucid when you can’t see and start to surface out the dream would be much appreciated. i was wondering whether it had something to do with false awakenings? like ( i dont know if you agree Rachel) you go to darkness and can feel your eyes and think you’ve come awake so you open your real eyes. maybe if i kept my eyes shut and kept trying to influence a dream it would work?
