Ok, here is the situation. I have been having nightmares lately pretty bad. I realize they are nightmares but can’t identify the threat, just an impending sense of doom. I try to force myself to wake up, think I’m awake but discover it is still the nightmare. This commonly happens 8 or 10 times in a dream before my wife wakes my up screaming. I always know it’s a dream because everything is a bluish shade and when I flip on light switches the lights come on red. I just can’t get myself to wake up even though I know it’s a dream, also I can’t exert any control over these nightmares. I can exert some control over my other dreams, just not these. Another problem with these nightmares is that I have been sleepwalking with them sometimes. I’m getting so I am scared to go to sleep. Does anyone have any advice for me? Please?
I had a similar experience the other day. I was in a kind of haunted house and became lucid. It was full of creepy zombies and such and some were attacking me. Being I was lucid, the zombies regretted it. I decided to attempt producing a different dream scene, so I went into a spin. Dream went black and after a few moments, I arrived back in the same dream. This happened about 4 times in succesion. After a while, even though I am a halfway experienced lucid dreamer I started becoming a little…anxious. Not having dream control can be unpleasant. I started thinking “what if I lose my ability to fend off the zombies, then what” and immediately regained my composure because a stray thought like this can become reality. I then just did my best to become bored with it and it finally ended. So here’s my advice. Attempt spinning yourself. If that does not work attempt to fly or have sex- I usually wake up when I try these things. I know the situation is not condusive to sex because I thought of that in my dream, but the setting did not lend itself to that very well. You could try holding your breath in your dream, but you may wake up winded as sometimes doing this you actually are holding your breath in the physical body. If all else fails, just try to remain calm (I know this is difficult) and act bored with the dream and it will go away. You know it is a dream, so it can not hurt you. The fact that you are still kicking is proof of this.
You have to understand, a lot of techniques have been developed to prolong a dream as this is what lucid dreamers desire, but not as much has went into tyring to get out of a dream. Hopefully others have more advice than I do. Here is a link to a chapter from Laberge (an authority on LD) on overcoming nightmares. You may find something helpful there.
lucidity.com/EWLD10.html
I have a question about your sleepwalking. By “sleepwalking”, do you mean that you physically get up out of bed with the dream still continuing? If this is the case, then what you are experiencing is actually REM behaviour disorder. Actual sleepwalking is a non dream sleep disorder. I myself have this condition (RBD) and it can be triggered by nightmares and such. I’ll give a personal example. I am dreaming that something is attacking me. I am trying to get away. In real life, I launch myself. I go from a complete resting position to jumping up, placing both my hands into my girlfriends back and somersaulting over her and then spinning on the floor like a madman on the side of the bed for about 10 seconds until I realize it is a dream. Obviously, this can be very dangerous. You may want to make adjustments to your room to make it safer and perhaps even sleep alone if it is too bad. If you see a doctor, they will probably prescibe nitrazepam (a cousin to valium) or something similar. This will probably keep you from “sleepwalking”, but it will also keep you in the dream that much longer (ouch), so its kind of a win/lose situation. I will say this though. One year ago, I began research into lucid dreaming. Over the course of that time, I have not had a single RBD episode so I believe that learning lucid dreaming is theuraputic for this condition.
Good luck- hope things get better for you. There may in fact be a silver lining in this for you. If you can lose your fear of the nightmares, then you could use them as a lucidity trigger and then have some wonderful lucid experiences.
Ok, I can’t fly because it’s inside my apartment, never outside it. If I try to appear somewhere else I end up inside still. If I try to walk outside I end up coming in the door I was just leaving. There is noone else in it so that rules out sex. I have tried to add people but for some reason I just can’t exert that much control over this dream. I’ve even tried suicide in the dream to end it but I just end up thinking I’m waking up but it turns out I’m just waking up into the dream again. When I have suicided in the dream the sense of doom is much worse in the next cycle.
I seem to be walking during the dream, I wake up wherever I was in the dream. If the dream ends in the living room I wake up in the living room… I am actually asleep because I can make minor changes inside that I couldn’t in the real world though. I sometimes even seem to do whatever I do in the dream in the real world. I’ve moved things around in my sleep and stuff. The worst was when I tried to take a shower, I had fallen asleep fully dressed. I woke up with a shock when I really turned on the shower in my dream, I got soaked with cold water and had to toss my cloths in the dryer. My wife is going to try covering the floor with bubble wrap this weekend, see if that wakes me up.
This all started after I started taking Paxil for my depression. I don’t really want to change medicines though, it took almost 2 years to find something that helps with the depression and that I’m not allergic to.
You are definately having RBD. Forget the flying business, bad suggestion. If you are getting up and taking showers because you are doing so in your dream, if you attempt flying then you’ll probably go sailing out your window and kill yourself. This is a severe case. Man, I don’t know how bad your depression was, but I would seriously consider getting off the paxil if you can not learn to control this- your life and your wife’s is in danger. I don’t know what kind of allergies other meds gave you, but I would trade an itch or something for what you have. THE BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE IS TO GET OFF THAT CRAP ASAP.
In the meantime, in your dreams- DON’T TRY TO DO ANYTHING. Just sit there until your dream ends. I was going to suggest masturbation for sex but don’t even do that- not if you want to wake up with an intact penis that is. YIKES. For goodness sake, DON’T ATTEMPT SUICIDE IN YOUR DREAM AGAIN.
I suppose I’ll see if my doctor has any other ideas than paxil. Mabey something chemically similar would help with the depression while not causing the problems. I can’t really go without medicine, without it I end up suicidal.
Hmm, I wonder, if nothing else I could probably hook a belt around my legs, that would stop me from walking and the fall when I try would probably wake me up. I’ll see if my wifes bubble wrap idea works first though, she thinks that mabey the popping sound will wake me up, if not it will wake her up and she can try to wake me up.
Legioinaire you could close your dream eyes in your dream then you c nothing, all is black. If you do that long enough you be awake for real.
And in the mean time you dont have to fear your nightmare! Because you c nothing at all. Really close those dream eyes firmly!
Try it!
good Luck!
Jeff
I’m glad you replied back- was kinda worried about you and wanted to make sure you got my message. I don’t think the belt idea around your feet is a good one- you will hurt yourself that way when you fall. A restraint around your waist would probably be a better idea. Perhaps leave a dim light on when you sleep- this may allow you to awaken from the dream sooner if you are getting up. Your wife can be very helpful with wakening you, but she needs to be careful of you as well as you are not your normal self. Seeing the doctor is a good idea. Good luck- hope everything works out.
If you really think it’s the medicine, than I suggest that you keep searching for something that will help with your depression AND keep you in bed. But if you want my advice, the medicine might be contributing but it can’t be the whole problem. Dreams happen for a reason. You’ll hear people say that everything that happens in your dream symbolizes something in your waking life, your thoughts and fears and whatever. Maybe you haave something in your life that’s really scaring you or worrying you right now. I know, I could say that about almost everybody and it would be true. But if you have this dream again (hopefully the bubblewrap idea will work) try talking to this doom feeling or whatever. It’s representing something, and maybe taking different medication will lessen it, but it’s not going to go away until you make an effort to fix it. Of course, you have to know what it is first. The only way to do that is to ask it. Say “Who are you?” or whatever you feel’s the appropriate question, and politely demand an answer. This always works for me. Once you know what it is and try to fix it the dreams will stop. But whatever you do, you can’t leave this alone, you have to find a solution to it fast. Have you ever heard of people who sleepwalked and then thought they were stabbing the monster in the dream but they were actually stabbing their wife or something? What I’m saying is this is pretty serious. Well, good luck, and hopefully I’m writing all this for nothing and you’ll never have the dream again. 
Ok, I took a nap this afternoon/evening and had that dream again. First off my doctor is going to try me on prozac, it is similar enough to paxil that it may work without causing the sleepwalking. He thinks that may be what is causing the sleepwalking, not the dreams though. He thinks that may be from my social anxiety disorder, he’s not sure though. His advice was to confront the fear in the dream and I may get over the dreams. He said it won’t help with the fear irl though, that is a brain chemical thing, all the concussions I have had knocked the chemicals off quite a bit. He also said to be restrained if I’m going to try it, it could scare me pretty bad when I confront it. He said that if nothing appears, if it is still just a sense of impending doom that doesn’t go away then my anxiety may be manifesting in my sleep and I just have to get the anxiety level down, he said I may even be having panic attacks in my sleep and those could cause these dreams.
Now, back to this afternoons dream, good news and bad news.The good news is I probably won’t sleep walk for a while, if I try I will wake up. The bed news is the reason, in my dream I was trying to straighten a picture, irl I accidently knocked down the picture, my foot is hurt pretty good. It wasn’t broke but it is bruised up and is pretty swollen.
I’m going to try confronting it tonight, I’ve been having the dream every time I sleep so it is a safe bet I will sometime when I go to sleep again. My wife is going to try strapping me in the recliner to sleep tonight. With luck I may know more tomorrow.
There is an archive about this on the forum somewhere that I posted a long time ago - it has some good feedback. You’re the first person besides myself who has posted this problem. Selfishly, it’s kind of nice to know of someone else dealing with this, although mine is not catalysted by medication.
I still struggle, but have found some techniques that have pulled me out a lot of times. I think this one may help you:
Everyone always talks about staring at their hands for greater lucidity. I have found, however, that when I am stuck in a nightmare this can be used for the opposite advantage. Stare steadily - without wavering; what I find is that this usually breaks up your dreamscape. Probably to enter another nightmare, of course, but this short break is valuable. Utilize jolting when this happens…I assume you’ve tried jolting. If you jolt into another nightmare, it is likely that this dream will be in a lighter sleep mode. Just like shampoo: repeat as necessary. Eventually, you will be in a light enough mode to jolt awake.
If you haven’t used jolting much, be wary. It can cause an intense headache if you try to make it out too quickly or you can find yourself in some kind of freaky blackness-limbo. If you stair-step the approach you’re also less likely to damage something.
Clearly, you should keep looking for other medications. I hope you are seeking therapy, no one deserves to feel the way you do. Anyway, if this technique doesn’t help, I’ve got more.
Hmmm…this makes me wonder if I’ve had natural Paxil on the brain this whole time - too bad there’s no Anti-Paxil 
Yes meow lol…I use it to in nightmares…when i stare at my hands the dream freezes and cant control me or border me…
Still I say to Legionaire Close your Dreameyes…then you c no dream anymore and longer then a few seconds maybe for you 10 means your just waking up for real live! Try it! Easy way out!
Jeff
I just got some sleep, the longest period of sleep I’ve had in a couple weeks. I tried two things, the combo seemed to do the job. First off I delayed my night time dose of my anti anxiety medicine until just before bed time. Second, I remembered how I always had to go to sleep when I was a teenager, I couldn’t fall asleep unless I was listening to heavy metal music to relax me (ok, I’m strange but metal does calm me). I made a compilation cd of my favorite metal songs and burned it. Set my cd player to repeat and put on headphones with the music really loud. I started to have the dream, I noticed the blue background lighting, and realized it was a dream like I usually do with that one. I heard the music though and didn’t get the feeling of impending doom. I just closed my eyes in the dream and went back to sleep, woke up in a plesant, fun, and really weird dream. I think it was the combination that helped. I imagine I should have thought of some of that sooner but until I started getting my problems out on here I just couldn’t think of any ideas.
Now, if anyone is wondering about that dream I ended up having, it was really strange. I was flying around in the clouds on the back of a giant rat. When I landed my wife was in labor, she gave birth to a were-rat baby, really cute. Me and the baby then fought off the invasion of zombies that were trying to steal my recipe books. Like I said, strange but fun. I suppose that’s what I get for playing with Xena before bed (Xena is my pet albino rat, she’s over a foot long not including her tail. She’s my favorite pet I’ve ever had). All my best dreams have rats in them, I really love rats, great pets.
Oh well, I need a snack then back to bed. Thanks for trying to help everyone. I do still intend to come to these boards. I found them because of the nightmare problems but I’ve been lucid dreaming for many years, since my physics teacher in high school tought me about it and helped me learn how to do it as a form of therapy when I was having some problems in school.
Don’t read through the whole thread, just wanted to throw something in.
Jeffs advice is a quite good one, though.
As a kid I had pretty bad nightmares, so I “developed” a technique for me to wake myself up:
First, close your eyes.Then,while eyes close you got to move your eyes.I can’t tell the exact movements I do, but I don’t think that matters much anyhow.Just “roll” with your eyes (looking in a circle), and then look directly where your nose would be.While still looking with both eyes in direction of your nose, open them up again.
For me that worked fine, since these strange movements somehow caused me to open my real eyes.I think you don’t have to follow them strictly, though.
Basically it is just closing dream eyes, moving them, opening rl eyes.
However, if you are lucid there are perhaps better ways to deal with a nightmare, although more difficult ones.But it could be worthwile, since after “defeating” a nightmare you probably would be more confident about your dream powers and have less nightmares.
traumgänger
Good info Traumganger!
And a very good idea (rolling your eyes)!
Jeff
Good imput, but it’s hard to fight your demons until you have some sort of confidence that waking-up is an option. Once you have that…look out were-rat babies