Lucid but not in control

[Samantha11]

I'd really like to know if anyone else has ever had a dream like this one, because I'm starting to freak out just a wee bit. They're nightmares, actually - I become lucid, I know I'm having a nightmare, but whereas usually I can control the dream environment, here I can't. Although I'm lucid, I forget the fact that I've had the nightmare before. I can move from dreamscape to dreamscape, but I can't get away from the sense of malevolent pursuit. I find people I know - friends and family - and try to get them to wake me, because I'm terrified that fear will drive me mad before I can wake up, or that I've already gone mad in my sleep, or that I've died whilst sleeping and am trapped in hell. People become monsters or refuse to help me - I once dialled 999 and asked to be taken to hospital, but the woman on the line said I wasn't mad enough to be helped. I rang my dad and he shouted about his credit card and hung up. The only way I can wake up is to either visualise in minute detail the room where I am actually physically asleep, or go to a 'safe place' in my head, which is a clearing in a dark wood. There are so many false awakenings within the nightmare though that even when I do wake up it takes me a good few minutes to convince myself I've actually escaped. I've been getting these dreams every three months or so for the last two years, and sometimes they're accompanied by sleep paralysis too. Anyone got any ideas?

[Count--1234]

Oh God, that sounds so scary. I hope it all get's better soon

[Jacqui]

I've never had anything quite that scary, but I have had dreams where I'm aware it's a dream and tell myself to wake up, but can't for some reason. My dreams are almost always lucid, so it's very weird when on the odd occasion I can't wake up despite my best efforts. Every time it does happen, I always feel so trapped and terrified (since the only time I'd ever tell myself to wake up/change an aspect of the dream is when I'm having a nightmare). Or, even more bizarrely, I have had on the odd occasion what I think you refer to as "false awakenings". (And even if that's not what you were implying, it's the perfect way to describe what I sometimes have, so don't mind my stealing that term, ahha. )

One dream I had around a month ago perfectly describes this: I'm at the mall with my friends when the place is bombed by an air-raid (ala the Blitz). I catch onto the fact it's a dream and tell myself to wake up. The dream then jumps to me chilling at university with my friends, everything back to normal. Because of such a drastic change in ambience and setting, I forget I'm even having such a terrible nightmare and, yes, I stop being lucid (if that makes sense) and lose grasp of the fact this new part is still a dream. When we leave campus to go home and find the mall bombed, I say to my friend, "WTF! I just had a dream about this!" I'm aware I dreamt the bombing before, but I'm no longer aware of the fact this new part is a dream too. I think I've woken myself up from the dream that was first upsetting part, and thus believe the second part is real life. Does that make sense? It's really weird, and it's happened a few times.

[Sylvia_Hdz81]

I have had dreams like that. People that I love try to wake me and I hear them but I can not wake up. Its like something is holding me back or something that does not want me to wake up.
Like today I had a very werid dream I was walking and people stop me but what I answered them was I am late and that I needed to go and pay my respects. I heard my mom calling me to wake up and I was like just moving my head.

[Hapa Honey]

I have had nightmares like this before. In fact, when I have nightmares I can never control the environment or objects even when I am lucid. There has only been one time where I have been able to affect it.

I was having a nice dream about touring some place with my mum, brother and partner when we saw an unusually large cat. It was snarling and had thick, black oil oozing out of its mouth. We stopped looking at it and hurriedly walked away, but then it began chasing us, screeching and hissing. At some point I realised it was a dream and that I could get rid of it. However, in the past the dream has conjured it back up after it has been destroyed so I thought I should give myself proof that it has been permanently destroyed. I turned around to face the cat, made it explode and took a picture at the same time (I had a camera since we were touring). The cat did not come back, but I soon stopped being lucid and had a different dream. It's worth a try if you can create objects when you are lucid (I can't, I can only explore what is already there in the dream) and if you believe this might work for you.

[Clarity]

oh god, having read your dream it kind of reminds me of one I saw once. i´m speechless...it was so scary!

[DogStar5988]

It isn't very often that I have dreams and I realize its a dream except in the scaryist of dreams. At those times I just concentrate on opening my eyes (which is very difficult) and I have to force my eyes open. It seems to me that all my dreams are vivid and most of the time if I am having a really scary dream I can force myself awake with the above method, I can imagine how terribly helpless it must feel to not be able to escape it. Maybe its the fact that you are afraid of being helpless in these dreams that makes you helpless in them? Perhaps you could try to have some sort of cenimatic "I'm not going to take it any more" response in these dreams. Just remember that even though it may not feel like it sometimes you really are in control. Just my thoughts

[ibadt]

I have dreams like this. I had one about a month ago where I was just terrified and I could have sworn someone was shaking my bed. I kept telling myself to wake up and each time I thought I had finally woken myself up, I'd look around and realize I was still dreaming. It happened three times in a row. I could have sworn I was awake during this time, but I could not physically open my eyes. I kept telling myself just open your eyes and you will realize no one is there. It was so real, I could even smell the person that was shaking the bed. I'm glad I'm not the only one that has these kind of dreams!

[Salman]

Originally Posted by Sylvia_Hdz81

I have had dreams like that. People that I love try to wake me and I hear them but I can not wake up. Its like something is holding me back or something that does not want me to wake up.
Like today I had a very werid dream I was walking and people stop me but what I answered them was I am late and that I needed to go and pay my respects. I heard my mom calling me to wake up and I was like just moving my head.

ive done some research into this because being in control is in my personality, however what i have found is disturbing, 1st, some religons belive that every night when we go to sleep our souls go to God, to get cleaned for the next day and that our soul is in debt till the time God has appointed for our death, the part that intrust me here "to get cleaned for the next day" we have a saying the resembles "every day is a new day". second i have had dreams very rare where my body is frozen i can't move, speak, and im in intesnse fear, doing some research i have found that religions and science prove, that when the angle of death get you, you cannot move let alone scream for help, people could be around you and won't know a thing the pain you will go through when that happenes, yet those feelings feel the same in our dreams, the scince part also says that this is because just like our body goes auto pilot with adrenalin when we fight get hurt but feel no pain, similarly when we are scared to "DEATH" get it, that our body takes over and we freeze, our funtions malfunction, the other day my parrot got scared he frooze i poked him nothing, it was a vacuume cleaner, but same thing i could see the fear in his eyes but he could no do a thing, another general fact, when driving down the country road, when a dear or squirrel runs across the road why does it stop in the path to get hit, its because they see an unknown object appearing straight towards them, and their body takes over and they freeze. the last time this happened to me i in my dream, started thinking that everything is frozen i can't move, speak, or scream, but, i can still think, so i started praying in my dream and thinking happy thoughts, would you belive it, i was able to move, as i started to i woke up, otherwise according to my dream i was stuck there throughout my whole dream until i did that, i was scared, because have you ever heard oh yea poor guy died peacefully in his dream, what do they know.....right, not only that when we die or an animal die, have you ever wondered why they are STIFF, thats because the last step after freezing, unable to move speack or yell is that the soul leaves the body, because the body malfunctions if it stays in the auto pilot freeze mode too long, but somehow, we always wake up, then i rember in one of the religions it said that God said our souls go to him everynight and thats equal to death, though it is returned during day untill your appointed time. now that is something scary. just to get an idea you guys should watch some videos of soccer players who were smiling while playing and died instantly, the most interesting one is with a saudi footbal player, he gets hit while going down for a ball, but when ge gets up, he is pushed back wards like someone invisible is hitting him,the player is choking and looks like he's scared worse then we could imagine then he starts doing forward flips in backwards, like watching it on a dvd player and rewinding it,finall on the last flip, he falls to his knees loooking to the sky and his body just fall down like an towel.

[dreamintonight]

What a freaken coincidence?
I just had a dream this morning between 9am and 10 am in which i was flying up dark black cave and I tried to get my soul back in my body, that is what it felt like, so finally i realize my whole body is numb and there is darkness/blackness something evil hovering over my body, I could not speak in my dream nor could i move, but i had my mind and thoughts, it was scary but I was not that scared, I wish if I had Angelic powers like Michael that I could send all these demons to a sulfuric acid lake that would burn their spirits, I am serious, I am sick of these dreams! I hate evil. I dont want to debate with anyone if this is just some scary dream or its just spiritual void, dark and evil because i know what i believe in but you are so entitled to your opinion, i just wish it wasnt this way.
But, as I lay there numb, it occured to me that this was something of the devil, but I said the word satan instead, so I knew I was powerless and so in need of help I prayed to God: I said "God help me wake up"
And guess what, I woke up immediately...
I dont know what Im getting myself into in the middle of the night, but if there is any hint of evil or "scariness" in my dreams, I pray in a heartbeat and that is when the dream ends and I get some normal freaken sleep. It doesnt happen this often. But I sense that I need to pray for angelic protection before I sleep because something evil out there hates me. Plus I think that the dream content i have sometimes, is testing my character. No wonder why when I try to induce a lustful dream, i wake up with nightmares later.
So basically If your religious or not, I really think you should just ask for God's intervention. I am seriuos it works for me. You dont have to read the bible or read the koran, but just say his name, all i said was God help me wake up, thats all i said.
I am getting way into this...
Well I sincerely hope everyone gets better sleep, maybe if we sleep with peace in our minds and have silence and meditate things can be better.