Recently, I’ve been having very realistic nightmares. Pain and everything, just like it was real. But at the end, I usually become lucid, but the nightmare is so frightning that I just want to get out of it. However, in those nightmares, it becomes nearly impossible to get out of. When I try to wake up, usually by opening my eyes, it feels like I’m trying to move my body through a barrier of some sort. As if I was trying to move through molasses or something thick like that. And even when I finnally open my eyes and see my room, the dream still lingers for a while and it’s still hard to move my body.
Any thoughts on what to do in this situation? One of my ideas is to try to stay in the dream despite the terror. Most ideas involving control won’t work(or won’t work reliably) since I don’t have direct control over my dreams.
This may seem really stupid but have you practiced flying? And by “practiced” i mean reeeaaally practiced. I was having the same issues as you years back when I was first practicing LDing. Someone on the forums noted that it was probably a confidence issue and the best way to conquer those is by flying. I didn’t quite understand what he meant at first but I certainly did once I started actually focusing on it. Flying shows you how any little doubt what so ever can effect your control over your dream and your emotions concerning that dream. Once I mastered that concept I was never frightened by a nightmare again. Infact, while I have put LDing down the past couple of years, every nightmare I have had since then has been a successful LD. As far as what ur experiencing exiting the dream, I’m fairly certain its just the effects of your body coming out of sleep paralysis.
P.S. If you don’t believe me on the flying thing, you can check in my dream diary, while I am not enthused by it, its on the top of my to do list just because I realize how much of an important exercise it is for LDing.
If you have reccuring nightmares, you can use them to become lucid just when they begin. For instance, if there is a reccuring situation (a monster or something like that), practice just a bit of autosuggestion when falling asleep: “Next time I see a monster, I’ll realize that I’m dreaming”.
When you realize you’re dreaming, just think: “I’m not interested in being afraid” and do something funny or something interesting (for instance, asking the monster who it is,what it means or why it appears in your dream). I think it will be easier then to do what you want if you stop the nightmare just when it begins.
About your body being hard to move, I think it’s because you force yourself to wake up, so that you still experience the effects of sleep atonia (natural sleep paralysis).
What I typically do when I become lucid in a nightmare is the idea that Stephen LaBerge recommends in EWLD. Talk and be friendly with your dream characters.
Just remember to keep in mind that these are dream characters, ala they are not dangerous and can’t hurt you.
You can use your lucidity to modify your emotions. That’s what I’m doing in every nightmare to transform them into pleasant LD’s. I modify emotions by acting directly on them, like I said above, by realizing I’m not interested in some emotion.
It’s possible to do this too by modifying his own behavior, for instance attacking monsters with a bazooka instead of running away.
I don’t see any other solution. I never considered trying to wake up as a satisfactory solution.
When you become lucid, there are many diffrent things you can do :
tell yourself that you are dreaming and that this is ALL in your mind and nothing can hurt you at all.
then, laugh at the bad guy. seriously just laugh at their pathetic attempt to scare you! they will either die, run away, or turn into friendly people.
Run up to the bad guys and give them a hug!
As suggested earlier, fly away.
this worked with me once. If you are too scared, then simply close your eyes repeating the phrase, I am dreaming, I am dreaming , I am dreaming. Either the dream will change or you will wake up.
It is essential that you think about this IRL and no matter how scary it is, you Tell yourself that you WILL do one of the above.
Wissam is 100% right. This is best way to increase lucidicy in nightmare.
Noo, dont run, beat your fear, and fight with them/it/thing that is that “bad” one in your dream . That is lucid dream, so it can be awesome . Matrix way / LOTR way / any way you want to When you will beat fear, nigtmare could not disturb you anymore !
When I was in the uni. studying Psychology one of the Profs told this story. Imagine you are on a bus durring rush hour, the bus is so full that the aisle is full and you have to stand close to all the people next to you. Suddenly you get jabed in the back by the tip of an umbrella. You turn around to tell the person that he/she should pay more attention to what he/she is doing on a crowded bus. Then you see that the person is blind, and the umbrella is their cane. How do your fellings change?
Becoming lucid in a dream can be like that. If you know that you are dreaming, and can do anything that you want to, why do you need to be afraid of anything? If you wanted to, you could let the DC’s do what they want and see what happens to you. Even if they kill you, you won’t die, and it will only hurt as much as you let it. It all just depends on you and what you want to do. Do you want to confront your fears? Do you want to run away? Do you want to learn more about yourself? In your dreams you are in control. You could even have superman or rambo come help you.
don
. That is lucid dream, so it can be awesome 
. Matrix way / LOTR way / any way you want to 
When you will beat fear, nigtmare could not disturb you anymore !