Alright so this is a little bit different to my other posts. This is the time I almost gave up on lucid dreaming forever, and quit never to return. This was my lucid dreaming story abou false awakenings.
For those of you who know me from my YouTube or from this blog, you know I LOVE lucid dreaming and everything about it. I’m always reading about it, sharing what I know, and researching new ideas for it. That’s why this experience was so confusing and surprising for me.
So about a year or so ago I had one of the scariest and most annoying experiences of my entire life. This involves false awakenings and being trapped for a while in a dream or what I thought was reality.
Dreaming about waking up again and again
So the experience started when I was just going to sleep, and I felt a little strange. I hadn’t been sleeping very well lately in the leadup to ths (I guess I had a lot on my mind). Nothing good ever happens when I don’t sleep well, and sooner or alter, it catches up with me and makes me feel terrible!
So I’d been having trouble sleeping for one reason or another (stresses of modern life) but for some reason this particular night I was able to just DROP to the bed, and I pretty much fell asleep instnantly. I was able to fall asleep so quickly that I didn’t have time to do anything else..
Normally I meditate and go through my evening routine before bed which involves reading and a bunch of other things, but for whatever reason, I was too tried to do that and I just dropped into bed and passed out. Then, later on in the night I woke up at about 3-4AM I think (can’t remember the exact time) and experienced what was probably the worst case of sleep paralysis that I’d ever had.
I was locked into the bed, with a strong painful feeling of being pushed down into the pillow by some force unknown to me. Now even though I teach escaping sleep paralysis using expectation and patience (just wait for it to go away and tell yourself it won’t hurt you) this was different.
I couldn’t move at all, and even though I was telling myself ‘It’s fine it will stop soon’ it just seemed to go on forever. When I finally was able to move again after what seemed like hours (of course it can’t have actually been hours) I got up, had some water, I think I went to the toilet and then came back to bed.
Now this is where the plot thickens..
The false awakenings from hell
So I’ve had sleep paralysis before and I’ve never really been worried about it, but this time it felt like it was more real almost. I think it was a result of having too much caffiene the day before (makes sleeping well difficult) but we’ll never know. So after recovering from the annoying sleep paralysis I went back to bed, hoping to get some final rest before waking up again.
I laid down and closed my eyes. In an instant, I was awake again but it was the morning. I jumped up and although I didn’t feel amazing, I certainly felt a lot better than I had the previous few mornings. I got ready to go to work, got dressed and ran downstairs to make some breakfast. There was a certain feeling of something being strange but I couldn’t quite work it out.
As I talked to my partner and housemate, something seemed off. Everyone seemed.. hostile.
It was as though I’d done something wrong or said something offensive and I was just getting bad vibes from everyone, but I couldn’t figure out why. I brushed it off, finished my breakfast and got reay to go and get on the bus. As I sat waiting for the bus I remember thinking ‘I feel AWFUL’, like I’m hungover. (I hadn’t been drinking so it was a weird random feeling).
As the bus finally came, (It seemed to take hours) I get on and finally arrive at work about half an hour later. This is where it gets weird. I have the same uneasy feeling as if everyone’s looking at me in a negative way, angry and annoyed with me. I can’t work out what it is.
As I turn to ask my colleague what’s wrong or what I’ve done wrong and why everyone’s looking at me in a weird way I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I can’t see what could be causing it, and I scream out.
Everyone looks around but it’s too late, I see the room spinning and I feel sick, I start to fall to the floor and crying out in pain I fade into the darkness of the looming carpeted floor approaching me. The next thing I know, I’m in my bed, sweating, looking up at the ceiling, still seeing the room spinning a little bit.
What the hell was that?! I couldn’t work out what had just happened.. Had I fallen over, knocked myself out and been driven home? No because I look at my phone, 4AM on the 15th.. The day hasn’t even started yet. This then turned into the worst 7-8 false awakening experiences of my life, and I have NO idea why this happened.
For the next hour or two I was haunted by false awakenings that felt so real I ACTUALLY wanted to give up lucid dreaming and never sleep again when I finally woke up for real. I had to sit there for a good 10 minutes pinching myself when I finally thought I’d woken up ‘for real’.
This is unusual
Now I should say, this was a very unusual situation, and almost NEVER happens to me. This was by far the worst experience I’ve had, and I’m pretty sure it was a reaction to something I ate or drank, combined with bad luck, bad sleep and who knows what else. Needless to say I still lucid dream and invest massively into learning about dreams and the human brain, but this was one scary morning. Anyway I have some other lucid dreaming stories if you’re interested!
Also, I have a collection of scary lucid dreaming stories, which I read out for you here:
Can You Get Stuck In A Lucid Dream Forever
Do People Ever Get Stuck in Lucid Dreams?
You cannot remain in a lucid dream forever. In fact, lucid dreams are one in which you realize that you’re dreaming and yet sleep at that time. Although they are thrilling and colorful, they do not last forever.
Here’s why:
1: Sleep Cycles
Your sleep happens in cycles. There are also different stages of sleep such as deep sleep and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, during which dreams, even those known as lucid dreams, take place.
They go through these cycles during the entire night. Sooner, at one point, you’ll rise awake and quit the dream.
2: Natural Awakening
Your body is equipped with an internal alarm system designed to awaken.
This may result from different sources such as an alarm clock, noise, or simply the movement of one`s body clock. Such awakening will break your dream and thrust you back into reality.
3: Time Limit
Lucid dreams are usually short. They can go up to a couple of minutes, or even thirty minutes.
Therefore, if you pay attention to the dream then you may awake earlier. In this way, the shortness of time denies you the chance to stay in one’s dream for an infinite amount of time.
4: Real-Life Needs
Your body requires food, water, and other elements. The physical needs will drag you out of that dream; hence, you won’t do without them all the time.
As such, do not fret that you will be stuck in a lucid dream for life. The magic never lasts because they are only temporal experiences that spice up sleep after which one goes back to real life.
