Lucid Dreaming - how does it affect yku?

Post Reply New Topic

I have the problem of frequently having lucid dreams, almost very night. Normally this would be fine, but they're completely spontaneous, I have little or no control, and they almost always turn to lucid nightmares. None of the techniques I know to stop these work, because my aspergers takes my fear, doubles it, and then the dream double it too, to the point where I have no chance of calming down, and the monster chasing me, goes from something like a slightly scary robot, to something like choo choo choo charlie but four times scarier. What can I do to stop this? I enjoy lucid dreams, but my random imagination (probably thanks to that tiny sliver of autism in there) just randomly brings up completely irrelevant thoughts. Which is usually what starts the nightmare. What do I do to STOP THIS???????!?! !!?! !! !! !! !

I don't know.
Because nightmares are so rare to me.
But so does fear and anxiety in real life.

And I'm an officially diagnosed autistic.
Yet the most common complaints of fear and anxiety is something I cannot seem to relate.

Let alone nightmares.
Maybe it reflects to your waking life?



As for lucid dreaming...
I rarely do lucid dreaming. To me it just happens by chance. 1 out of 20 of my dreams. And I dream frequently.

I wish I can just do it on command. But with my sleep issues, I'm somehow doubtful.

When I do lucid dream, it's 'weak' and not fully in control.
If I think of a body of water, I'd get a puddle of water or a pool. If I want a sky scraper, I'd get a 4 storey building or a hill. If I want to fly, I can only glide and jump high.

I could enjoy it, but it usually leaves me a bit off and with an effort while not fully satisfied. I don't know what my issue is, either.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Edna3362 my experiences with lucid dreaming are much stranger. In my dreams, any time I become lucid, I have no control. Its like my life is on autopilot, and I'm along for the ride. This usually causes the panic, panic causes fear, fear causes bad thoughts, bad thoughts one true, and I'm in a lucid nightmare. Normally there is stuff you can do to stop them, but between aspergers and the dream itself, my fear is amplified so much, it just continues to get worse, all the while I have no control over anything. There are methods you can use to intentionally lucid dream, and depending on the method, can give you a lot or even full power over the dream. Unfortunately they don't work for me because I lucid dream naturally.And honestly, the few times it worked, it was incredible. I could literally do anything.

I found a trick to bail me out of unpleasant lucid dreams. I focus on my breathing, take some control of it, and make it deep and noisy enough for the sound to wake me. I don't have many lucid dreams these days though.

I don't panic when I lose control and get overwhelmed. Not even in my worst of meltdowns in my waking life.

Let alone in a dream, whether I'm aware I'm dreaming or not.

What you described is something I experience often whenever I'm able to recall a dream -- minus the fear or panic over it.

Usually, it's like I'm living as someone else from another universe, or living as another version of me.

But that's usually because I don't get nightmares -- I can get creepier and stranger scenarios, to a point that some experiences are less human like, with laws of physics thrown out of the window.

At worst, I'd just be very frustrated and disappointed for the lack of control and shortening duration of the experience.
Which usually happens whenever I become aware of my dream and/or lucid dreaming in my case...


So most of anything fear based is assumed to just anxiety to it's core as any reaction human do, it's just that the autism itself amplifies or perpetuates it via aversive experiences and input.

... Usually, in my case, there's no fear for my autism to amplify to start with.


As for the fear and nightmares...
It's likely your subconscious, and your emotional processing no matter your level of awareness in the dream, no matter the level of control you have in lucid dreams.

In your dreams, the subconscious tells things -- in lucid dreaming, the subconscious would be more brought forth into the conscious.

And the subconscious cannot directly be consciously controlled. It has it's own rules.

What do your nightmares tell exactly?
And are your anxieties hiding something other than being upfront over the express of fear and worry?

You have any ways of processing such thoughts and emotions in real life?
The contents you consume and how you emotionally react? The situations you're into in waking life?

Because it will affect your dreams.

I don't know.
The way I broke out of my anxious cycles and it's symptoms is a direct confrontation over my limbic system, and 'soothe it' like a 5 year old child.

Doing it through some sort of meditation and some sort of interoceptive interface...
And my trigger is a particular fixation that I'm dealing with at the moment. I'm aware that it will give me nightmares for consuming more all about it.


Lucid dreaming techniques won't work on me either, because of my unpredictable sleep outcome.

It's more than just my head and sensory aspects; I'm also dealing with physical symptoms that makes sleep time less consistent and the state of sleepiness uncertain to the outcome of falling asleep and it's quality.


As for my rare creepy dreams that borders or enters nightmare territories; I can just get startled or creeped out enough to wake up.

So I don't have an actionable advice there.
Sometimes it just interests me, and the way my brain goes overdrive out of fear just annoys me.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Edna3362 thank you for the advice, but unfortunately I've tried that as well, but I have no control. That's usually what causes the panic. For me, I don't simply remember the dream. That's a sign it was simply a vivid dream. I'm actually there for an hour, and its more realistic then life itself. That's usually why I panic, because the way most of NY lucid dreams go is I wake up, but in the dream, I start going through my routine but then something causes me to become lucid. Its different every dream, but once I'm lucid, I have no control. Its truly terrifying, being in a reality for an hour where you can't do anything except sit and watch. At least, it is for me. The number one reason most methods don't work for me is I rarely wake up before my sleep cycle is over. So far, the only time I wake up is a false awakening. I've tried setting timers, but the sounds simply show up in the dream rather than wake me up.

I'm excellent at lucid dreaming, but that's mainly because I play a lot of video games. If you play video games more often, you're more likely to have a dream where you're in control.

I only have lucid dreams when I am running a high fever; and even then, not every time I fall asleep.

How do they affect me?  They wake me up.  The good ones make me want to go right back to sleep, and the bad ones make me want to get up and make a sandwich.

When I was in high school with no fun, it was my only entertainment. It took me to meet my family, old classmates, imaginary female playmates, and even to attend high school in a lucid dream - a completely different school.

I don't think I've ever had a lucid dream. I have very little control over my dreams. I'd need one of those fancy dream masks in order to be able to dream lucidly.

IMHO poll needs more options such as "i've had semi-lucid dreams bordering on lucid."

I seldom remember my dreams but I've had some lucid dreams but it's extremely rare. I don't recall ever having a lucid nightmare but I do occasionally have reg nightmares & rarely night terrors.

My girlfriend has both lucid dreams & lucid nightmares very often. It's common for her to try talking about em while she's having them. She doesn't sleep well & wakes up frequently for various reasons & considering how often she has nightmares I think it might be worth her talking to her psychiatrist about a med add or change.

I used to play a lot of video games myself.

Didn't made me better controlling lucid dreams.
It must be something to do with how my body and mind connection works and feels like in waking life.

It just made dreams of me playing video games in the other universes and other worlds a more often reccuring activity in the dream though.

Makes me feel nostalgic sometimes.


I wonder what being in other worlds and universes mean? And lots of post apocalyptic settings.
That's when I randomly lucid dream.

Now that I think about it...
... I don't play games and control lucid dreams in the same dreams. I don't try to fly, manifest things or break physics after playing a games from various screens or platforms, and vise versa.

Yet I can do either in different worlds.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Funny there was just a topic on this on another forum I'm on. They say the things you think about most are what make up your most common dreams.