Growing up I had plenty of nightmares. In fact for me, after watching a scary movie at the age of 7, nightmares became a nightly thing for a very long time.
Luckily enough my second lucid dream during childhood came at the perfect moment to save me from a monster and at the same time add to the realization of how powerful lucidity can be.
In my dream I was running down a hallway at the top of a dark castle and behind me is some undefined monster chasing me. I cannot see it yet but in my dream I know it is there and it is catching up soon. I ran all the way down the hall to the wooden door at the end and opened it to find that it leads to the outside, only at the top of the castle, with nothing but a giant drop all the way down. As jumping was not something that my mind would even considered at that moment, closing the door and staying inside was my only option.
With the door behind me, facing back into the hall, I knew I cannot go back as the monster was approaching. This increased my fear into absolute panic and probably out of the sheer terror I snapped into lucidity and suddenly knew I was dreaming. Knowing that I immediately tried to wake up. I remember trying to open my eyes in the waking world with no success. This was only the second time I became lucid and did not know anything about how it works and what to do. I could not wake myself up.
Even though I knew this was a dream now, the dream was still going on, and as a kid i was still afraid. A thought came through my mind to try to find something that will wake me up, to find a connection between dreaming and waking. I then saw on the floor a sort of crisscrossing spring like in a toy fist gun. In my mind I knew this was somehow my way out (as it felt as if my mind created it after the previous thought). I picked it up and started twisting the spring until a spark came up out its corner, it’s light blinded me and in doing so woke me up.
I sat up in bed, breathing in relief. It was then obvious that becoming aware that a dream is a dream can be an amazing weapon against nightmare, even if only to help me wake up from them and stop the bad dream. Later in life I discover that lucidity in nightmares is much far more than a tool to escape your nightly fears, it is a key to face and overcome your daily fears as well.
Jay Mutzafi
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I had a lucid nightmare a couple of weeks ago and it was torture if I made any sound I would be hunted by a monster running up my stairs into my room. And I would keep resetting in my bedroom in my bed it’s really weird and I was forcing my self awake for ages I didn’t sleep the Night before really I don’t think it was 3am when I slept and went into this dream and I was forcing my self repeatedly to wake up I could kinda feel my body I felt like I was having a seizure or something and it was tricking me and I was experiencing sleep paralysis but in a dream and I could feel my real body moving but it wasn’t in the dream, I’m 14 years old btw I’ve lucid dreamed quite a lot it’s almost every night for me I ended up waking up after and I went back to sleep to find that thing that tormented me and it was gone hopefully this helps other people idk I just wanted to say
Wow! This is exactly how I discovered lucid dreaming at around the same age: trying to face instead of runaway from a witch-like figure that kept haunting my dreams night after night.
Later on, I actually stopped lucid dreaming on purpose because at the time (1) I didn’t know it was something other people did, and (2) I was beginning to feel like I could lose myself completely in another world and I was beginning to feel like it was more real than my waking life.
Ever since then I’ve wanted to recapture this ability (I used to he able to fall asleep and into lucidity in a dream on command), but it seems that my mind’s got a lot of other stuff in the way now. Ah, the golden age of childhood with no preoccupations, no future and no past.