Oh, and speaking of dreams

[beige_alert]

Speaking of dreams, the other morning I had the strongest, clearest sleep paralysis / hypnopompic illusion I’ve had in a long time. This is the sensation of waking up yet being paralyzed, accompanied by various dreamed sensations. People who don’t understand that this is just a weird dream state can be terrified by it (and think that they are being abducted by aliens/molested by demons), but I’ve had some lucid dreams and welcome weird dream phenomena as a gateway to lucid dreams. It was definitely a more intense experience than usual, and there was a moment of confusion and concern before I realized what it was, at which point I started hoping I could get some fun out of it, but as so often happens with these moments of lucidity, I woke up for real very soon.

Comments

[aryana-filker.livejournal.com]

Sounds... weird!
I remember a friend of mine telling me about a dream she had as we shared a room in our first term at university.
I left early in the morning and she told me later she dreamt that a person was standing by her bed and threatened her and she wasn't able to wake up. Uhhh, scary. I hated her for telling me the story at nights.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a real sensation of anyone else being present, but that's very common and adds to the, um, effect. The good news is that the state is so very weird, weird even compared to how weird normal dreams usually are, that it's relativly easy to recognise it for what it is while it is still happening. That's what happened to me. I had a moment of panic, then I realized exactly what was happening.

Night Terrors

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

I had a dream like that once--and maybe something similar on an earlier occasion. I found it horrible and terrifying. Once I was awake, and realized there was no malevolent being out in the hallway looking in at me, I didn't have any sense that anything external had happened, but boy, was it nasty internally. I don't think I could have had fun with it, though your suggestion that one could have fun with that state actually moderates the recollection for me.

Re: Night Terrors

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

The possibility of fun comes when you recognize it for what it is while it is still happening. It is so very weird that it's relatively easily recognized for what it is. I had a moment of panic and then realized exactly what was going on. I tried to hop into the air and fly around, which is always a fun thing to do in dreams, but I woke up.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I've never had the experience of someone else being present, but I have had the experience of feeling normally conscious but being unable to move. It doesn't seem like a dream, and overcoming it doesn't feel like waking up, it feels like regaining control of my movements. It's quite unpleasant; I haven't had it in a while and I hope it doesn't come back.

[beige-alert.livejournal.com]

It seems to be caused by the mechanism that paralyzes you when you're dreaming so that you don't run around acting out your dreams remaining active for some reason while the rest of the mechanisms of normal dreaming shut off, so you're left awake but paralyzed. It's odd, yes, and maybe frightening, but it's not really especially uncommon and it's harmless.