People Reveal Their Frightening Experiences With Sleep Paralysis

24. Your body is essentially paralyzed so that you don’t run away in your sleep.

“Yes! I have it a few times a year. At first, it was terrifying. I was always trying to move and get away from something. So, I thought I was having seizures since my body was paralyzed and ‘buzzing’ in waves. I started researching that and eventually found the answer in sleep paralysis. The gist – when you sleep, your body naturally paralyzes itself so that you don’t physically respond to brain signals from dreams – aka running and actually moving your legs and arms. In Sleep paralysis, your brain wakes up from REM sleep, but your body does not. So you are in effect paralyzed when your brain is fully awake – leading to “awake” dreams that are very lucid and real, yet you can still feel that you are paralyzed.”

“What I found is that now that I know what this is, I give in to it and tell myself that this is sleep paralysis and go with the dream. They are soooo lucid and interesting. I find that I almost like the experience now. I still hate the paralysis part. However, I am very enthralled by the dream and I can’t believe how creative and interesting they are. I find that once I acknowledge what is happening and give in to it, Then, I come out of it fairly quickly after.” C18h27no3 has found an interesting way to manage their sleep paralysis – just give into it!

23. Grandma knows best!

“Funny you should mention the back-sleeping thing. My grandmother always told us that sleeping on our backs could induce nightmares. We thought it was just an old wive’s tale, but I’ve since heard the same from other sources as well. Anytime I’ve had sleep paralysis or nightmares laying on my back, I thought maybe it was from subconscious suggestibility to her remarks about it when I was small or something. Now I wonder. I usually only have tactile hallucinations, though, like feeling the bed shake or move like someone else laid down on it, or a swaying sensation, or even once, the feeling of a small animal walking up to my body. Maybe someday science will explain it.”

[deleted] Reddit user has made a significant observation. It is interesting that this could induce nightmares because it is one of the preferred positions to sleep in by most. Doctors usually recommend this compared to other sleeping positions if possible, and it is even a well-known yoga position. The yoga position actually has an odd nickname – corpse pose. Maybe laying on our backs does induce nightmares after all? You should be fine practicing this calming yoga pose, though – as long as you stay awake during it!

22. Timing is everything with sleep paralysis.

“I never got it from sleeping on my sides, but I kinda induced it myself. Yes, I did it on purpose. The trick is keeping your mind awake while your body is out cold. To do this, you basically have to take your internal clock and throw it out the window. I did this by having a timer go off after a set amount of minutes. 4, 8, 16, 20, 16, 8, 4, 4, 4, 4 was the one that gave me the best results. The trick was to have the timer wake you up during REM sleep, not moving when you wake up and then falling back asleep quickly.”

Maybe you have pressed snooze one too many times on your alarm clock, and you can relate to what Reddit user [deleted] is saying here. They continue, “One of the better timers I found for those too lazy to program their own was on some hippie new age astral projection site (Their idea was to induce sleep paralysis and that would let you have an out-of-body experience). Although I have no idea where that was, I will still look for it. I think I found it the first time on “How to induce sleep paralysis” or something like that. I think it had a picture of a shark on it last time I saw it (2003ish).”

21. Talking to yourself is fine – as long as you don’t answer.

“I’ve had the same experience as many of the posters on here. Probably the two weirdest things that ever happened to me in a lucid dream state were when I interacted with other people. I always love talking to people knowing I’m really talking to myself, and there was a man on the street, and I asked him, “What is it like to be a figment of my imagination?” and he totally freaked out and went mad, just screaming and screaming. Freaky. Another time, even freakier, I had a lucid dream that I was waking up in my apartment, standard stuff, and I walked into my living room, and I saw myself in there.”

Tombonneau has an interesting story here about talking to themself. There is a saying: it’s fine to talk to yourself as long as you don’t answer. The point is that if you answer, you could be going crazy. Let’s see what happens in their dream as they continue: “I tried to talk to me, but once I did, my doppelganger freaked out and started babbling, shaking his head side to side, almost like having a seizure. It’s the only time I can ever recall seeing another version of myself in a dream, and it was disturbingly eerie.”

20. Pillow talk gone wrong.

“It’s only happened to me four times, and I was on my back all four times. The first time there was a black, impish shadow-creature in the room with me, the 2nd time, there was a giant white hand pressing into my chest, and the third time there was something like a giant, waterlogged corpse in the room with me. The last time I was in bed with my girlfriend and had a “nightmare” that she was trying to smother me with a pillow. Even though we weren’t in the kind of relationship where we’d try to murder each other randomly, it freaked me out enough that I slept locked in the bathroom for the rest of that night.”

“The last incident happened when I was 19, and I didn’t find out about sleep paralysis until several years later.” Blackeyes is the Reddit user for this story, and they do make light of some sleep paralysis that happens here. Being half asleep and imagining your partner trying to hurt you would be enough for anyone to spend the night in a locked bathroom. If your partner is abusive, there are ways to get out of the relationship. Please reach out to your support system, community churches, local shelters, or authorities if you need to.

19. Our minds are playing tricks on us.

“Yup, it happens mostly when I sleep on my back, usually right as I am falling asleep. My guess is that it’s related to sleep apnea, because sometimes just laying on my back, I feel as though it’s harder to breathe. I have intense hallucinations as well. It started when I was a kid, and my parents called them “dogmares” because the very first one was a dog biting my knee, which was sticking out over the edge of the bed. Even now, like 20 years later, I cannot sleep with any part of my body off the mattress. After that first one, they stayed with the dog theme for a while. Sometimes I’d see dogs praying instead like some evil cult, and they’d be facing away from me, and I’d be so scared I’d be afraid to move for fear they’d hear/see me.” says Reddit user ichschnof. The thought of an animal attacking you in a dream is definitely scary!

“Other times, it was packs of dogs just walking around. Other times my closet door would open, and things would come out, and then I’d wake up for real, and the door would be closed. One that I remember was the opposite, the closet door slamming closed because I left it open that night (then it was open again when I woke up). Eventually, I figured out they were basically just dreams. Now, when it happens, I know the hallucinations aren’t real and can usually force myself awake (by trying very hard to lift my arms). Also, I try not to sleep on my back anymore, but it still happens sometimes on my sides. The experience has made me discount all tales of the supernatural (ghosts, etc.) because I know first hand through this that our minds play tricks on us.”

18. When you don’t know you are experiencing sleep paralysis, it can be terrifying.

“Yes. It’s happened to me twice in my life, and only in the last year. Both times I’m sure it was due to nightmares and then waking up suddenly, as described by several people in their responses here. The first time was REALLY creepy. It was sunny outside when I “woke up,” and I managed to make out a shape that vaguely looked like someone in a robe, and I could swear I even heard chanting. Having never experienced or even heard of sleep paralysis before (and I didn’t know that’s what it was called until now), I didn’t know what to think. I struggled for a full minute before finally just relaxing myself… I even managed to sputter out a few words before snapping out of it (expletives to make a sailor blush). The vaguely robe-looking shape was just a coat hanging on my bathroom door.”

“The second time was an “attack” by one of those girls from either The Ring or The Grudge…one of the two. That was freaky, too, as ridiculous as both of those movies were. But that experience was scary. My heart was racing, and I felt like I was convulsing. My eyelids were fluttering between barely being open and being closed. Of course, now that I know I’m not the only one who has experienced it, and now that I have a name for it, I hope that the next time (if ever again) will be a little less terrifying.” You can’t blame Landale for being terrified of either the creature from The Ring or The Grudge – both girls were very scary.

17. Naps can be bad sometimes if you deal with sleep paralysis.

“I had it happen a few times several years back, and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. I read that it almost never happens when sleeping on your sides. So I tried that, and lucky me because I still get them that way. For some reason, though, they aren’t nearly as scary on my sides. They’re just kind of goofy and weird, as opposed to feeling like I’m getting my soul sucked right out of me through my mouth.” That sounds like the plot for a horror movie.

The Reddit user Yay4tay continues, and thankfully it’s a bit more of a happy ending: “That was about three years ago, and I still to this day have a hard time sleeping on my back, and will sometimes wake up with a start all panicked just because I drifted off on my back, particularly when it’s warm (my body seems to associate heat with the night terrors since they happened in the summer). I almost never get them anymore, though, unless I take a nap during the day on a couch. No idea why, but that formula almost always equals sleep paralysis.”

16. There are steps to snapping out of sleep paralysis.

Reddit user Unwieldy actually has both reasons for sleep paralysis happening in the first place and ways in which you can snap yourself out of it. If you know what is happening and have the steps to snap yourself out of this sleep state, then you could get better rest at night. Here is their story: Yes. I have read a lot about this before but don’t have time right now for supplying [citation needed]. Contributing factors to sleep paralysis are:

1. Sleeping on your back.
2. Irregular sleep schedule (naps, etc.).
3. Unfamiliar sleep environment (hotel, someone else’s house, etc.).
4. Stress.”

“I have had sleep paralysis for years; at least once a month, often many times per week. The terror does not decrease, but you learn to cope with it. Strategies for “snapping out of it”:

1. Take deep, slow breaths (don’t panic!–easier said than done).
2. Focus on wiggling a toe.
3. Move your eyes rapidly from side to side.
4. Make noise (I often wake my wife up with my soft moaning, and she will shake me out of it).”

15. Go away, Grim Reaper!

“The first time I experienced sleep paralysis, I was 13 or 14. I went upstairs to take a short nap after school before going out. Then I remember suddenly opening my eyes and being unable to move my body. I was overcome with a horrifying sensation like I was going to die or something. I then looked at my TV with my eyes and saw an odd black figure standing beside my bed. At this point, my heart was pounding. I turned my eyes to my right, and saw a stereotypical grim reaper, about 8 feet tall, scythe and all, scribbling something down on parchment, and then looking upon occasion.”

“This went on for about 60 seconds, and I wanted to scream in sheer terror, but I could not even speak. Finally, I was able to move, and the grim reaper vanished, and I jumped up from my bed and ran downstairs screaming. Then, a few months later, I read a book by Carl Sagan and discovered that what I experienced was entirely normal, and I was not insane or anything. I was relieved. I have since experienced sleep paralysis about six more times. However, they have not been accompanied by hallucinations since. I always get the feeling of impending doom, however.” Even though Darkreign experiences sleep paralysis still, at least they are not accompanied by horrifying figures anymore.

14. Having numb limbs is never fun.

“It used to scare the hell out of me. I’ve found that if I focus on moving a toe, then after what seems like a couple of minutes, I can eventually ‘wake up. The only sleep-related thing I have ever experienced that was comparable was when I woke up one morning and didn’t realize that my arms were above my head. Both arms were completely numb from not getting enough blood or something. I went to get out of bed, and suddenly, these two cold arms just flopped out of nowhere and landed on me.”

“Had my stress response sphincter tightening not happened, I probably would have covered the bed….” At least [deleted] can joke now about his possibility of soiling the bed when this happened. This is also another common thing that can happen and scare the daylights out of people. The limbs going numb simply happens when we sleep in an odd position. We just have to give ourselves a minute or two to walk up and get the blood flowing again. If a lot of numbing sensations keep happening, it would be best to speak with your doctor to get things checked out.

13. Napping in the car with sleep paralysis.

“Yep, it’s scary! You try to wake up, try to move a muscle, but you can’t. Also, sometimes when I have it, I feel like I’m floating in the air or something is on top of me. I feel anxiety in general. Sometimes I think someone is coming through my bedroom door to get me. One time I had a vision of a church and stained glass. It seems like from other people’s experiences that this is not uncommon. One time I had it while napping in the backseat of a car. My friend was in the front seat at the time, also napping. While under paralysis, I tried to let him know what was going on because I wanted him to save me from it.”

This might not end well for [deleted], but they continue: “So I tried to stick out my hand and let him know what was going on, but I couldn’t speak, so he didn’t know what I wanted. Then I tried to write on my hand, but it wasn’t getting through. Finally, I woke up and told him what had happened. He was FREAKED OUT. And, of course, I didn’t actually get my hand up at all. That’s the thing about sleep paralysis. You think that with all the mental effort, you might have moved a muscle, but in reality, you haven’t at all.”

12. Some things can’t be explained.

“I had a sleep paralysis experience that has one creepy element I can’t explain. Quick background: I was experimenting with high doses of melatonin (an OTC neurohormone) in an attempt to intensify my dreams. It’s a common side effect of melatonin and one I greatly enjoyed. One night, at a B&B with my girlfriend, I had a classic episode of sleep paralysis — paralyzed, terrified, and afraid of something malignant in the room. I eventually fell back asleep, but it was really, truly terrifying while it lasted.” Profpan explains, but what could it be in the room? An alien, a man in a trench coat, or a demon?

“Here’s the weird part; When I woke up the next morning and looked in the bathroom mirror, I had a bright red handprint on my chest. It was very distinct, and the fingers were long. And there were 6 of them: 5 fingers and one thumb. My girlfriend and I tried to come up with an explanation, but nothing fit. I couldn’t twist my hand into the position, so it wasn’t like I had been sleeping on my hand — the positioning was not something I could match even with stretching and contorting. And the imprint was so distinct it looked like it had been painted on. It faded after a few minutes. I have no idea what caused it, nor have I found any plausible explanation after thinking about it over the course of 10+ years.”

11. Is this real?

“I have these episodes often. There are weird and terrifying dreams, feelings of strangulation, and impending death. Typically, my wife ends up waking me up because I am gasping for breath. The weirdest thing is that most often, the setting of my nightmare is the same as my current environment. I just “transition” into sleep at some point. As a result, these nightmares are vivid, realistic, and quite horrifying. The most terrifying of these nightmares happened to me about three years ago. I dreamed that I was in a long hallway of what appeared to be some sort of mental hospital. I walked down a long, dimly lit corridor of locked rooms, each with a sturdy door with a tiny observation window on it.” The Reddit user, [deleted], explains something that can be the most terrifying thing of all – when the lines of reality get blurred, and we aren’t sure what’s real and what isn’t.

“I approached one particular door, which had a bloody fingerprint on it, and peered in. It contained a disturbed bed and otherwise was empty, but suddenly I had the feeling that I was no longer alone. I looked down the hall in time to see a shadow in the shape of a human figure walking toward me. So, I stood fixed in terror, and the shadow walked through me. I felt myself begin to die as if my body suddenly quit functioning. I can barely describe the sensation. It was a mental and physical absence of the will to live as a void opened within me. I was terrified. But, I was awakened shortly after by my wife. I was seemingly unable to breathe and was struggling about in bed. Weird.”

10. When sleep paralysis happens every night.

“I used to do it on purpose to try and lucid dream. EDIT: I used to be huge into sleep and dreaming and read a few books on lucid dreams. It turns out, sleep paralysis is a great way to go straight from consciousness into a dream (with absolutely no lapse in between). This is a documented scientific fact. Our brain paralyzes us before we hit REM sleep. Sleep paralysis is basically, so you don’t move while dreaming. Your eyes move; they are not paralyzed. But if anything else moved, you might harm yourself. People commonly experience sleep paralysis when waking up from a dream too fast and the brain not realizing it quite in time.”

“Sleep paralysis is totally harmless and happens to you EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. You just don’t know it. That being said, some people can get stuck in sleep paralysis for hours, being fully aware of their situation but being powerless to stop it. In sleep paralysis, I floated above my bed and flipped over. This is where out-of-body experiences are reported (and they’re all attributed to sleep paralysis). Also, people claiming to be abducted by aliens are a huge factor. I’d say most “paranormal” activity that occurs around sleeping time is sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis and sleeping, in general, is a cool subject.” Trident gum sounds like a real sleep expert, as he should be researching for years on the subject.

9. Is it because of not enough sleep and too much coffee?

“I experienced it quite a bit during my college years. At first, I nearly thought it was something supernatural as I would wake up paralyzed and see figures standing off in the edges of view while hearing whispering voices. One time it was extremely vivid where I woke to see a little girl sitting at the edge of my bed and an older woman standing a ways off with her back to me. The little girl said something to me, but after fighting out of the paralysis, I couldn’t remember what she had said…”

“After a bit of research, I came across one theory that made logical sense. The theory was that lack of REM sleep could cause it to kick in prematurely — locking out motor ability and dreaming before you’re physically asleep. I’m not sure how plausible that is, but it’s the most logical explanation I’ve heard. At the time, I was living on probably 4hrs of sleep a night and drinking coffee by the pot. I sleep more and drink less nowadays, but I still experience it mildly from time to time.” jeptu makes an interesting observation with the sleep factors – do you also lack a good night’s sleep? Are you drinking too much caffeine? Try something. Otherwise, sleep paralysis could become more likely.

8. If you can control your breathing, then it will be okay.

“Once, when I was three or four, I had some sort of nightmares and fled to my parents’ room. They made me a bed of blankets next to their bed. I was drifting off on the floor next to my dad’s side when I swear I heard him say loudly and clearly, “I’m going to kill you.” I lay there in utter terror, for I don’t know how long. More recently, I was taking a quick nap in my car before doing a long bike ride. I woke up (probably snored myself awake). My seat was reclined, and my head was tilted back a bit, so I probably was snoring like mad and having a hard time breathing. I lay there for what felt like minutes, unable to move. The car felt stiflingly hot (it was warm, but the windows were cracked), and I couldn’t breathe. I was convinced that I was asphyxiating.”

Tomatopaste continues: “I lay there and focused very hard on breathing. I slowly was able to take shallow breaths. I took deeper and deeper breaths until things returned to normal and I “woke up.” Only now have I associated the first childhood episode with the more recent occurrence. Other incidents: I awoke and watched shadowy figures stealing things from my bedroom as a child. I was afraid to do anything, certain they would kill me. I eventually drifted off and, of course, awoke to find everything as I had left it. Another time I woke up in the morning and was convinced the Canadian Mountie figure that my grandparents gave me was moving on the window sill. I awake on occasion to see a rat running across the ceiling or something running through the room. Oh man, now I am sooo f*&%$d for getting to sleep tonight…

7. Eventually, you can control it.

“I used to get it all the time in high school. Oftentimes there would be a hooded grim reaper-type character standing over me. He would envelop me in some kind of bluish force field and lift me up off the bed. I had the feeling this dude was evil incarnate, but I couldn’t move or scream-scary crap. Other times, I was just paralyzed in bed, and I felt like there was an ominous presence, but I didn’t see anything. After reaching a certain level of panic, I would wake up. It happened fairly often, so I started to be able to control it if I concentrated. I got to where I could move, though it felt like there were 1,000 lbs crushing me. Usually, I could just flop out of my bed and crawl along the floor. One time I made it to the next room.” jwill says, and this would be a terrifying way of sleepwalking!

“This also leads to some out-of-body experiences. Usually just floating above myself in my room. A few times, I was able to cruise around the house or neighborhood. At this point, it started to become less scary and more fun, although there was almost always a bit of an uneasy feeling to it. Eventually, I started to have some lucid dreams. I would be able to walk around and consciously interact with the environment. Usually, I still felt weighed down and would have to struggle intensely to walk around. The most memorable time, I ended up in my buddy’s basement. There were a bunch of children sitting around. They all looked at me like, “WTH are you doing here?” One little girl, in particular, looked at me with this really strange expression. Then she just started laughing. Then, I can’t remember exactly what she said, but it was something like, “you’re moving with your auntie and uncle to Bel-Air.” True story.”

6. Consistent good sleep is the key.

“Hmm. I think I have experienced this from time to time, where I think I hear a really loud noise or something when half-awake, and there’s nothing there. I’ve always just assumed it was part of a dream or something. It’s never really startled me. (When I’m waking up, I’m usually half in and half out of a dream state for a good 30 minutes, so I’m used to it, I guess.) An interesting thing to note, though after reading the Wikipedia article on the syndrome… I occasionally have little episodes of hmm, almost like someone repeating something in a different language (completely unintelligible, repeat it if I tried) in my head.”

Amazing has this terrifying experience, but it’s not the first time we’ve heard it. Often in horror movies, we see the use of other languages that the main character doesn’t know – making it scarier. This Reddit user continues: “It’s repetitive, and SEEMS very loud. Any other noise will drown it out. It usually happens in a white noise setting like a shower. It was very disturbing at first, and I would usually have to put on some music or something to make it go away, and it hasn’t happened for a very long time. I suspect that my sleep schedule returning to normal has had something to do with its infrequency now.”

5. Let’s play scary sounds in the background to set the tone.

“This happened to me rather frequently when I was very young (under six years old). I apparently have grown out of it; I can’t recall it happening after I was perhaps nine or ten. I’m 26 now. When it happened to me, I could clearly see an outline of a body from the waist up – almost like a police chalk line around a dead body... but just a black background and a “thick” white/hollow outline of a body. And from the bottom of the torso up, the outline was “filling” with red on both sides, evenly. It was happening very slowly. I seem to remember haunting/scary sounds echoing in the background, but nothing specific.”

“I got the distinct impression that when the red filled up all the way to the top of the body/head, I would die. So I remember being absolutely terrified. If I tried really hard, I could “choose” to make it stop, and then I would become semi-aware of lying in bed with my eyes closed, usually in the morning with the sunlight coming in – but I couldn’t move at all. I couldn’t open my eyes, and I couldn’t make a sound. If I relaxed and stopped trying to wake up, I would go back to seeing the body outline again.” gameforge has the ability to control the lucid dream at least, while others just simply can’t.

4. Sleep paralysis started at an early age.

“The first time this happened to me was absolutely the scariest thing that ever happened to me or my family. I was around 6 or 7 and had fallen asleep on the couch (on my back). I remember having that feeling you get when something bad is about to happen and suddenly realizing I couldn’t move. Then there was a sensation of something moving up my legs toward my chest. Suddenly there was this heavy weight on my chest, and my eyes opened to see this thing I can only describe as a demon sitting on me grinning like a madman. The thing wrapped its claws around my neck and started strangling me. “Tat2ts is younger than most of our stories here; imagine being a child experiencing these terrifying situations.

“I finally woke up to my mother shaking me violently, screaming for me to wake up. I had stopped breathing and was starting to turn blue. Needless to say, it scared the crap out of both of us. The one thing that really sticks out was how tired I was like I had really been struggling to move with every ounce of my strength. That was the only time that was that intense. I have sleep paralysis fairly regularly (2-3 times a month) but thankfully no hallucinations. My wife has figured out when this is happening. My breathing becomes very erratic, and I can usually shake free of the paralysis enough to move my hand. She will wake me up and make me turn on my side. I usually wake in the morning feeling like I’ve had no sleep at all.”

3. It’s only mildly disturbing.

“This happens to me a few times a year, most recently last month. It used to really freak me out until I read about it – now it’s just mildly disturbing. As far as I understand (and from the experiences I’ve had), the brain is basically still asleep (with motor functions disabled). However, somehow fully conscious and processing the dream state overlayed on top of reality. It’s sort of a reality feedback loop. It mostly happens when I’m napping outside of my regular sleep schedule. I have to be lying in bed, but it happens when I’m on my back and side.”

Chroko has even more observations during sleep paralysis: “Usually I’m aware of somebody in the room (but they aren’t there when I wake up). I’ve only ever seen something once – I saw a Giger Alien (from the movie Aliens) on the ceiling directly above my bed, hissing at me. Once I could hear someone reading (pages turning), and their presence was strangely comforting – but I couldn’t see them. The worst part, though, is that when it happens, I always have to fight through and wake up – because I become conscious of my heartbeat and am terrified I’m going to die if I just go back to sleep.”

2. The more you know, the more you can grow.

“I’ve not experienced it, but I’ve heard a number of people bring it up to me. I once saw it happening in 2006 when one of my roommates just wouldn’t wake up for class. He was lying on his back, eyes pretty much open, non-responsive. Later that day, he told us what had happened. I had a friend who converted to Christianity partly on the basis that he believed in spirits and demons (from sleep paralysis + native American beliefs). He’d had a number of traumatic sleeping incidents where he saw vivid hallucinations of girls in dresses, shadowy figures, the usual list of things you hear in sleep paralysis cases.”

“I revealed that to him and, among a few other things, it eventually convinced him to reconsider the validity of a lot of his superstitious beliefs. For many people, they just lack an obvious explanation for many phenomena that occur and seek out a higher power. Seriously though, just linking him to the Wikipedia article on sleep paralysis was eventually enough to break him of his spell before he got too into it. His personality has really returned since he got off the Jesus train.” huxtiblejones could more be supportive of his friend if he did have certain beliefs, but it is also good to have all the information needed. It was good of them to show him the information on sleep paralysis too.

1. Controlling lucid dreams.

“Yes, four times that I can recall. The first two were immediately after the death of a relative and were accompanied by strong feelings of a presence in the room. If I were religious, I might have taken this as proof of an afterlife. Lucid dreams accompanied the third and fourth. The third time, I had the distinct feeling of floating out of my bed. As I regained from the paralysis and began to move, I believed I felt static discharge through my limbs and heard a buzzing, crackling sound. Hallucinations, of course. The lucid dream itself ended with a “game over” screen, which I thought particularly interesting.”

[deleted] continues: “The fourth time was intentional. I was able to remain conscious during the initial stages of sleep and enter REM into a lucid dream. There were no crazy hallucinations, just a feeling that I “sank” into my bed. The lucid dream itself wasn’t terribly exciting. However, I did note that it was in full color and seemed to start as a small rectangle in my field of vision. It was progressively expanding to become all I could “see.” I haven’t been able to control my lucid dreams much, although in one case, I made an evil robot disappear so that it wouldn’t kill me.”