Was this a lucid dream?

[sumbum]

I have been able to Lucid Dream for years, but usually it happens to me when I'm in a middle of a dream I realize I'm dreaming. This time I woke up at around 8 am and I closed my eyes and my eyes started to twitch and move fast (usually this happens to me while I'm meditating and it freaks me out so I open my eyes) but I was so tired that I just went along with the twitching. When it stopped all of a sudden I heard a huge explosion and I automatically knew I shouldn't be there and I tried to wake myself up but I couldn't wake up for a few seconds and my body wouldn't move, then I woke up and was freaked out. This is a lucid dream that I have never experienced before.

[caithiggs]

Hi sumbum. Have you ever heard of sleep paralysis? I have a lot of experience with it. I too sometimes recognize when I'm dreaming (sometimes there are hints that I'm dreaming and I just don't pay attention however). But the reason you could not wake when you tried was because of sleep paralysis. Every person experiences sleep paralysis, but because we are always asleep we don't know about it at all. Sleep walkers actually have a disfunction where their muscles do not relax into this paralyzed state, which is why they get up and walk around while they dream. The paralysis has a very useful function! However, sometimes, if our brains are wired so that we have sleep disturbances, we can actually mentally wake up, while still being in sleep paralysis. It can feel very terrifying, but don't worry--it's actually normal. If you read up on it, and on "old hag syndrome" a lot of people will describe it as a very negative state. Sometimes they will feel presences, or even entities sitting on their chest or holding them down. This is what happens when your mind wakes up during sleep but your body remains at rest. I have my own interpretations of those entities if you get interested in that--it is never something to fear, but we do always react with fear due to our instincts.

I have had a few dreams where I notice I'm dreaming and can't wake up, or go into loops. The only way to wake up from this, oddly, is actually to relax. That's the only way to get out of the paralysis. But when we relax we just go into a deeper sleep so that we can wake up when our bodies are ready to. Actually, you are lucky you are able to wake out of that state! I never can! The harder I try always the worse that it is.

Also during this state, we are in the stage of sleep between wake and sleep. We are a little aware of our surroundings, and when we do dream we actually have hallucinatory and audio hallucinatory dreams. These are legitimate psychology dream states.

Also, I imagine you are twitching because your muscles are going into the relaxation. They have been otherwise tense. It's the same with animals when they sleep--they twitch, but really their muscles are mostly relaxed.

Hope that information was useful.

[sumbum]

Thank you so much caithiggs that helped me a lot! I'll take that advice next time if it happens. Thanks again!