Lucid Dream #11 — Why We Lose Awareness in Our Lucid Dreams
June 8, 2023
‘I panic, and slowly my lucidity fades away’
Hi all, I’m excited to share another lucid dream story with you. In this lucid dream, I reunite with my long-distance partner, but I get distracted by a bunch of cats entering our private space. I lose lucidity and try to make my way back to him, even using a portal. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up where I wanted to be and even got kicked out of the dream, but I did learn more about what causes me to lose lucidity within my own experiences. From strong emotions and control challenges to distractions and unexpected events. The key is to understand our personal triggers and develop strategies to maintain our awareness within the dream world so we can experience longer lucid dreams.
I find myself in an unfamiliar dark attic, in a bed. I wake up in the dream, and I become lucid. I look around, and I see another bed where my mom is sleeping. I’m super excited that I’m lucid, and I want to tell her about it, but I don’t want to wake her up. Even though I know it’s a dream and she’s not actually asleep. I walk around the attic and enter another room. I see my boyfriend there. Surprised to see him, I can’t resist, and I kiss him. It feels so real, and it’s quite nice, as we are currently in a long-distance relationship, and it’s been a while since I’ve been able to kiss him! But it doesn’t last long because I get distracted by some cats entering the room.
I decide to explore the house further, so I go down the stairs and find myself in the living room. It looks old but more lively than the attic. My mom is here as well now, and I tell her that I’m dreaming. But then, cats start to come into the living room as well. And they don’t stop coming. The whole room is full of cats now and they need to be fed. How am I going to feed them all? I panic, and slowly my lucidity fades away.
The dream continues, and I get a bit more lucid again. Now, I find myself on a bus, driving through England. We get into London, and it looks amazing. The bus stops at the last stop, on a small market. I get out and look around. There are loads of stalls everywhere, and the houses are all covered in beautiful flowers. And it’s very lively too. For some reason, I feel at home here. I’m not super lucid, so I black out and find myself in another building all of a sudden.
Not sure how I got inside and what I’m doing here, but all I know is that some men want to keep me here instead of wandering around the dream world. I leave the building anyway and decide that I want to go back to the cute English houses with the flowers from before. But how do I get there? ‘Behind this building, there will be some sort of portal.’ I say to myself. So I walk around the building, towards a grass field with a small pond. The pond looks quite normal, with some plants and even a few goldfish swimming around. ‘This will lead me to where I want to be!’ I say out loud. I want to visit my boyfriend in London (He lives in England). I see some dream characters staring at me, but I don’t care. I jump into the water, hoping it will bring me there.
Unfortunately, I don’t get back to the houses with the flowers. The portal does work though, but it brings me somewhere new. The whole dream feels different now. It has a different texture. It’s almost as if I shouldn’t be here. I see some men walking down an alley, and I’m hovering above them, looking down at them. They don’t look very friendly. The men knock on a door, and another man opens up. But this man is not interested in the other two that came for him. Instead, he looks up at me. I can sense that he wants to let the others in, but he keeps glaring in my direction. It’s as if I’m not supposed to be here and witness it. ‘Just pretend I’m not here!’ I think to myself in hopes the story continues. I want to follow the dream narrative without interfering. But it doesn’t work, and I get kicked out of the dream. I wake up.
A few interesting things happened in this lucid dream. First of all, it was a positive dream. No one attacked me. And I’ll take that! It was very nice to see my boyfriend in the dream, to be able to hold him. It was a very vivid experience and thus, quite enjoyable. But then, I got distracted by loads of cats entering the room. This is what eventually caused me to lose lucidity for a while. I also used a portal, where I ended up somewhere completely new. Possibly even in the astral, as the experience did feel very different.
Distractions and losing lucidity
So why do we lose awareness within our lucid dreams, and what can we do about it? In lucid dreams, maintaining focus and control can sometimes be challenging. The dream environment can shift or get interrupted by various distractions, as seen in this dream. It’s a common experience for beginner lucid dreamers like myself. When we get distracted, we often return to a regular dream state or wake up altogether.
Well, if you think about it, it’s actually quite normal to experience fluctuations in lucidity. During waking life, we lose awareness all the time. Unless you are a very experienced meditator, you likely live through most of your day without being present. I personally notice that the more I practice day-time awareness, the more aware I am within my non-lucid and lucid dreams as well. It’s good to find out when you lose lucidity in waking life and within your dreams, so you can pay extra attention to that and work on it.
Below, I’ll give the most common reasons why we lose lucidity and how to overcome them:
Dream characters: Interactions with dream characters can sometimes be challenging. The ability to influence the actions and responses of dream characters varies from dream to dream and depends on your level of control. In my lucid dreams, dream characters sometimes act in unexpected ways (such as the cats, and the man in the doorway), which can lead to me losing lucidity or waking up. The underlying reason for that is often a strong emotion.
Emotions: Intense emotions, such as fear, anxiety, or even joy, can overwhelm us, causing us to lose lucidity as we become absorbed in the emotional experience. This often happens when people get lucid for the first few times. They get overexcited and wake up. This is also what happened in this dream as I spent some time with my boyfriend and became absorbed in the emotional experience. I lost some awareness, and the subconscious took over and made some cats appear. That stressed me out as I felt responsible for feeding them. The anxiety caused me to lose lucidity. The best way to overcome this is to practice emotional regulation within waking life and your dreams.
Distractions: Engaging with the dream plot, interacting with dream characters, or focusing on dream details without actively reminding ourselves that it’s a dream can also take away our attention from the dream state, leading to a loss of lucidity. This often happens as time passes on inside the dream. Lucid dreams can be transient, and without active efforts to maintain awareness, lucidity can fade. The best thing to do about this is to keep reminding yourself that you are dreaming. You can say it out loud or in your head, whatever works best.
Not having a goal: Entering a dream without clear intentions, goals, or techniques to maintain lucidity can increase the risk of losing awareness. Taking our attention away from the dream state, even for a moment, can result in a loss of lucidity. Always have something in mind to do next so that you keep yourself engaged in the dream. I know that it’s easier said than done. I get distracted all the time! But it does get better with practice.
Dream control challenges: Struggling with dream control or encountering difficulties in shaping the dream environment can sometimes cause a loss of lucidity as well. When you just start out with lucid dreaming, controlling the dream can be very challenging. I’ve tried it a few times and often felt disoriented, causing my lucidity to fade quickly. It’s best to start small. Work with what you’ve got already. For example, instead of trying to create a portal, use an existing door.
Dream instability: A lack of stability in the dream environment, such as shifting scenery or inconsistent dream physics, can make it challenging to maintain lucidity. The dream environment itself can change abruptly, or the laws of physics may be different from waking life, for example. This can lead to confusion and frustration, which then leads to losing awareness. The best way to overcome this is to simply keep practicing, and gain more experience. Using dream stabilization techniques might also work. By focusing on sensory details (for example touching things with your hands) it can help stabilize the dream environment
External Factors: Real-life disturbances, such as loud noises, physical discomfort, or environmental changes can intrude the dream and cause our lucidity to fade. If you actively practice lucid dreaming, try to practice somewhere you won’t be disturbed. Try practicing early in the mornings before everyone wakes up, and keep pets out of your bedroom too. I use earplugs as noises tend to wake me up.
Realizing when and why we lose awareness within our lucid dreams is the key to understanding our personal triggers, and so prolonging our experiences. By becoming aware of this, we will realize more quickly when our lucidity is fading, and we can stabilize ourselves again so we can continue our lucid adventures. I hope this helps!
What causes you to lose lucidity within your lucid dreams? Share your experiences in the comments!
