This is a portion of my post in the newbie section but I thought I'd post it here as it's probably more relevant in this section... perhaps someone could shed some light on it.

Last night I had one nightmare after another in quick succession… lots of them… I became aware I was dreaming but had no control. I screamed to myself to wake up but started to suffer sleep paralysis…I couldn’t wake up and my eyes wouldn’t open even though I was telling myself to open them and I remained stuck in the frightening dream.

I even told myself to look at my hand hoping that old technique might help wake me up but the person in my dream held my hand down so I couldn’t look at it… again, I had no control even though I knew I was dreaming. I decided I would try to mentally visualize my hand but I couldn’t manage it and the nightmare continued.

I had many nightmares last night and through several of them I seemed to manage to become aware of the fact I was dreaming without gaining proper control. In the last nightmare I managed to force myself to throw myself out of the window head first through the glass… smashing it and breaking through so I could escape the nightmare and attempt to “fly” and turn the dream from a nightmare into a pleasant lucid dream. After smashing through the glass I felt I could feel the glass shards all over me… not painful but worrying and I became fearful it may be dangerous to lucid dream in such a violent and desperate way in case I was actually sleepwalking instead of dreaming.

So… anyway… my hope is that others may have experienced something similar to me or that someone may know why this is happening or that it is a normal process. It was very frightening to be in the middle of a nightmare and become aware I am dreaming and still have no control over it. I woke up feeling very disturbed.

To Savage Hurricane,
Your dreams seem very intense and disturbing. Perhaps there is something in your life right now that is conciously or sub-conciosly bothering you? The holidays are a bad time for a lot of us.
Do not feel alone. Since childhood I have had two dreams that are disturbing, but I never see the end of one and the other wakes me in terror. I'll share with you and hope somehow it may help. The first is that I am falling what seems for miles off a cliff, but I never hit the ground. I figure the day I do dream the end of the fall, I'll be no more in this world. The second is that I am in bed and a prop plane is circling the area and I hear it's motor stop. Then I hear it 'nose diving'. Well, the wing of the plane crashes through my roof and misses my face by an inch at most. All the debris doesn't bother me because, let's face it, an airplane wing an inch away is enough to mesmerize anyone. I wish that I could interperet your dream and I hope someone can. There are books about dreams everywhere. One I saw and still might purchase(its old) has the meaning of 10,000 dreams.
Please in the meantime try not to sleepwalk. Your Dr. actually might have a word for your dreams, they are learning more everyday. Good luck.
IBelieve

I may be inexperienced on this matter, but my guess is that you have had something that is weighing down on you. It is probably an experience that you did not find significant at the time, but is actually rather important.