This is a big part of why I don’t nap anymore.

I was napping on the couch one time and I started having this lucid dream about meeting up with someone… idk it’s kinda fuzzy now, it’s been a long time. Anyway it was one of those super emotionally charged dreams, even tho I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually know the person.

So I started trying to wake myself up. What was happening is that I was waking up… only to find I was still asleep and get returned to that same scene. Dozens upon dozens of times. I could feel my actual body uncomfortably on the couch, unable to move, but my mind was stuck in this reoccurring dreamscape… I’d do things like intense exercise to check my pulse, breathe in water to see if I drowned, check clocks and text for consistency… anything to confirm I was still sleeping so I could try to wake up once more.

It gave me weird feelings for a while after, not just about sleep, but it made me feel weirdly about being awake. Being stuck like that, knowing I was asleep and not able to do anything about it… I still lucid dream sometimes, but I haven’t practiced in a while, and never naps.