So I decided to listen to some music on YouTube to help me relax and sleep. It was a root chakra music and usually I turn it off before I fall asleep but I guess I fell asleep before I could. So anyway I fell asleep and I had a lucid nightmare or rather multiple that were one after another. I was aware I was dreaming but couldn't control anything. I woke up for a bit I could tell my body was on high alert but wasn't awake enough to turn the music off. So I fell asleep and the entire time I had nightmares and again,lucid. I was aware the entire time that I was asleep and I could also feel my body freaking out and I'm sure if I didn't wake slowly enough I would have had sleep paralysis. In the meantime I was actively searching for solutions in these nightmares for the nightmares and was aware that my body was not getting adequate rest or relaxation. Now I rarely get nightmares unless something is bothering me alot,all the nightmares were closely related to what was going on consciously too. Is it possible that this caused a fear response and my brain decided it wasn't safe enough to rest?. I also have autism so it might be possible that my brain interpreted the sound differently.

Hey, I'm sorry you had to go through that, that sounds super scary/frustrating. I also have autism and I have more lucid dreams when I listen to music when I sleep. I think it's the continuing awareness of the sounds that kind of keep me conscious. For me though, I like sleeping with music because I feel like that state helps me process stuff while I sleep, probably the way neurotypicals do automatically, and I usually feel more rested and centered afterwards.

It's possible that sleeping with music has that effect on your brain too, but you've maybe just been dealing with some heavy stuff in your waking hours, especially if it seemed like you were actively searching for a solution in the dream. I think possibly it could have been the weirdness and unknown of the whole situation that made it so scary. The idea that you weren't getting enough rest or relaxation also might have been a self fulfilling prophecy. I can see why your mind would jump to that if you haven't experienced anything like that before, but those thoughts would probably agitate you and actually cause your sleep to be less restful. I've had nightmares in that sort of state related to real life/things I'd thought about before sleeping, but since I'm used to that awareness now, they aren't usually so bad. Also again, since I'm used to this state, my sleep usually ends up feeling more restful/fulfilling. So basically, I would think the fear wasn't caused so much by the way things were related to stuff in real life as it was just a natural reaction to an unknown, frustrating situation that probably felt out of your control.

One thing I do do is I tend to be a very introspective person, and if I feel like there's unprocessed emotions from something earlier in the day, week, or even month or year, I try to match what I'm listening to to those emotions and or listen to something familiar. I think if some of the emotional turmoil is represented in the music, my brain doesn't feel the need to create as dramatic of a situation in the dream in order to work through things. Also if the half conscious part of me knows what I'm listening to, its usually something I have some happy memories tied to, and that happiness creates enough dissonance to crack the realness and fear of the dream. For me, the music that can do both is movie soundtracks, because I've enjoyed listening to them from a young age and they have some complex emotions. I don't know what it would be for you, if you maybe wanted to try sleeping with music again at a time when you don't need sleep so much and just see what happens. Again, sorry you had to deal with that.

Yeah,I usually don't get nightmares let alone dream if I'm not processing or analysing something,which most of the time if I really need to process or understand something deeply my brain will make up metaphors for me to interpret in waking life,if I am dreaming closer to waking life I find that there is less for my brain to process. I only get nightmares under extreme pressure,but this one is most likely not caused by any known stress or other emotional stimuli because no change was present in physical,emotional or mental bodies that would have been enough to trigger a nightmare. Like you I listen to movie soundtracks or specific music before I fall asleep as it help my brain chill out a bit,sometimes I do match it to emotions I feel but sometimes I don't. However the music I listened to this time I sometimes listen too,and I have fallen asleep too that kind of music and had no problems with any other music in that category. What I find interesting though is why my brain went into flight or fight while I was sleeping and was aware that I was doing so. And another interesting thing that happened was I woke up from the nightmare and wasn't awake enough to turn the music off,fell asleep again and the nightmare continued from the exact same spot and then I woke up again and turned it off,stayed up for a couple of hours and then changed the music to what I usually fall asleep too and well,no nightmares only dreaming but this time wasn't fully lucid. Most of the time I am aware that stuff I consume,think about or do will do impact my dream state and am used to stuff like that filtering through,as well as having lucid dreams have become quite common for me too. What really threw me about this is the amount of self created fear that my brain was aware it was creating and then decided that said fear was enough to kick into flight or flight instead of just waking me up or deciding that fear was essentially useless in this situation as there was no actual danger.

Huh, yeah that is really weird. One other thought I had is if you've been doing any gaming that's out of the ordinary. If I play anything that incites that sort of fight or flight response, a lot of times I will later have a dream involving those same feelings. I'm usually somehow aware it's not something to actually be scared of, but the situation still feels very real and scary. Usually in those sort of dreams there's something that tells me they're replicating a game, but then again I don't play any realistic games.

Yeah I didn't play any new games involving anything that would have kicked my brain into flight or fight. I usually don't play games that are fast paced or violent as it triggers tension and frustration in me. The only thing I did do was watch a TV show that was aware that it could turn into a nightmare if it really wanted to but I had already been watching for about 2-3 months and only had like one or two dreams about it up until now,which was the first nightmare in nearly 5-6 months,and the only nightmare that completely sacred me even though I was completely aware of everything the entire time. Maybe it was just sitting really deep in my psyche and hadn't tapped into that depth of processing yet that I could begin to understand,and that music might have let me sink deeper into my psyche without me fully knowing the effects of doing so?.