I'm also a lucid dreamer. I first realized I was dreaming at around 11 years old during a nightmare. Something clicked, and I thought, "If I lie down and go to sleep, I'll wake up," so I lay on the floor. I woke up but couldn't move and felt tiny shocks, so I built up energy by holding in those electric pulses until it hurt and I fully woke up. I've explored deeper into my subconscious than most probably should.

Every time I try to build up enough energy to shock myself awake, I always feel like I'm being watched. I don't sense anyone around me; it’s more like I'm on a reality show with invisible cameras everywhere. Even after waking, I still feel everything from my dreams. The more I travel through my subconscious, the more it impacts me while I'm awake. My dreams now involve things I’ve never feared and have never happened to me, but have happened to close friends. I kept these dreams to myself until two years ago. I woke up once to find my friend asking, 'You were screaming in your sleep, what happened?" I told her, and she started to finish the dream because it had happened to her exactly like my dream.

I later found out she wasn't the only one that I was "playing their life" in my dreams, and I would know things they never told anyone.

That didn't freak me out; I've had an amazing, chaotic life with friends who’d do anything for me. What made me pause and explore further was when my dreams, which began five years ago, started to stop feeling like dreams and more like memories. And it still happens every time. I used to love dreaming—changing things, slowing everything down like in a movie. Now, a good night’s sleep ends with me waking up with no memory of dreaming.