How come I was "stuck" in a lucid dream that was constantly "looping"?

Dreams are you unconscious mind's way of trying to get your attention about something. The "weird things" you saw in your dream are important--keep an eye out for any weird things you dream about, and write them down later if you can. You might have been fighting your own desire to wake up and not see them--in other words, part of you wanted to wake up, while another part of you wanted to stay asleep and see these strange things. Not wanting to see something your dream is trying to show you is usually a sign that there is something in your life you are very afraid of and don't want to encounter.

This is common in lucid dreaming, it's called false awakening, it can be scary at first. In a dream your consciousness is different, you think differently than when you are awake. You may realize you are dreaming but still be afraid of things in  the dream that wouldn't scare you when you are awake. You may panic because you feel stuck, you may even not think of  simple things that are obviously weird.   To get out of a "lucid loop" is easy, I just concentrate really hard on trying to feel my rugs on me, and not getting side-tracked on what's going on around me. I then realize I am in bed and do wake up.  This is what works for me, everyone is different. Another way is to concentrate on closing your eyes for a long while, and then just really open your eyes. Or you can try spinning around on the spot really fast, all of these things may not actually wake you up, but you should lose the lucidity if you focus on them firmly and ignore everything else. Then you'll go into a normal dream and forget it ever happened. You should think yourself special and embrace lucid dreams though, they are rare, and impossible for most people. If you plan and practice, your next lucid dream will probably be a fabulous experience. Absolutely anything is possible in a dream, and a lucid dream gives you the power to control it. Before going to sleep, think about dreaming, and think  of all the good things you want to do in a dream such as flying, or running really really fast or any simple thing to begin with. Think about doing "reality checks" in your dream, this is what will trigger them with practice , and think positive, - you are safe. A reality check can be any simple thing that shouldn't work in real life, I try to jump high, and if I jump really high, I know I'm dreaming, or I just look really closely at my hands, If they look weird, I'm dreaming, they often look REALLY Weird, (green, or all thumbs or no thumbs etc) because I've trained my brain to tell me I'm dreaming. I still have false awakenings, for instance last week my alarm clock went off, I leaped out of bed and switched the light on, and then realized my light switch isn't on that wall! I knew then that I was still asleep, so I closed my eyes and concentrated on my rugs, then really woke up. I wasn't scared, because I'm used to lucid dreaming, false awakenings can become kind of funny, in fact you don't need to ever have any nightmares again once you realize you can make a bazooka appear in your hand and shoot the monsters!!

I also have very similar dreams every once and a while. One time it was about stuck on an excel problem over and over.... According to the newest studies, when we go to sleep, our brain cleans out all the plague built up in our body.  Without sufficient sleep, these plagues could lead to Alzheimer's later on in life.  I wonder if these loop dreams mean that our brain hit a blockage trying to clean these plagues or that it was hard to remove this plague.

When you in a lucid dream try rolling you eyes to the back of your head or blinking really hard. Don't panic you get out eventually. Its called "false-awakening" which is an initial part of sleep paralysis. What happens is usually the person is partially awake and is stuck/paralyzed OR they are stuck in complete REM and still completely dreaming. It can take 20-30 times but you will get out. There's levels to this shit.

Wow, that must have been quite intense, but if I were you, I would seek out an expert on dreams. To me if your not in control of your dream then it is not really lucid, but I could be wrong about that ,I will have to study on it. I am no expert just been dreaming lucidly for over 40 years. A nightmare about my mom’s death, and her telling me I was dreaming within my dream, is what triggered my lucid dreams. I’m in control at almost all times, except when my subconscious throws me a curve ball, then it can take a few dream minutes to take control back. But I always do. I can even wake up, go walk the dogs, come back, go back to sleep, and start where I left off. There must be something that you need to do before you run out of time. Maybe the hour isn’t important, just the symbol. An expert can tell you easily, and there are several good ones right here in Quora. Oh, ya, kind of funny, but the last time I tried to kill myself in a dream I just started flying. Every time!

First, lucid dreams are no different than other dreams. The content will not change except for the part that you can control it to an extent, only to be brought back to a similar subject. The theme will be the same as other dreams.Second, you should know that in dreams ‘error check’ mechanism is not fully operative - you may want something, but the dream generating mechanism will imagine devious mechanisms to beat you - it actually is ‘you’ vs ‘you’.Third, dream contents match your apprehensions and experiences. If you are insecure or had a bad day, this is bound to happen. We forget most of the regular dreams but remember the traumatic ones, especially which wakes us.So, chill! It must be related to your current situation which i hope has passed by uneventfully.

I had the same dream and feeling except I was in a room I couldn't get out of. I tried to open the door, pick the lock, fall back asleep (in the dream), and every time I would go to fall asleep I would "wake" back up trapped in the room. After getting so distraught after what felt like hours of desperation and fear I knew if I killed myself I would wake up. So i looked for an object and when i couldn't find one I banged my head on the door, on the wall, over and over until I killed myself and woke up. I also feel like I lost my mind. I woke up and couldn't find anyone in my house and i thought I was sleeping again because there were supposed to be ten people at my house that weekend. Turns out they had work, errands and school appointments but when i finally saw someone I burst out crying because of what I felt like I went through by myself.

This happened to me too just now, I tried to get up after knowing this is a dream and I have to get up, I count to 5 times in a loop on the dream, and after trying to get up but remain stuck in the position I slept last time. But the belief in my religion, I read a prayer to protect from bad influences, and the fifth time I tried realized after reading the prayer, I can wake up, and I was only 10 minutes to fall asleep.

This happens to me all the time. Only reason it scares me is because I cant control it. What i try doing is scaring myself awake that usually works or just wait it out. If you're stuck in say nightmare those are the worst i absolutely hate it but most you can do is just wait. It'll feel like you've been in there for hours but it'll really only be at most 10 minutes.