Lucid Dreaming, and how to protect yourself magically when you sleep

After a recent event, I want to talk about lucid dreaming.

This is a skill that I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, but not everyone knows how to achieve.
You may be familiar with the idea of recording your dreams or becoming more aware of them, but I've discovered a very useful trick that seems to work wonders for making you go lucid while in your dream.

But why would you want to take control of your dreams? Sure there's the idea that you could direct your dreams, fly around, visit fantastic places in your head, but there's the other side of the coin: Sometimes we get stuck in nightmares with no idea how to wake up or get out.

The latter was the case with me yesterday evening. I have been visiting a friend, and after noticing some odd energy and disturbances in the kitchen (with nothing there when I checked) one night, within 24 hours I had a strange and terrifying string of nightmares when I took a nap. What strikes me the most about this, is that I was experiencing horrors for days in the dream, and I was only asleep for an hour and a half, and an entity presented itself to me in the nightmare, and tried to "claim" me. while I was finding myself in a pit of my own insanity. Very Lovecraftian really, complete with tentacle-like tendrils.

I managed to break out. How? I've observed my dreams enough to know the strange patterns that seem to fill my creepy dream worlds: doors that hinge on the wrong side, rooms that are clean when they are normally cluttered- basically things that are subtle but still quite creepy and give a feeling of "wrongness" I know my mind well enough to know what to look for subconsciously to break out of a dream I want no part of. I've developed a method where I will bite my thumb if I think that I'm dreaming. If I am dreaming, the thumb will deflate like a creepy balloon. If I'm not dreaming, it will hurt like a bitch, and leave bite marks. If you create a way to check yourself on whether you're dreaming or not, and make it something that's important, something that you memorize, something that will become second nature to you if you're dreaming to do...then you've got a weapon against dreams you don't want. You can break out, no matter how bad the nightmare.

I have since erected proper wards against the negative energy hanging around, and have added a prayer to Anubis and Sekhmet before I sleep here.

Sekhmet, Lion of War, protect me from those that wish me harm as I sleep tonight.
Illuminate any plot against me, and those who may wish me harm. Help me to see the truth. 
Anubis, guide and guardian, guard my path tonight as I sleep, so that my mind and soul do not wander into places of darkness. Stand with me, and protect me from harm.

This simple idea for a prayer will work with other gods as well, and you can tailor it to your needs. I've been sleeping like a log since I started doing it.

Combined with being able to know when you're dreaming, and break out of any negative dreams, you have a potent tool against getting caught in nightmares, whether influenced by outside forces, or natural.

A cleaning is also in order for the place I am staying, but I will take care of that as I am able. I hope to pick up some Florida water tomorrow, and clear out any negative energies, and keep them out. I'll probably talk about how that goes when I'm able to do it.