Stairs down

This is a recurring dream, in that the main goal is always the same even though the circumstances can be completely random. Sometimes this happens without my realizing it's a dream, and sometimes it happens during lucid dreaming (aka being aware I'm dreaming and thus attempting to exert control).

For the lucid version, either I will already be going down the stairs or I will be somewhere random and decide it's time to try the stairs thing again. Any stairs going down will usually work to start the process. I have had variations of this dream for probably almost a decade at least.

Whatever the setup, I end up going down stairs, one flight after another, often under buildings via basements or whatever. I will keep going further and further down, and get the sense that there is something very, very important at the very bottom, and it's a feeling that is incredibly intense and overwrites all other ideas that might have been present in the dream.

Often there are other doors on the way down, just sort of breaks between the stairs. For a few dreams I just only ever saw more stairs. Eventually, I finally got the sense that I was almost at the bottom, and there was one more door left. Whatever it is that is so vastly important, it is beyond that door.

Usually I don't make it anywhere near the last door, but I have seen it a few times now. I will either wake up then, or manage to struggle closer. It literally becomes a struggle, as if it's become hard to move or the air has grown thick. It also gets very hard to think and to stay asleep. I reach out, trying to get to the door so I can open it and see what is beyond.

I have yet to open the door.