How to Prevent False Awakenings
Posted by Ryan Hurd on May 4, 2010
False awakenings are dreams that seem like waking life… until you get out of bed and fall down a bottomless chasm. True story. False awakenings can be frustrating, terrifying, and may even begin to impact your daily life, especially when they occur 5 or more times in a row.
The good news is that false awakenings can be managed with a few cognitive tricks and practices. FAs are basically pre-lucid dreams, as the dreamer is questioning reality. In many cases though, the dreamer actually cannot figure out if she is dreaming or not. Until the world is revealed to be an illusion!
It is our ability to think clearly in a false awakening that causes us to assume we’re awake. We’re not awake, we’re aware. So dealing with false awakenings necessitates a crash course in lucid dreaming.
Three Ways to Confirm You’re Dreaming
- If you doubt it, you’re dreaming. If you don’t know if you’re dreaming or not, especially after getting out of bed, you’re probably dreaming. Usually, we’re pretty good at discerning this kind of thing. So if you catch yourself wondering “Is this a dream?”, the answer is yes.
- Test your memory. Try to remember the address of your current location, or your cell phone number. If you can’t come up with these details, you’re probably dreaming. Long term memory activation in REM sleep makes these details hard to get to. Some people suggest doing a “reality check” in the dream by confirming that “everything is in order.” I find this unreliable. We often do not notice incongruities, and assume we’re awake when we are in a dream version of our bedroom. That’s how I fell down the bottomless chasm. Sometimes there are incongruities but sometimes not. The lucid dream world is just as real as waking life to the brain.
- The threshold test. This is a caveat to the reality check method. Often, walking through a threshold can break the spell of a false awakening because the next room will turn out not to be the bathroom or the hallway, but another bizarre room or a place from your past.
How to Wake up From a False Awakening
Many people are alarmed when they realize they are dreaming. This fear can bring on the manifestation of whatever we think is the scariest thing in the world. So it’s good to have some methods for waking up from the dream. This works for waking up from nightmares too when you realize you’re dreaming and want to get out.
1. Try opening and closing your eyes repeatedly …. eventually your real eyes will crack open and break the dream.
2. Stare at one object with focus… it may morph and change, but usually the focus wakes up the part of the brain (the forebrain) that moves us into the waking state.
3. In the dream, lay down as if going to bed. Just lay on the floor, don’t start the search for “your” bed. Close your eyes, and then try to move your pinky finger (or toe, or whatever extremity you choose!) Just as in waking up from sleep paralysis, this can help synchronize the dreambody and the physical body, allowing you to wake up.
How to Prevent More False Awakenings
1. Exercise. Get out of bed and do 10 minutes of light to moderate exercise. Yoga, stretches, calisthenics, stairmaster… whatever is easy. Warning: for some, exercise may make it difficult to get back to sleep. However, this is better than a 100% chance of not getting back to sleep because you’re too emotionally exhausted and scared.
2. The Nap Snack. Have a small carb-heavy snack before going back to bed. Warm milk still does the trick too. But don’t have a nightcap; alcohol disrupts sleep patterns and can lead to more weird sleep occurrences.
3. Relax before going to bed. False awakenings seem to be related to hyper-vigilance. So do what you need to do to feel safe and emotionally secure while falling asleep. We all have our little rituals. Time to bring out the teddy bear.
4. Stop partying so hard. In general, refrain from alcohol before bed, and stay away from caffeine anytime after lunch. If you’re prone to FAs, these substances affect your REM sleep more than others. Also, getting good sleep at regular intervals will help. This is why FAs are common with college students and those who work night-shifts, swing-shifts or don’t sleep much in general.
Turn False Awakenings into a Lucid Dream
Of course, if you are feeling adventurous, you can use the false awakening as a chance to explore the dream world consciously. Instead of scrabbling to wake up, take a look around. Explore the house. Walk through a wall and see what’s on the other side. Spin around and marvel at what happens next. In this way, false awakenings can be blessings in disguise.
If you’re having multiple false awakenings, this is a good move psychologically too. Sometimes, these spontaneous lucid dreams may be caused by some emotional material that wants to be confronted. So confront it.
I’ve noticed that, at first, my false awakening dreams are devoid of other characters. But if I wait around, or walk into the next room, often I’ll find some one who wants to interact. Often, there’s drama involved. Usually, though, an angry dream figure is looking for a chance to say some peace, to be heard. Most of a nightmare’s energy is the resistance to whatever needs to be expressed. That’s what makes a nightmare scary — the fact that are being faced with something we don’t want to see. Once you face it, with bravery and with love in your heart, the nightmare figure usually transforms and becomes more communicative. It may never come back, taking those false awakenings with them.
Image credit: “Dream on” by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³
Tags:dreambody, false awakening, Lucid Dreaming, Nightmares & Dream Terrors
Filed Under: Nightmares & Dream Terrors
I agree–reality checks are seldom as good as memory checks. The one reality check that I find reliable is “can I fly?” Regrettably, I’ve never flown during waking life
The threshold aspect is a good tip. Looking back at my false awakenings, walking through doors is when things change and when people show up.
I had twelve in a row, once. I was never phased by false awakenings until that day when I finally ended it by shrieking, “I am going to wake up! I am going to wake up NOW!” and screaming and stomping and generally throwing a tantrum. Scary! The bottomless chasm thing had to make you jumpy for a long time when getting out of bed.
When I have false dreams that are terrifying, and can’t wake up because I have no control over my body, I hold my breath. This always works, but it leaves me afraid to go back to sleep because I’m afraid it will happen again.
thanks KMG! especially for backing up the “threshold test.” It certainly isn’t foolproof, because if you have an expectation that the next room will be correct, the dream may abide…
The bottomless chasm thing really did shake me up. I think I was on false awakening #4 at that point. I “woke up”, looked at the alarm clock — the numbers were steady (usually another good indicator of being awake), looked around, sat up, yawned, put my feet on the floor, started thinking about the day ahed of me, and then stood up and WHOOSH!
Hello,
My name is Kalie Ivey. I am a student who is currently writing a term paper on dreams. I believe that dreams open doors to our inner selves. I have so many questions that I hope to find the answers to. If you have time to email me that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Kalie Ivey
1. Some people believe that dreams come from chemical reactions in the brain or an overworked mind, while others believe they are a result of emotions or fate. What are you views on this?
2. In Sigmund Freud’s book, “Interpretation of Dreams” he states a hypotheses that we can control our dreams. Do you believe this to be true?
3. Why do we dream?
4. Can dreams be used as an escape when life becomes too hectic?
5. I’ve come across many websites that give dream interpretations. Do dreams mean the same for everyone?
6. My dreams are not always good, but I feel like they reflect my life and what’s yet to come. Sometimes I wake up feeling relieved while others I feel drained. In your opinion, to what extent do dreams play in our lives?
Hi Ryan,
I was reading through one of your posts and saw that you came across Conscious Dreaming around the time you were looking for grad. school’s to study dreaming and consciousness… A similar thing just happened to me (synchronistically finding Robert’s book) and I’m looking into schools now–know of Saybrook but wonder if you’ve found any others…
Thanks for any and all advice,
Nick – atlas.nick@gmail.com
hi Nick — there are few, most are in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is kind of ground zero for Dream Studies.
1. Saybrook has a dreamstudies certificate that can be linked to a MA or a PhD – but it’s a distance model, classes meet 3 -4 times a year.
2. John F Kennedy University. This is where I got my MA in consciousness studies. they have a lot of dream studies courses, enough to make it a concentration in one of several MAs in the holistic studies department.
3. California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Similar to JFKU, this school offers several MAs and PhDs in psychology and philosophy with some highly qualified dream studies professors.
4. Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP). More clinical and research focused, but with many top notch methodologists who are familiar with the portal of dreams as a way of knowledge.
5. Pacifica Graduate. This school is actually in Santa Barbara, with foci in depth psychology and mythology studies. excellent for a focus on dreams.
All of these schools are private and accredited by WASC. So it’s a “real” MA or PhD, and afterwards you’ll have the student loans to prove it.
I have these false awakenings all the time, and i am so scared when i experience them i try and wake up immediatly, i often think they are trying to show me something i dont want to see but i need to, amy thoughts?
Don’t try to wake-up! Relax, enjoy the privileged of existing in a virtual reality environment of your own making and explore your new world. The fear and anxiety comes from resistance. If you really want to ‘exit’ which i think is a wasted opportunity, the best thing to do is lay down close your eyes and ‘go to sleep in the dream’.
Anna,
I have also found that false awakenings can lead to confrontational lucid dreams where we can learn something. It’s basically a chance to be open to ways of knowing that are not centered on logical/egoic awareness… but where we may participate and dialogue with autonomous sources of knowledge/perspective.
I agree Richard — but I also would never chide someone for being fearful. sometimes fear is justified. As psychotherapist Scott Sparrow, author of “Lucid Dreaming: dawning of the clear light” has said: fear is the first step towards recognizing a worthy adversary. sometimes the “adversary” is more than resistance to being in the state (or fear of the unknown) but rather fear of unconscious material that more easily comes up in this arena.
But as you say…it’s an opportunity, and if you decide to exit, you can always try again later!
Hello Ryan/Anna. I certainly did not mean to chide, apologies if this is how my post came over, but as Sparrow also states, confronting the feared symbol/figure often transforms it into something not-threatening, even friendly and very useful in resolving problems, analysands spend thousands of dollars with Jungian psychoanalysts and other therapists to undergo ‘guided imagery’ therapy, whereas the lucid dreamer has this for free, without being encumbered by the therapists own mindset, and in the much more potent and rich environment of the lucid dream.
hey Richard — I also apologize, didn’t mean to imply you were chiding — poor choice of words on my part. I think we’re on the same page. The process of facing these kinds of things requires a lot of courage — and without fear, there is no courage. that’s all I’m sayin. and yeah — it’s amazing how lucid dreaming cuts to the quick of the sorts of things agonized over in talking therapy. they also are tools that can be used together — not every Jungian psychoanalysis is against lucid dreaming anymore.
I never heard of False Awakenings in my life, until this morning when I told my wife about a dream I just before waking up.
I woke up, brushed my teeth, took a shower, got dressed and headed off to see a customer located in San Antonio, Texas. Note, I remember driving the entire distance. (180 miles) I entered the building and asked for the person I had an appointment with. I informed the person I spoke with that I was early. So they asked me if I wanted to wait in the employee cafeteria. I then went to the cafeteria, but noticed all the people going to break were looking at me. I really didn’t think much of it, until one gentleman asked me if I was okay. At that moment I had a strange feeling that this whole morning was a dream. I could not get out of it. I new I had to awaken in reality and go to work and thought, if I don’t wake up, I will oversleep and be late for work. I then sat down at a table and placed head down in my harms and told myself to go back to sleep and wake up in reality.
I have to say this was the strangest dream I have ever had. Even my flashbacks from Vietnam weren’t this weird.
By the way I made to 60 years of age before having one of these FA’s.
I have been having them a lot lately! I’ve never had them before! And I have to say, I dislike them very much. In my dream where I’m ‘awake’ I know I’m dreaming and I keep trying to wake up. It’s so scary. When I first started having them I was so confused, but now I know that I am asleep and no matter how much I scream for my husband to wake me up, it doesn’t work. Most of the time he has left for work already and I dream that he’s still here getting ready, but I know that he left already so it just freaks me out! I would very much like to be done with these false awakenings. :-/
I have similar type dreams and what always works for me is holding my breath. It won’t resolve the underlying issue, but it will make you wake up!
it’s so weird, I woke up the 6th time, talked to my room mate who was playing poker online, when his poker rang, I saw myself sleeping in my bed, I woke up again, and his poker rang again and I saw myself again lying in my bed… It happened 4 more times until I decided not to rise and just call the name of my room mate.. That was when I was genuinely awake.. Nevertheless, the false awakenings were so true that I felt so tired when I woke up knowing I woke up 10 times only to find out that my body is still asleep… Is it possible that my soul woke up but my can’t bring my body to wake up?
hey Eumie, I don’t see it as soul versus body, but rather a strong conscious expectation to be in your bedroom when really you are still in a dream. The single best test is the reading test, which Stephen LaBerge talks about. read some words — look away– and then look back. usually, dream words shift. the linguistic brain is highly active in this state, and words are just shifty. give it a try next tim — and then wake yourself up for real!
I work from home and have been having false awakenings lately. This has started to be a huge issue though since in my normal day I do not leave the house. In my latest false awakening I wake up and look at the clock and I over slept, so I shower and walk into my home office and start work. Then either there is a knock on the door and I have a package waiting or their is an intruder in my house, or sometimes the day just continues and I see strange figures out of the corner of my eye and when I look there is nothing there… When I reach a level of high stress I normally wake up or false awake again and go into something new… Any way its extremely distressing because I can never tell whether or not I have awakened yet and reality and dreams are starting to blur… Any thoughts?
Laura, try the suggestions in the article: the memory test and the threshold test. Also do a little jump – sometimes in dreams there’s a little moment when you hover in the air before coming back down.
I’ve been having false awakenings on and off since I was a child. Except most of the time they are combined with nightmares. They seem to have become more vivid as I’ve become older and sometimes makes me afraid to go to sleep at night. The dreams will often consist of something chasing or coming at me (whether it be a person or an insect, some sort of creature etc.).
I usually try to shut my eyes and go back to sleep, but sometimes I get so scared I jump out of bed and try to swat whatever it is with a pillow or run out of the room screaming.
Usually waking my husband up, which does not help either of our sleeping habits.
Any suggestions on how I can stop having these nightmare/false awakenings?
Hi,
This phenomena is relatively new to me it has been happening more often in the last few years its extremely scary.I do try to physically move my toes but keep returning to the dream,at times i keep screaming to myself wake up but i cannot move and start to panic in my sleep,when i wake up it takes a while to adjust usually im out of breath.
I do not drink or smoke or have any other addictions.
Is there any therapy or medication that can help.
scarlet_tears and Gurpreet, I don’t know any way to stop having them, but you can work on how to deal with them. Some people do, however, see psychiatrists and ask for medications than can dampen dreaming in general (SSRIs). effective, but at a high cost in my opinion. a simpler path is to work on fear and courage in the lucid state. You may also want to incorporate more relaxation techniques into your everyday, particularly before bed. See my post on the best herbs for sleep relaxation:
http://dreamstudies.org/2010/07/13/5-most-effective-herbs-for-sleep-and-relaxation/
I tried the technique on drinking warm milk or camomille tea before bed. Also, while I am having the dream tried to just keep blinking my eyes until I wake up. Seems to be helping, but sometimes I still get the dreams depending on the subject it can still be pretty scarey. But it is getting better. Thank you for advice, will check out the herbs.
Very true, if you think you might be dreaming, you always are. Having that realization has caused most of my lucid dreams.
To wake up: shake your head back and forth (quickest way I have found to wake up for real)
It can be a bit freaky realizing you are not really awake. I tend to wake myself up for real when ever this happens because I don’t want it to keep occurring.
Even though I am a big fan of lucid dreams, I don’t like when they are ‘too’ real. I would rather be atop of a beautiful waterfall or something for instance, then in my apartment.
I once had a dream that i woke up, I walked around for a bit then woke up again, and then again, it got to the point i was just lying on my bed in a state of constantly waking up, i would say like 7 times, finally i though as last ive woken up, pinched myself and then i woke up for real. This happened years ago and i havnt had dreams like it since but just lately they have come back.
I have been having false awakenings for about three years now I’m almost 27 and had never experienced this before and until tonight they have terrified me mostly because I can’t get any lights to come on. This is a recurring theme, in fact all of my false awakenings have this in common including tonights FA, but I entered a lucid dream I think because this was tenth or twelfth time and I was enjoying it until I heard a voice whisper “Are you in there?” Scared me so bad I forced myself awake which I’ve become fairly good at. Just wondering if anyone else has heard disembodied voices in lucid dreams? Just want to know how to enjoy these things. And yes I am awake at five a.m. because this dream scared me so badly.
Andrew,
I would call that a meeting with the Guest. Ever read Rumi? http://www.panhala.net/Archive/The_Guest_House.html
Robert Waggoner has done some fascinating exploration with “the voice behind the dream.” in his book Lucid dreaming: gateway to the inner self. Waggoner shows how these can be positive encounters. I would say that having trust, playfulness and gratitude in your heart in these meetings will co-create positive outcomes. scary ones happen too though as we project our fears beyond the ego’s control. the mind is prone to doubling the self… do not take it for something more sinister, I assure you, this is all part of the wacky wild lucid experience.
My teenage daugher was distraught this morning after a dream with 2 false awakenings. I notice the comment that poor sleep patterns & studying can be factors but I wondered if anyone has experience of food additives or preservatives causing them?
Hello,
I have read alot of these posts but haven’t found anything to help yet.
I have these dreams myself exept its always 3 dreams in a dream which is a problem for me. I have a 1 yr old baby who counts on me to support her and its scary because I am starting to get really really confused with sleep situations and reality. I have tried to sleep in my dream, open my eyes, move body parts, and jump and i can actually do alot of these things at the time. I distinguish my dreams are false awakenings due to circumstances of events in the dreams (Most of the time they are horrible events) Eventually awakening but feeling so emotionless and drained. I am worried it may eventually prevent me from attending to my daughter as needed when she awaks.
Hi Emily,
sounds like you’re in a vicious circle. I have heard other parents of infants talk about this issue, the heart of which is that you are most likely sleep deprived. no kidding, right? to answer your first concern, the worry that you won’t wake up is probably not an issue, as you are actually experiencing TOO much vigilance when asleep, and that’s leading to increased lucid dreams. while the false awakenings are disconcerting while they happen, nonetheless they are harmless and there’s no evidence that they contribute to not knowing reality from dream while you are awake.They are emotionally taxing however, so getting better sleep is the most important priority. Can you find time in your schedule to get more sleep? Can you sleep when the baby sleeps? Can you take catnaps at other odd hours when you have 30 minutes to spare? You may also want to pose this question to my colleague Erin Langley, who also experienced many unwanted lucid dreams when she was parenting a baby. her blog is: http://luciddreamconservationproject.blogspot.com/
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I went to sleep last night very early, and woke up very early this morning, early enough that I decided to go back to sleep, resulting in a stream of lucid false awakening dreams where I was laying on my side in my own bed, unable to move or talk, while a version of myself (or rather, a manifestation of all the parts of my personality I am not proud of and generally try and avoid) leaned against the wall and varied between yelling and screaming at me, trying to get me to slip into a real dream instead of waking up, and threatening me. Mixed in were several “false awakenings” and one real awakening, where I ripped off my sleep mask (which I could feel all while I was sleep, and kept trying to take off as an attempt to wake up). I fell right back asleep and the same thing happened. Absolutely horrifically terrifying, 100 times more than any nightmare I’ve ever had, because I kept thinking, Oh my God, this is what I’m really like–what will happen if I ever DO lose control of my subconscious? I’ve been shaky and scared ever since I woke up for real the second time (whereupon I promptly chugged an energy drink and turned on a light) two hours ago.
Your site has been an absolute blessing. So many things you’ve written about I experienced in the dream–right down to wiggling my pinky (despite never having read that technique before!) I remember thinking maybe it would get my blood flowing and wake me up (it didn’t, but next time I will know to either relax and go with it or try and scrunch my face!). I also, during the only false awakening where I actually got out of bed, realized I was dreaming right on the threshold to my bathroom, where I promptly realized I was dreaming and had ANOTHER false awakening right back in my bed, arguing with my dream self (again).
All the elements you mentioned where there–resistance, fear, some kind of erotic feeling (my dream self was trying to get me to relax into an erotic dream and I didn’t want to because I’m generally fairly uncomfortable with that sort of thing. It succeeded at one point, I did relax into another dream, also taking place in my bed, until it felt too real, and I panicked because I began to wonder if I was drugged or something).
I’m terribly sorry for rambling, it was just such a completely unusual experience like nothing I’d ever had, to come here and realize I am not alone, that this is natural, explainable and something others have experienced in some form or another, has done more for my piece of mind than anything. Usually, writing out nightmares helps me release from them, but they were never lucid, and 1500 words later, I was still freaked out by all this. My last thought this morning before I fell asleep was “I hope going back to sleep won’t cause me forget the wonderful dream I had last night”, so I guess my brain just took that and ran with it.
Thank you, thank you.
welcome Diane and I hope you rest better knowing you’re not alone, and that there’s some things you can do to prevent further false awakenings from stacking up.
Hello
I just had a frightening series of FAs. I am staying in a hotel tonight and dreading going back to sleep and possibly having more. In the FAs I would scream myself “awake” and wake up my friend in the hotel room. It actually took more than screaming; I would have to roll off the bed, spaz out, and jump onto my friends bed. I kept ending up in sleep paralysis in the FAs, sometimes laying on the floor wrapped up in my blanket trying to scream, and, of course, my voice box was being stubborn. The worse part is that I was having a nightmare before each FA. I won’t go into the details now and I’m forgetting anyway, but it was something like having visitors from the paranormal world. It reminded me on the scene in the recent movie Insidious, where the woman finds the little boy in a hat scampering around her house. After each FA, not much happened before going back into the nightmare; I just looked around the dark hotel room. There’s no way I could have seen abnormalities or realized it was a FA since I’m not familiar with my surroundings. So that is basically my story. It has been scary and i Googled it and found this thread. I did take some philosophy but forgot the term false awakening. Wanted to see if anyone else went through the same torture.
Regarding some of the posts I’ve read, milk almost always causes me to have a dream when I drink it before bed. I agree that alcohol and caffeine mess up your sleeping routine. For me, eating a lot before bed increases the chance of dreaming, too. Any time you go to sleep without following your typical routine I think dreams are more likely. Example: sleeping with your head on the opposite side of the bed makes dreams more likely. Well that’s it so wish me luck not having another FA tonight. After I literally woke up earlier I woke my friend literally to prove to myself I was up.
I’ve been able to lucid dream since I was a was a kid. But lately now (approaching 40), I’ve been having lots of multiple FA’s in one night. It can get kind of annoying.
Last night I FA’d several times, and once I realized I was dreaming, I would “wake up” and go find my journal, and feverishly write notes about what was happening in my dreams, trying to recall as many details as possible in my notes. This happened repeatedly throughout the night, and in the morning, there was nothing in my journal. But, I still remember quite a few of the details as I’m writing this many hours later.
I’m always kind of scared of this happening. I manage to forget any fears before I actually fall asleep and I can actually choose when to make my dream vivid or not. I might remember really strange dreams. What I hate about this problem is my photographic memory. Once I see something that’s shocking I can remember each and every detail.
False Awakenings havent happened too often for me to remember, but the one I do remember scared me. I was walking around my room, and then I noticed the furniture was from when I was younger [about 7-11, I'm a teen now], but I still felt like I was in reality. When I finally saw I wasn’t, naturally something scary pops up. It was kind of like a banshee. And now I have it stuck in my head forever due to my memory. Anyone know if I can fix this problem? Dreams with shocking images always leave me with a mental scar since they often follow me throughout my everyday events.
The “falling abyss” is actually pretty comforting to me. I like the feeling of my stomach flopping over and when it does happen, I always wake up with a jerk. And I know I’m awake. So I would much prefer it to my usual nightmares. A lot of my dreams actually end with me falling. It’s a bit annoying waking up at 4:35 AM with a jolt, but it beats knowing if I’m awake or not.
Also, I know this is irrevelant–I notice after I have a especially vivid dream, the week after I see little sparkles in the corner of my eyes. Anyone know what this is?
Hi Ryan ,
Can anybody have these dreams, because im 15 & super scared ??
Don’t worry about it Briana if you haven’t had it… it’s not all that common. Not a curse anyways, but an opportunity to explore the dream world safely!
Hi,
I’m 14 and I’m from Serbia.Today I’ve heard some of my friends talking about lucid dreaming and false awekening so i decided to find out something more about it.Now when I know more I’m very scared to go to sleep because I don’t want to something like that happen to me.
you’re safe. lucid dreaming is usually experiences as something exciting and positive — most people fly when they learn they are dreaming. do not let worry eat you up.
Hi, I just found your site after having multiple false awakenings last night. This is the third time this has happened to me in the past few months (I suspect due to some sleep meds Im on).
Thing is its made me unsure if Im awake or not right now. Everytime Ive worken up, it turned out to be a false awakening. What if Im still in that state right now?
Im trying to look for odd things to try to work out if Im now properly awake or not and a couple of odd things have happened. eg Someone who was supposed to show up at my house didnt arrive. Ive also had some synchronisity things happen since I last awoke so Im now wondering if the day Im now experiencing is just another false awakening in the run of them Im having now?
If you replied .. that still wouldnt tell me if this is real or not as subconciously I can manifest a reply. Im feeling so so confused and now cant tell what is real and what isnt. I had an anxiousity attack earlier over this but have decided Im not going to let it worry me.. whether Im currently in a false awakening or not.
My false awakenings were basically just daily events… annoying as when each time I work out its a false awakening and go back to sleep. I wake up only to then have to go and start repeating all my daily stuff again due to believing im awake.
The memory test you mentioned dont work for me as I have an illness in which my waking life memory is affected anyway so cant remember my phone number in waking life and in my dream state, I can remember my house address. I can even read things in my dream state okay and the letters dont blur or change.
I’ll start trying the threshold thing to try to work out if Im awake or not.
I used to be a regular lucid dreamer and quite good with that.. but the thing is I tended to KNOW i was asleep or became aware of it while in the state, so didnt have the issue Im having now.
Im finding that to be a completely different experience to this waking up over and over stuff and each time thinking it is real.
Hi, I’d like to inform you about my latest false awakening AND lucid dream. I’m currently a 15 year old boy.
False Awakening:
If I recall correctly, my false awakening had happened around 10~20 times in the same night, as multiple times I had attempted to leave my bed and walk out of my room. Around the last few times, I was most successful, as I was able to leave my room, enter my mom’s room, and enter her closet. I even went to the extent of rummaging through her items, and unraveling her diploma. I did this in an attempt to differentiate between reality and my realm of dreams. To this day, I can remember having around two or three sorts of dreams along the line of a “false awakening.” Sometimes I would put effort into waking up, by trying to yell or move my body.
Lucid Dream
Being 15 years old, you can infer that I’m new to high school. I actually had the chance of exploring around my school, going through various rooms, all when I was aware I was dreaming. It seems as soon as I try something that’s incapable of my capacity in real life (ex. flying) I either wake up or my degree of lucid dream decreases by a significant amount. There was no ominous or scary part in particular of this Lucid dream, however it was the most vivid in my imagination.
Unknown Category
This dream was most likely, in my opinion, the scariest. I was dreaming, however could see around my room. I was unable to move around, for I was paralysed within my bed. All of a sudden, colors started flashing in my head and weird sounds, which were identified/related most to traditional Mexican music, weirdly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.