Have you ever started your day, only to suddenly wake up back in bed and realize you’d been dreaming about waking up?
Perhaps you got out of bed as normal and started your morning routine, but then snapped out of an imaginary breakfast or journey to work to find yourself back in bed, probably feeling a bit confused by what just happened.
If this sounds familiar, you might have experienced what’s known as a false awakening.
What are false awakenings?
False awakenings are particularly vivid dreams in which you feel like you’ve woken up even though you’re still dreaming. It’s often only when you wake up later – for real this time – that you realize your previous waking was just a dream.
I know from personal experience how confusing it can be as I’ve had false awakenings on numerous occasions. I jokingly call them mini Groundhog days – they don’t tend to last as long as Bill Murray’s day in the movie, but do have that odd feeling of repeating the start of the day sometimes.
Thankfully, I don’t have false awakenings as regularly as some people do, but have had several during the last few years.
In this article, I’ll be discussing false awakenings and suggesting some potential ways to cope with them if you find them upsetting.
I’ll also cover some interesting techniques that you could try to help you gain awareness that you’re dreaming. That way, you might be able to use your false awakening as a stepping stone to the fascinating world of lucid dreaming.
False awakening poll
I asked 557 readers about their experience of false awakenings. 59% said they found it distressing. However, 17% said they enjoy it or find it interesting. A further 11% found it can lead to a lucid dream.
Too real to be a dream?
One of the fascinating features of a false awakening is just how lifelike it can seem. Even if you have some vague awareness that you’re dreaming, the fact that you’re dreaming about your normal routine might stop you from questioning it further.
The experience often takes the form of waking up and doing something familiar and normal. For example, you might get dressed, go to the bathroom, or sit and have breakfast.
Nested dreams
Some people experience more than one episode before they eventually wake up for real. Repeated false awakenings, a kind of Russian doll of dreams, can happen in one night. This is something that many readers have described in the comments below since first publishing this article.
This extended version of multiple false awakenings is sometimes referred to as nested dreams, or dreams within dreams.
It might sound a bit like the plot of the movie Inception, but these dreams within dreams do happen, and can leave you feeling like you’re trapped inside your dreams.
False awakenings can seem so real that perhaps even on finally waking up, you might need a while to be fully convinced that you’re actually going to eat breakfast this time.
What causes false awakenings?
There isn’t a great deal of published research on false awakenings and what might cause them. When I started investigating the causes of my own episodes, I was surprised to discover a lack of information about them in medical sources.
As if to mirror its own nature, information about false awakenings is often buried inside articles and research about dreaming in general, lucid dreaming, and other sleep disorders.
Let’s consider some ideas that might help explain why they happen.
Worry and anxiety
If you’re thinking or worried about a past or future event in your life, you might find it’s incorporated in some way in your dreams.
For example, the threat simulation theory of dreaming suggests that we sometimes rehearse events in our dreams, particularly threatening events. This can lead to dreaming about possible life events rather than having more fantastical dreams. So it would make sense that we might dream about waking up and going about our everyday life rather than flying about in a fantasy realm.
Some also argue that expectations play a key role in dreaming. If you’re feeling anxious, you might expect to sleep badly and wake up in the night, or need to wake up early for an important day. This anxiety could influence your dream and create a false awakening.
Real events and everyday life
An interesting explanation could lie in the dream protoconsciousness theory. A study in 2011 looked at false awakenings in light of this theory, suggesting that our innate schemes / daily lives feed into dream content. Since we wake up every day as part of our normal routines, waking up itself becomes a concept that we sometimes dream of.
Another fascinating study published in 2021 looked at the content of 528 dreams that people had while in a sleep lab. They found that the sleep lab itself featured in people’s dreams in 40.7% of cases, either as lucid dreams or false awakenings.
Mixed brain states
It’s argued that your brain can be in more than one state of consciousness at once. So it’s possible that the part of your brain responsible for dreaming and also for waking consciousness are both active.
This could then lead to vivid dreaming of gaining consciousness and waking up. Some sleep disorders can lead to this state, as well as environmental factors such as sudden external noise.
This shares some similarities with sleep paralysis, in which we gain some consciousness while waking up from the REM sleep stage, but there is some overlap between the two. To put it in simple terms, we are neither completely awake nor completely asleep, but a bit of both as the same time.
False awakening or sleep paralysis?
False awakenings are sometimes confused with sleep paralysis, which can occur either when waking up or falling asleep. During an episode of sleep paralysis, your body is paralyzed, but your brain is conscious and aware of your surroundings.
What some people experience is a false awakening in which they dream of waking up and being unable to move. This can also be frightening, both in the dream and when you wake up and remember what just happened.
The key difference is that physical paralysis does actually occur during sleep paralysis to protect you from injury if you act out your dreams in bed.
On the other hand, the paralysis during a false awakening takes place purely within the dream. You will usually then wake up in your bed and be able to move normally.
Treatment
If your false awakening episodes have gotten you worried, the good news is that they aren’t thought to be an indicator of mental illness. In fact, they are quite common and it’s thought that many people experience them during their lives. So in that respect, they don’t usually require treatment.
If they are frequent, distressing, or affecting your quality of sleep or daily life, it’s a good idea to speak to your primary care doctor about it. They might consider the following options:
- Practical advice to help you sleep better.
- Investigating if there is an underlying sleep disorder.
- Dream rehearsal therapy.
- Anxiety or stress management.
- Medication – in certain circumstances.
It could be that the best option is not to worry and try to accept it as a normal part of dreaming. Alternatively, there are two interesting self-help options that might help: trying to stop them from happening and using them as a tool for lucid dreaming.
Self-help for false awakenings
It’s one thing to wake up properly after a false awakening dream, and then lie in bed thinking about how strange it was. It’s an altogether different experience to become aware of it whilst the dream is still happening.
How do you gain that awareness though? If you realize that you’re still asleep and dreaming, do you then try to wake yourself up, or just ride it out and see what happens?
The answer to the second question is a personal choice, but it will also be dictated by whatever level of awareness you manage to achieve.
Let’s take a look at some techniques to consider for the next time it happens.
1. How to wake up during a false awakening
If you have a false awakening, a moment of awareness within the dream just might not happen. It’s often the case that we are simply a witness to our dreams, not an active participant.
Even if you do realize you’re dreaming, it doesn’t always follow that you can simply decide to wake up.
If you do become aware that you’re still dreaming, here are some actions which might help you wake up for real:
- Tell yourself that you want to wake up now – you might as well start with a direct and simple approach!
- Try to focus your mind on moving a finger or toe. When you gain control of that, move to an arm or leg if you still haven’t woken up.
- Try blinking rapidly.
- Focus your gaze on one thing in the dream.
- If there’s a mirror, try to look at yourself.
- Try and do a complex action, like running, jumping or dancing.
All of those techniques require a certain level of awareness though. You’ll either have it or you won’t in any given dream. If you’re having regular false awakenings, it might help if you remind yourself of these possible actions just before you go to sleep to cement them in your mind.
Let’s now look at what you can do if you’re not in such a rush to wake up and like the idea of exploring your dreams a little further.
2. Turn a false awakening into a lucid dream
If you’re the adventurous type, the idea of lucid dreaming may be an exciting and fun one.
False awakenings are often reported by those with a strong interest in lucid dreaming (for example, World of Lucid Dreaming) as a potential bridge.
In some ways, it’s a fairly straightforward concept. First, check that you’re dreaming and therefore become aware that you’re still inside the dream. Then get moving and explore to your heart’s content.
How exactly do you start checking that you’re dreaming? The theory goes that you need to plant the idea in your head that you’re going to start doing ‘reality checking’ in your dreams. Then cross your fingers that it happens.
Reality checking
Here are some techniques to do what’s known as a ‘reality check’, and find out which side of the dreamworld your feet really are:
- Try and remember facts or figures. It can be difficult to recall factual information, such as your address, phone number, or someone’s date of birth. If you find it difficult, it’s a sign you may be dreaming.
- Try leaving the room in your dream. The next room or hall might change into something which shouldn’t be there.
- Try to read any writing in the dream. Reading can be difficult in dreams, so words or numbers might blur or morph.
- If in doubt, you probably are asleep. Despite the fact that your brain can create incredibly vivid scenes, if you’re not sure if you’re dreaming, it’s more likely that you are than aren’t.
- If you’re doing a complex task in your dream, perform a reality check. If you’re in the bathroom, see if you look normal or not. If you’re eating breakfast, check if the food tastes as it usually does. In bed, check if the bedding has the right texture or feel.
The theory goes that any of these reality checking behaviors can trigger awareness that you’re still asleep. If that doesn’t wake you up, then you’re free to explore a whole imaginary world of possibilities.
If you’ve never experienced the kind of awareness that doing these things would require, don’t worry about it. Perhaps reading this article and remembering the concepts might help trigger that awareness in the future.
Please keep in mind though that the various suggested methods to induce lucid dreaming still don’t have strong scientific backing.
For example, a review of the evidence for lucid dreaming techniques, conducted by researchers at Heidelberg University in 2012, found that the techniques don’t work on demand. They concluded that:
None of the induction techniques were verified to induce lucid dreams reliably and consistently, although some of them look promising.
However, lucid dreaming does happen, so there is hope. A German study in 2011 found that 51% of the 919 participants had experienced a lucid dream at least once in their life.
New research into reality checking and false awakenings / lucid dreaming
In 2019, researchers analyzed an older web survey about false awakenings and lucid dreams. They found that 62% of the 90 people who have regular lucid dreams also had false awakenings, transitioning from one to the other.
They also found that people who are regular reality checkers tended to have more false awakenings (76% of respondents who reality check).
Moreover, people who check their state with such reality checks were more likely to transition into lucid dreaming from a false awakening.
This research lends some initial support to the technique of reality checking as a way to both cope with false awakenings, and theoretically turn it to your advantage in the form of the opportunity to enjoy some dream control.
As the researchers say:
This appears to be the first empirical datum in support of the frequently self-reported ability of lucid dreamers to turn “actively” their FAs into lucid dreams.
Buzzi et al.
3. Can you prevent false awakenings?
The idea of lucid dreaming understandably won’t appeal to everyone. If you have bad dreams, stopping them in the first place might seem like a more beneficial option.
In this case, there are some techniques that might help prevent them. At the very least, perhaps you might be able to stop them from happening more than once in a night.
Please note that these ideas aren’t guaranteed to stop your false awakenings specifically. In many ways, they are suggestions that are thought to help with sleep problems in general.
- Avoid caffeine and other stimulants, especially in the evening.
- Avoid alcohol in the evening.
- Try to calm your mind before going to sleep. If you struggle with anxiety or stress at night, you might find it helpful to do some relaxation exercises in bed.
- Do regular exercise. It might also help to go for a short walk in the evening before bed.
- If you have a false awakening, get out of bed for 10 to 15 minutes before going back to sleep.
- Stick to a regular sleep pattern, and try to avoid becoming sleep deprived.
Your thoughts
Have you experienced a false awakening or a series of nested dreams? What happened and what did it feel like?
Feel free to share your story and views in the comments below. I’m sure other readers will also find your experience useful and interesting.
I just had a dream within a dream within a dream within a dream. I thought I woke up about 5 times. But figured out I hadn’t n I couldn’t wake up. I was also freaking out. It’s 3:22 am n I’m writing this. My surroundings were different n there was some weird words playing in the background on what I think was a clock radio. It was muffled n I thought I should try to listen to what it was talking about but I was afraid. so I concentrated on waking myself up. My body moved in the dream but I noticed it was not real so i continued to try to move my body parts n telling myself to wake up. Very scary n not interested in exploring.
I just had the same experience and it freaks me out…
I had the same experience the past 3 nights. I false wake up 4-5 times and by the second time I become aware that I am dreaming but it no way can wake myself up. I start to freak out more and more each time I “wake up.” i scream at the people in the dream but none of them help me and usually the last time i “wake up” i hear static that sounds like a white noise that gets louder and louder until i swear my ear drums are gonna pop and that’s what wakes me up in real life. Each loop gets more twisted as it goes on though. By the time i fully am awake I can never be really sure if it is real or not. The night before last my mom told me I came into her room and asked her, “mom is that really you?” Though I only remember that being a dream. I wake up so frightened, crying and the fatigue! I can barely get myself out of bed after the last couple nights and every muscle in my body aches as if I had just done a very intense training session at the gym.
I keep having reoccurring nested nightmares where I’m in bed and awake to horrible things like having a seizure or evil things attacking me and causing excruciating pain. Inside the dream I try to scream to wake myself but can’t. Inside the dream i physically strain and sweat trying to move in order to wake up but I’m paralyzed. I can’t wake myself up from the dream inside the dream. I then finally falsely wake up and sometimes I’m so afraid I am shaking. I dream that i get out of bed and try to keep from falling asleep but then it happens all over again. Sometimes in a horrible loop of 8-10 false awakenings. Oftentimes when I finally wake up in real life I have tears streaming down my face and I’m covered in sweat. I’m so afraid of these dreams I try to stay awake as much as I can.
Okay so I need someone to clarify what is happening.
It seems like every time I take a nap, I almost always dream the same thing. In the dream, I think I have woken up, and am vividly seeing the room I fell asleep in and whoever was near me, like if I was on the couch and my dad was sitting in his chair, I will see him in the chair. I will start screaming, begging for whoever is in the room to please wake me up. I often will try and pick up my phone and when I do I can’t ever see it in my hand but I can feel it. So I never can use it to get help. I have also had a dream like this where I thought someone broke into my house and still think it was the worst one so far. But mainly, whoever is in the room with me I dream that they get up and put a pillow over my face. When I lived in my dorm it was my roommate, now that I’m back home to save some money while I’m still in college, it has been my stepmom.
Yesterday I was on the couch and begged my dad who was there when I went to sleep to wake me up. In the dream they either hear me and put a pillow over my face, or they can’t hear me at all. I can’t ever move usually, and if I do it’s tend to one very very hard to. When my eyes actually truly do open, they are Extremely hard to keep open, and usually they close after trying so hard to wake up and I fall right back into the same dream and I will get so irritated “No! No!! You were finally awake!! Wake up wake up!!”. I am always Exhausted after dreaming like this.
Has anyone else ever experienced something similar?
Yes. back when I was stressed out and depressed I dont have those terror dreams anymore but I know exactly what that is like to be able to pick up my phone and not see it once I ‘woke up’ blind and crawling all over my bed trying to wake up
I had an experience similar to that.
I woke up but I wasn’t in my room, (I didn’t notice that at the time) I felt really tired but I decided to get up. I really slowly moved my legs and I eventually got the covers off, then I woke up in the same room again with my eyes closed and I inhaled sharply.
I thought it was weird and I thought I already took my covers off, so I tried again, very slowly I moved the covers off and very slowly I opened my eyes, it was kinda hard to open my eyes and I could never fully open them, I was always squinting.
I woke up again, eyes closed, sharp inhale. I kept repeating to myself, that’s weird I thought I did this already, but by the 5th time I realised I was repeating the same thing in a dream.
I started to freak out and move quickly, that when everything got difficult, all my limbs were now extremely hard to move and even my eyes were hard to open.
I kept waking up but it was in quick succession now, I would try to move an arm, wake up eyes closed, sharp inhale, I would try and sit up, wake up eyes closed, sharp inhale, this went on for over 20 cycles. I also found out I could start new cycles manually by sharply inhaling,I was aware it was a dream but I couldn’t do anything to stop it.I could also feel my heartbeat, it was really rapid as I was freaking out (later when I woke up for real my heartbeat was immensely fast as well).
Then I realised that there were other people in the house, I tried to call out to my brother who I could hear in the next room. My throat was sore and my voice was basically non-existent, it was hard to move my mouth. I kept trying to scream to him and eventually he came into my room, he talked to me although I don’t remember what he said, and then he left.
I then tried to call out to my mother, I could hear her walking around I tried so hard to move my arms to try and hit something off my bedside table so that she would come in, I was also trying to scream for her. I tried banging on the headboard of the bed, I couldn’t hit very hard at all so it didn’t work. I eventually managed to knock something off but she never came in and she never heard me.
Then I woke up for real and I first thing I did was get up out of the bed.
It was a terrifying experience.
This has happened quite a few times in my life. The past few months I’ve been noticing it has been happening very often like once or twice a week and it’s been scaring me. Mainly because in the past once I woke up for real I’d stay up and it was done and over with. Now at age 24, i can’t control it I wake for real just long enough for me to process I had been dreaming and then I’m pulled into another dream! Even the times in between when I used the bathroom quickly before laying back down I’d still get pulled in.
At first I thought it was because I’m an insomniac and it’s hard for me to sleep anyway and I was just getting caught up on sleep, but recently I’ve been okay with getting to bed on time and sleeping my required hours. The last time this happened to me and I couldn’t wake for real until I had slept almost 15 hours because I couldn’t wake. I’d wake just long enough to see the time. First 9:30 then at 11 and then 12 and it kept going and going. And sometimes I can tell when I’m dreaming but I cant control anything that I do or say. Its usually when I try is when the dream takes a weird turn like it doesn’t want me to wake up. I’m glad this is actually a common thing and that I’m not as crazy as I thought I am.
I had a completely lucid false awakening loop of a dream this morning. It started with me not recognizing my surroundings. I wasn’t in my house, and I was going to bed with my children. That seemed weird so I explored and realized I was dreaming. I had a full on panic attack because I couldn’t wake up. I threw myself around, jumped, screamed at myself to wake up, hit myself, ran around tried holding my eyes open. I probably could have done some really cool stuff if I wasn’t so freaked out. Never want a dream like this again.
you will like this one. So i had dreamed that i was in a old trailer and i was arguing with my cousin. then out of nowhere I was in a casino i had drank heavily in the dream. I had blacked out and when i woke in the dream I called my wife and told her sorry about last night i must of drank to much. that is when she told me that i had been gone for 3 months. I told her that I told everyone to call me jack my name is mark. there was a blonde lady there at the time who told me was i ok i told what happened to me. she told me that i spent a lot of money on people i didn’t know. at that point it was enough to wake me up. or so I thought, when i woke my wife and child were mumbling… yet they weren’t i was still dreaming. so i thought to myself this is strange let me really wake up, so i woke again.. nope still dreaming. then i woke again… nope once again still dreaming tried to take off my cpap mask no luck. i had no realized that i had been in a inception like type dream going down many levels. so i said i know what’s going on ill wake for sure this time. but this dream went deep so nope didn’t wake. I thought to myself DORA lets go… then BAM! i really did wake knew i was awake and took my mask off. that wasn’t the end went back to sleep and found my self in the burger king drive through in a Lambo with my brother but when we go to the window it was a sliding glass door with the agent from the entourage there cooking ribs. talking about lambo’s and porches. then I woke again in the morning. last night was the most interesting dream sequence ever.
Earlier this day, 9/9/18 afternoon, i missed out church, my family went into a province. I was alone this afternoon then i did usual hobbies.
Then i fell asleep in the living room.
(I put my mattress there)
Then i woke up in the same view, but somethings wrong, it seems like the surroundings are a little blurred, i atill found myself the same position and view but it is kinda blurry and faded, same sheets and furniture but blurry and faded, it hits me w/ the idea that i obviously dreaming then i told myself to wake up.
Then i find myself on the same spot again, but this time it is clearer, so it thought i’m already awake but i can’t seem to move mu body- i saw the furniture facing at me-it’s a little odd because it is shiny, it’s a wood so is shouldn’t be seeing my reflection there- i tried waking up again..
Then i find myself opening my eyes up in the same spot. I push myself to stand up right away tho it feels heavy i managed to. Then we have a mirror in the hallway where i tried to check myself and it shows that i was carrying a pillow in my hand. But something’s still not right. The view is a little slanted.. the house is slanted.
Was so frightened. I thought o was really trapped. Then my last chance is to wake myself roughly..
i was able to open my eyes and first thing i did was to slap my face and wipe my eyes. Then i felt that i was back. Hooo..
That was upsetting. I ate after and dribk coffee to keep me awake until my family return. Then my brother ask why i was drinking coffee—
Then i did i research for that freaky dream limbo and found this page. I hope i won’t get the same experience earlier.
I dream a lot and very vivid dreams; sometimes nice dreams but sometimes terrifying. When I am experiencing a false awakening episode, and usually this happens when I’m taking a nap in the afternoon, the first thing I do is breathing and try to remain calm. Then when I am exhaling, I try to do it loudly (one “ha” sound) and that helps to wake me up. I do it 3-5 times and I move my arm and open my eyes at once and then I’m Awake. How this helps :)
Sleep paralysis is the key to awesome dreams, not something to be feared! Embrace it next time, and ignore the scary thing you see, and you’ll be flying in your dream world, fully conscious, and with practice able to manipulate the dream world. It’s very fun.
Lucid dreaming of all sorts is fun.
One weird thing I noticed in regular dreams though: sometimes I get tired in the dream, and that results in me waking up. It’s like reverse falling asleep. It’s so weird.
The following dream happened between 8am and 1pm this morning i had several wake up scenarios until i realised it wasnt working. Everything went black so i entered my lucid dream. “I first began walking in the darkness, which became a country lane with windy brick walls on either side. A car passed me at speed so i became a car driver too. I stopped in at a large ageing 1 storey motel in broad daylight. The staff who greeted me were nice but i complained about the food and found kitchen dirty yelled like Gordon ramsay but kitchen staff didnt show up didnt care. The only room vacant and cheap had just been treated for a rat infestation so i took it. I unpacked and continued talking and walking with staff and residents until i woke up for real this time”. Maybe i visited a haunted hotel or retirement home somewhere in the american mid-west. I live in New Zealand.
So this happened this morning. I was in a dream and realised that I was dreaming. It happened because I was trying to type something into Google and I just couldn’t type it right. At that point I realised that there was a crack on the screen of my phone and that’s when I understood I was dreaming. I wanted to wake up and rather than a false awakening, it was more like I kept asking myself, am I awake now? How about now? Each time I looked at the phone and saw it was broken, I realised I was still in the dream. I had a sense of distress at my inability to wake myself up, so much so that in my dream I started to try to hit my head on the wall…Which resulted in nothing, no sensation of contact with a solid object. Really strange feeling, definitely a mild panic because I just wanted to wake up.
What is it when you are having a nightmare, when you are about to be haunted or attacked by the xyz ghost figure, also you know you’re just in a dream, so now that you’re bored/scared of the ghost, you try to scream in real life, to wake yourself up from the dream cause nothing else can. you open your mouth and scream in the dream and in real life but the voice just doesn’t come out until you try a few more times and wake yourself up. i dont know if its common but it soooo suffocating and embarrassing when you have a new person sleeping next to you. its like..oh no, i’m not scared of the nightmare, i just got bored and had to wake myself up cause well, you couldnt. goodnight. ugh
I just had a nested dream today in which i was doing the exact same thing i would have been doing if i had been awake (lying in bed next to my boyfriend) in this i knew i was dreaming and kept trying to wake up and would “wake up” multiple times unsure whether or not i was still awake. Eventually this got concerning as it felt like i couldnt wake up. Eventually i had to call upon my mother in my dream to send someone to come and shake me awake. Shortly after this i woke up gasping and when i did wake up it felt like i was breaking out of some sort of dense cloud. Ive also been partially diagnosed with narcolepsy so was wondering if it might be related to this. Ive had these nested dreams a good couple times over the years
I went to bed later than I usually do. I started dreaming and in the dream I woke up from my bed and went to the living room and moved around. It was confusing whether I was still in a dream or reality so I tried to do some tests. I used a lighter first and tried to burn myself which indeed felt burning. Then, I tried to think of other method but everything was soo real. Finally, I thought of seeing myself in the mirror and there I could see the difference. My eyes were very different; I almost thought it was not me. So, I knew that I was in a dream. Now, I try to wake up but I am almost in a cycle where I think I have woken but still in the dream. I have done the mirror test so many times that now I even fear to do it. I tried to call my roommate very loudly but he doesn’t respond. Every-time I wake up, I think this must be the reality finally but again I am in another dream.
This was really scar at the time when I was dreaming but I thought of something interesting during that time. What if the real reality was also some kind of mind trick and there is some test which we don’t know yet but can be used to verify the reality. Anyway, this was just a thought and I know there’s no point in questioning the reality.
After really waking up, I feel that it was some kind of adventure dreaming in such a way. But, I don’t think even if possible, I will voluntarily dream in such a way. It was really scary at the moment when you think that you are never going to the reality again. I confirmed with my roommate that he heard nothing during the night. I really feel like getting a totem now.
Basically, I just had one where I’d wake up sleep paralyzed to my bed and struggle to get to my moms room before shutting down and then finally gaining movement but a demon would appear and if I couldn’t kill it (and my family seemed real) they questioned what I was doing at night I kept waking up in false dreams and realized I was asleep. Thankfully my family then without words at the last wake up were completely helpful in killing it they didn’t speak just helped and I managed to kill the demons that took the place of cats. I immediately woke up. And was scared shaking for 5-20minutes and bad to keep myself awake till sunlight appeared. Meanwhile my body was trying to make me sleep and go back into the nightmare. So fighting that off I stayed awake till sunrise. And slept peacefully.
I was asleep in my dream then woke up by my husband coming into the room, but i couldnt open my eyes and wake properly. i sat on the floor next to him and asked him to wake me up, meanwhile trying to open my eyes my face started swelling and i couldnt breathe. it was painful. this went on for a while i thought i was actually awake and experiencing this. Then suddenly i did wake properly gasping for breath, looked over to the husband but he wasnt there, i fell back down and struggled until i got my bearings. I often have dreams of waking in dreams but this was horrible. Im scared to sleep tonight.
Dude, everyone’s nested dreams are so scary. Mine was I just dreaming along then I woke up in my old bed and I think I just kinda sat there like “This is weird.” them I woke up again in a mixture of my old and new bed and my sister stuck her head down(my old bed was a bunk bed) I had decided I was going to pretend to be asleep and then I got a weird convulsion to laugh and when I did it wasn’t my laugh or any laugh I’ve heard and then I woke up again in real life and i just remebered all the wakings and i just went “Thats weird and now I’m going to go talk about to someone.” and then told my sister about it.
Why does everyone else’s have black demons and stuff. Mine are I just wander aimlessly and if I see someone I know, I act like I normally do.
That sounds like what happened to me last night! I don’t remember demons but, I was scared.
So I’m not entirely sure if this is what I experienced but it seemed to be a multiple combination of things. It happened around 3:30am just to add.
I was laying in bed and I remember falling asleep. In my “dream”, I felt like I was still awake just looking around the room but I was yelling at something. I was yelling, “Get out!!! Stay away from my daughter!!!” I kept saying get out and even in the dream I was struggling to yell. I saw black spots on the ceiling in the corner and I was struggling to get up or move my hand to grab my husbands hand but I couldn’t. Then I finally woke up and looked around completely confused. I’m not sure what happened but I’m trying my best not to be freaked out. I’m a very spiritual person so I refuse to believe it wasn’t something from my imagination. I wasn’t scared of whatever it was but it was very odd for me to experience that since I’ve never had before.
If anyone can confirm what it was that I experienced, please let me know. I’d highly appreciate it. Thank you.
That is sleep paralysis for sure (I’m a 100 percent sure). If you’re religious or spiritual just read the Wikipedia article of sleep paralysis, you’ll know all about the interpretation of sleep paralysis in thr different religions. It is always associated with bad spirits and demons trying to kill you.
Sleep paralysis. It often leaves you helpless while things are all around you. It could be inanimate or animate or horror. It’s happened to me various times. And I hate it. People won’t notice what’s wrong but you will. You won’t move. Your conscious is awake yet your body will be asleep. That is what can induce this. It’s like dreaming awake. You might cast it into the same room like you did. (I do it too and have stood up crying because of what I’d seen)
It might’ve been been sleep paralysis, which happens to everyone as least once or twice in their life. Nothing to be worried about if never had before. Mind is just simply awake before your body is, and therefore you can’t move for a short period of time. Because your body is still asleep. May seem scary at first but once you know it’s just ur body still asleep and mind awake it won’t be as much. You might feel the weight of your body , feeling as if a really heaving blanket is over you, and hear yourself breathing loudly, but it is all just ur body and doesn’t last longer than a few seconds . So nothing to be worried about.
It was a dream. ? I love how prone try to make it into a spiritual thing. You were dreaming, it was weird. Dreams are weird, that’s how we know they’re dreams.
I’ve had several wakeful dreams, it’s usually associated with my anxiety of missing out big things or having to wake up early for something Important. Most time I dream of nightmares, being chased and hiding myself in a closet. I always realise myself waking up at that point meanwhile the door is still banging, I always try to focus my eyes and try to convince myself to wake up. It’s usually hard to do but when I do wake up, I wake up as if I just got out of water. Some dreams, I get eaten alive and I could feel my flesh getting gnawed, but I managed to make lucid dreams and dream something decent. It happened after I had a traumatic experience and ever since then I was always sleep deprived because of the surreal nightmares. This article definitely helped me as I finally understand that it’s all because of my anxiety.
I’ve had dreams of waking up and realising I’m still asleep. Tried to explore my dreams deeper if it was a decent dream. For Nightmares of being chased, I always tried to wake up myself up, I usually lock myself in a closet room, while having the door banging, focusing on my eyes to open them,” WAKE UP!” and sometimes it felt like opening a tight bottle, and when I finally open my eyes, I always gasp for air. It was so surreal, and most times, when I get eaten alive, it feels as though I am, but I manage to get myself into a lucid dream and move into a different dream, a nicer one at least. I think it all started after I had a traumatic experience, it’s been hard to try sleeping without getting into intense scary dreams, lately, I usually sleep for 4-5 hours just to avoid having intense dreams. Most of my dreams happen when I’m under a lot of stress or if my anxiety is acting up.
I just had 7 false awakening in one nap! I thought I was dead! I kept telling my friend to try different things to make sure I was awake. I even tried to get him to put fire on my arm so I could see if I would react. I tried looking in the mirror and the mirror turned into a computer monitor but it did have my reflection in it. The last false awakening part I looked into the computer monitor which was supposed to be mirror, and I apologized to the dream spirit. I said dream spirit you are the only one who can truly make people dreams come true. I apologize for trying to do your job, and after I said that I instantly started gasping for air in reality and turn on to my back and started coughing. It was so surreal that I grab my phone and looked it up to see if anyone else ever experienced this for themselves. I think the part about anxious of the time played an important part for me. I do have severe anxiety and when I sleep I do always worry about over sleeping and missing an appointment. I am going to try the alarm clock technique though and see does that help out for me!!!!
The last time I can recall having a False Awakening was 17 years ago when I was 6 years old. I am 23 and just had my first Nested Dream. It was extremely scary and I am now posting just to keep myself awake for a while and as a way to prove myself that I am actually awake now. I’m still quite shaken up through this experience. I’m currently on Vacation and staying in a Hotel. The dream I had itself wasn’t even that bad, but something bothered me about it and made me nervous so I wanted to wake up. I had a total of 5 different ‘episodes’ before I actually woke up. In each one I woke up in my Hotel bed and everything seemed so real. During the last phase before actually waking I thought I finally had it. My girlfriend is sleeping next to me and the last time I tried to sit up in my bed and scream but something was pushing me down and I couldn’t make a single noise. I could see a black figure by the door but when I finally managed to turn on the light and sit up in my dream my girlfriend sat up and asked me if everything was ok. I talked to her but she then just had a blank stare on her face and looked straight ahead. After what seemed like hours she suddenly turned to me, looked at me and screamed. This was exactly what had happened 17 years ago, just in that case with my mother. This is what finally made me realize I was still dreaming. It’s such a strange feeling because everything seemed so real. Every little detail in the room was exactly the same! When I finally actually woke up I sat up drenched in sweat and breathing heavily and my girlfriend was was awake as well and said I was twitching and moaning as if I was in pain for the past two minutes. She said she tried to wake me but I just wouldn’t wake up. I was really shaken up at that point and wasn’t sure if I was still dreaming or if it finally was reality. I had to touch her face and walk around the room to feel the cold floor before I was convinced that it is finally over. I found this to be a terrifying experience and I really hope this won’t occur anymore!
About a month ago, I had woken up from a bad dream, I could move a bit, but not much. Suddenly, my entire body got chilled to the bone and I started to violently shake out of my control, like I was being possessed. Then I heard a voice saying “hey, hey”, like it was reassuring me everything was okay, then it all stopped. Needless to say I didn’t sleep in my room for a while. Well, last night I had an okay dream, then I “woke up” and the whole “body went cold and couldn’t move” thing started to happen. I tried to scream for help but I could barely move my lips. After I could move I tried to get up, and I went for the door so I could sleep somewhere else but “someone”, or, rather *something* was watching me from my doorframe. I ran back to my bed then I actually woke up. I’m terrified to sleep now, because it has only happened twice but it’s happened close together and only during this summer. Just thinking about last night gives me the goosebumps. (This isn’t supposed to be a horror thing or to scare anyone, I want help because I’m tired of being afraid to sleep). Thanks and have a great day.
I wake up and still feel like I’m dreaming and it’s very scary. Nothing feels real but I know I’m awake and everything is real, ..even tho my mind is playing tricks on me, wanting me to think that I’m still dreaming but I don’t want to feel like this anymore I feel very disconnected like I’m not myself anymore ( happy, full of joy and excitement living life too its fullest).
I had a false awakening last night but it was pretty scary. I’ve had them before when i was young where i would wake up in the morning and look at the end of my bed and a black figure would come up to me and punch me in the face and i would black out and actually wake up. This happened a lot and i began to check the end of my bed when i actually woke up for real because it was so vivid. Strange thing is my dad had the same dream when he was a kid, he had it over and over again like me except his figure strangled him. Over the years i’e had a few false awakenings and in the dreams i experience sleep paralysis. Last night i had one where i woke up as if it was that exact moment and i was trying to call for help because i was being held down by an invisible demon. I couldn’t see the demon but i knew it was. I was trying to grab my phone to call for help but the demon had pulled it away under the bed. I couldn’t move or speak and tried so hard to call out for my mum as i was crying. Seeing as that wasn’t working i pulled the strength to try and bang my head against the wall to make noise, that didn’t work either. I remember feeling constantly pushed on and heavy and numb. I eventually pushed myself up and said something along the lines of “i’m not letting you get me” and tried to push from my bed, i did and i woke up. This was incredibly vivid as when i woke up i was shocked to find i could move and confused as to why nothing was happening like it was 2 seconds ago. I realised it was a dream and even though frightened, being half asleep i dozed off again and kept dreaming different things happening again to me in the exact same dream. I kept waking myself up to stop dreaming it because it was frightening and so vivid. I stayed awake for a bit so i didn’t dream the same thing. I am not sure if it was going to happen regardless or if it was triggered by a dream i had right before it. Where i was having my soul taken away from a demon and trying to fight it. I was laying down looking up and couldn’t see anything but i knew the demon was right there, it started screaming and i was shaking in the dream, and i woke up before it finished screaming and i woke up shaking just like in my dream. I also had these dreams whilst sleeping on my back also, which could also be a reason why. But this sucks because i find if i sleep on my back i get a good nights sleep where i don’t wake up sore and uncomfortable and now realise i might have more dreams like this more often if i do sleep on my back unfortunately.
I just woke up from a five-tiered cake of nested dreams. In each one of them, I thought that I had finally awakened, but I had not. It is indeed terrifying. I have had them since I was 17 year old, now I am 43. I have had them in different cities and countries. I am writing this to prove to myself that I am awake.
I’ve been having what I think are a variation of false awakenings but I’m not actually sure? Basically, it’ll usually be set out the exact way I fell asleep with a few differences. The one I’ve just had was the same except my fan was on the other side of my room where it used to be and my boyfriend was on my side of the bed. I heard my door open in the dream and looked over to see my sister wondering in and she just looked at me and said how cute I look when I’m asleep… not in a weird way it’s just something she’d say… and I wouldn’t look her dead in the face because mine have a tendency to get weird fast. Once she left my room I was aware it was a dream and I started to try and talk to my boyfriend either in the dream or real life but it was so painful and hard to speak… eventually I yelled in the dream and it hurt my throat and my ears popped but I woke up. All of mine have been scary and leave me feeling very shaken up, I’ve learnt to just close my eyes in the dream.
I just had the most frustrating dream ever. I have to fight to wake up and then stumble to my bathroom and grab the towel bar and the room is spinning and I try to move the shower curtain and fall to the ground and lay there with the room spinning and I’m back at the beginning trying to force myself awake. I don’t know why my brain or body decided that it needed to wake up. I was having a pleasantish dream with some creepy but not too creepy parts but it was like I have to wake up and I just couldn’t. I ended up waking at the time I normally do even with out an alarm so maybe my REM sleep lined up with this time and my body freaked out.
It was not new to me at all, its been my problem since I was in my 4th grade, it all started year 2003, one night I accidentally woke up and someone in front of me wearing whole black dress and without face, I dont know if he/she but I witnessed as it fades away in front of me, and after that experience every night since then i have a multiple nightmares including false awakening and now I am 25 years old I’m still struggling and battling in this scenario that every time i go to bed I know that false awakening will always happen… So weird, creepy at the same time, but i get used to it. Prayer will be the answer.
I just woke up from a nest dream. Ive been having them alot lately. Like alot. I know im asleep and im doing everything in my power to move my arm or scream. Then i think it worked and i wake up but then i realize im still in a dream again. This happenes over and over again. When i wake up in my dream in the bed there is always somthing in my room in the dark. At first its my friend who was watching me sleep and woke me up and said i had a nightmare. But then it turns into somthing evil like a witch or demon. It happens over and over. When i finally wake up im so scared and i question my reality.
This sounds like sleep paralysis to me.
Ive had similar experiences but i never see the person/demon. I just hear the footsteps as they get closer to the bed then they jump into my body and im unable to move or get out of bed
I have dreams where I’m moving around my house and I know I need to switch on the light because there’s “something” there, and if I can just switch on the light I will be able to deal with it.
Last night I heard/dreamt I heard a noise and decided to investigate. Like a previous poster says my body is really hard to move, I have to drag it, and off course the light switches don’t work. Last night I walked out of my bedroom into the hallway. It all looked the same except there was a mirror over the stairs (I have been meaning to put one up).
I could see the front door downstairs, the garden through the window but not myself in the mirror. I then woke up and my brain felt strained, like it had been working hard, like it was a muscle that had helped me move through the tar. Very strange!
I had my first nested dream this morning.
I did not know this was a thing, but I found it terrifying. Each time I actively tried to wake up and it was like Groundhog Day, waking repeatedly in what I thought was my own bed, and finding I was in a hotel lobby that got more crowded each time I “woke.” I actually started thinking, as I closed my eyes for the fourth time that maybe I was dead.
The final dream I woke up in a familiar place and was initially relieved. I recognized it. It was home. But then I realized it was an apartment I lived in 10 years ago. This time I could hear someone talking on the phone in one of the bedrooms. When I walked down the hall to look, I saw it was me, on the phone with my mother. Other me looked at me, nodded in acknowledgment, and kept talking on the phone. A landline. I couldn’t tell for sure if I was looking at myself as I am now or myself when I was a teenager. (Oddly I sure don’t look like I did when I was 17).
The room looked very different. Though the hallway was that of the old apartment, the rooms were like rooms in a house and seemed to indicate children lived there. I walked into another room and saw more evidence of kids, but no sign of any kids themselves. I wondered if this was some other life where I had children and a husband. Then I saw my cats and thought again I was actually awake. I got down on the floor to pet them all, and then one of my mom’s dogs bounded in. I realized then that my parents were dead. (I have told them I’ll take in their dogs when they pass). But then one of my mom’s dogs who died last year ran in too. I realized no, this was all another dream. I shut my eyes, willing myself to wake for real.
When I did wake up I didn’t want to open my eyes. But finally I did and it was definitely not a dream. Right place. My cats where I expected my cats. But even hours later I am so tired it’s like I didn’t sleep at all. I want to take a quick nap, but I’m afraid of getting stuck again.
I had some really crazy few nested dreams, all of which were bad dreams… so it was hard for me to actually wake myself up. They were all very vivid too which made them even mOre scary. The first one; I was being chased by murderous psychos, the second one; my s/o disintegrated in my own arms, and the third; I was in my room, but it was distorted and there was a demon in the corner staring at me. I knew I was in a dream and I was trying so hard to wake myself up in each of them. I “woke up” two or three times before I actually woke up. I still thought I was dreaming lol until I looked around and realized I was in my room again. It really freaked me out. I still don’t know why it happened, I was perfectly relaxed before I went to bed…
It’s sleep paralysis
I just woke up from a nap (took advantage of my 3yr old nephew’s naptime :-) ) where I had a crazy “nested” dream. I’ve had them in the past, but not frequently . My indicator for a dream is always when I try to turn on the lights: light switches never work in my dreams. By the third false awakening, I was pretty lucid and really annoyed. I knew I was dreaming and kept telling the entity who was present that I needed to wake up so I could get my nephew up. I ended up using my necklace (Egyptian Bast) and some Pokémon (of all weird things) to fight what was supposedly keeping me asleep. The really odd thing was that this nap included lucid dreaming, nested dreams, AND sleep paralysis. All in all, a very weird experience.
I experienced the same today. Woke up crying but was so happy that I woke up. False awakening, nested dreams and sleep paralysis, all in an hour. I’ve experienced sleep paralysis before and I know how to snap out of it. I generally just say a prayer in my dream and wake up and that lasted for about 3-5min. But today was the first time experiencing all of them together. I said the prayer but wouldn’t wake up. I was terrified and started screaming. I felt someone standing behind me and hugging me from the back. I woke up and saw there was no one behind. I fell asleep in a min again. I saw shadows around me but my vision kept blurring out. I tried to reach my phone which was kept beside me to call someone, but one of the shadows took it from me. I was horrified by all of this. The strange thing is I could hear my granny cooking in the kitchen (which was real). I was walking in the hallway and the layout of my house kept changing. As I approached the kitchen, someone shut it. I pushed the door and was screaming, but she wasn’t there. I fought this for about an hour and was tired and thought I wouldn’t wake up and gave up. That’s when I finally woke up. I was so happy to be awake but was inconsolable. This experience was by far the scariest for me. Still traumatised. The only good thing was i saw my late mom.
I suffer with eczema and have been not sleeping well during the night, so have been enjoying the occasional short nap after work. Today’s nap lasted 2 hours where I experienced several false awakenings including checking the my clock. The dreaming moved seamlessly from one part to another and was vivid with people I know and some I don’t. Some of the places were very familiar and some I had never seen although, they included spectacular scenery. The reoccurring issue for me was not being able to open my eyes properly and trying to splash some water on them. It wasn’t until i realised that I was still in a dream did it feel like I was trapped, I am sure my left eye must have been partially open as I could see my hand, duvet cover and wall while the right eye was obscured by the pillow. These items were present while my brain was taking me on a magical mystery tour. Amazing stuff, even writing this I can still remember many parts. Thanks for reading.
I just had a 2 level false awakening. But both false awakening I guess was sleep paralysis in the dream. I was also partly aware i was dreaming. I knew i had to wake up in the dreams but i couldn’t. I couldn’t open my eyes. Couldn’t move. In the dream i felt like i was suffocating. Finally wake up from the first one and find myself in a different dream doing the same thing. At that point i knew i was dreaming so i just fought to wake up for real. Could feel my real body laying in my bed and felt the surroundings. But was trying to open my eyes and move in my dream. It was real strange.
Just had an episode last night…waking in my room but knowing I’m dreaming and feeling dark presences in the room. I can move but like my voice and movements are stuck in tar. I remember getting up and moving through my apartment trying to wake myself up, even slapping my own face so I will wake up. I was also casting out the dark presence in Jesus name. When I do this in my dreams is usually when it stops and I wake up. Now I can’t tell what was real and what was dream. Wish I had a camera on last night….
I’ve been having false awakenings for going on 2 years now.
The first time or two I thought it was out of body experiences but now I know they were false awakinings as well..they’ve gotten so bad that I’ve had 10 to 15 false awakinings at a time, I literally can’t wake my self up, its exhausting, I can’t remember all of them ,but the last one I had which was just a couple days ago, I remember waking up in my dream, thinking I was awake and then realizing almost immediately that I wasn’t so then I make my way back to my bed and to the left of me ,I see me naked, it startled me ,and then what ever it was ,attacks me,now use to ,when these dreams first started they would over power me, literally throwing me down my hallway or up against the wall, or holding me down and choking me,it used to be terrifying,it would always start out as someone I knew,but in a sense I knew it wasn’t them,they’d end up being black as black could be,I never see there face tho , for the past year I’ve learned to take control, since then the ‘what I like to call as “dream demons”, doesn’t happen near as much but they do occur…I’ve done lots of research but can’t find any thing that could help! just wished I knew when I lay down that I could have normal sleeping patterns and dreams and that when I wake up,I’d actually be awake..
Use to I’d be scared to sleep..now I’ve learned that they’re just dreams..but on the contrary I’d still love to wake up and actually be awake..I didn’t have time to jot down all the details . .but I’m sure your aware of the same things I go through…hit me back if you find a cure.
I’ve suffered from sleep paralysis for over a year now but in the last two weeks it has become very frequent ( an every day basis ) I don’t ever have the feeling that someone or something is holding me down. I just can’t move. I’m fully aware of where I am and of my surroundings. I also have been suffering from false awakenings, mine consist of me waking up to tell me Mum I’ve just had sleep paralysis. A technique I tried that no longer works for me is rocking back and fourth to try and shake myself out of it. However because I have had it for so long I guess I’ll have to try something new. I just don’t like the feeling of it and wish it would stop!
So all week I’ve been having almost the same dream. I’m trying to wake up in my dream because something bad is happening but I can’t wake up! Just now in my dream my fiancé is trying to wake me up as I hear loud pounding on our door and our dog whining but I can barely open my eyes and I can’t move I keep trying and I can’t. I just keep telling myself wake up wake up!! And now I’m wide awake. Not a tota scary dream but I don’t like feeling that way and it’s been all week
I just awoke from 5 deep false awakening. I had a very stressful day and drank two-ish pots of coffee. I also went to bed later than my normal time.
So it started as some of my nights start off where I’m laying on my back and I start to drift off. I can’t breathe very well in said position and can feel myself not breathing as my eyes are somewhat open as well. Once I shake myself awake enough to change position, it starts. It was a vivid lucid dream where I am conscious of being asleep and conscious that my surroundings are off, so I am now controlling what’s going on. I can feel that my sleep body needs to… well, pee. So I try to wake myself.. just to find out I’m still dreaming, great. I go to the mirror and try to shake it out, nothing. I try going to my bed (which is clearly not mine) where my husband is asleep on his side and I am missing. I jump in bed to try and wake myself up, nothing. I try moving and wiggling in real life and it’s not working, I got frantic. I obviously did finally wake up, but the experience I get with false awakenings I find to be quite stressful. I’m a somewhat experienced lucid dreamer as I find I can control my dreams a couple times a month at most. I don’t always have the false awakenings, but when I do they usually follow a lucid dream.
Tldr; false awakenings are extremely inconvenient when I have to pee