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.
Thank you for this article, Ethan. Nice to put a name to all these things. I frequently (several times a week) have very distressing dreams as soon as I fall asleep usually with several false awakenings as I talk myself through the evidence of whether or not I am in fact awake or not. I am usually trying to scream or cry out during this and eventually can produce a pathetic whimper which eventually wakes my husband to comfort me. Several times now, I have been able to convert the nightmare into a lucid dream (or nightmare), usually when I realize within the dream that my husband is away so there’s no point waking up to be comforted! I find it all utterly fascinating but at the same time the dreams are so violent and distressing that I think I’d rather live without them. Thanks again. Emily
Hi Emily
Thanks for your comment, and I’m glad you liked the article. I imagine it’s confusing to both be fascinated by your experiences and also distressed by the actual content. If only you could lucid dream to the point of changing the dream content totally, or better still, start off with positive dreams! The reality though is that dreams with scary content are very normal. In fact, some experts believe they are our brain’s way of practicing dealing with bad situations in life, or even playing through things we’ve already experienced in a way that we can process, albeit rather strangely to say the least. Perhaps by accepting that bad dreams are normal, you might be able to relax when you wake up in one and take control better, or at least not get so disturbed in the moment.
Regards
Ethan
I only experienced a false awakening twice, and both experiences were very unique from one another.
I was asleep next to my boyfriend at the time and dreaming. It was very normal and began as something we all do every night. My dream abruptly turned into a nightmare, so abruptly that it seemed unnatural. I was flooded with the image of a cat trying to kill itself by jamming a plastic straw into its throat that was sticking out of a soda can, and it was throwing up blood. Instant terror overcame me and I snapped awake. I woke my boyfriend up because I was so alarmed and began to tell him about it… then I sort of popped into my dream state again, this time paralyzed on the bed facing away from him. I could only move my eyes, trying to call for him made a strange noise. Then I awoke again and repeated the same process, shook him awake and explained the dream. I awoke paralyzed once more, then found myself standing in the middle of the bedroom. Everything was in black and grey with perfect detail, and I felt that I was in danger. I felt tampered with and desperately wanted to wake up… I stomped up and down three times, and then it ocurred to me that I was technically astral projecting and had a change of perspective. I opened the door and ran down the hallway, then I jumped and flew through the ceiling for safety. I felt happy in this moment. Once I flew away, I saw swirls of black and grey for a few moments. Then they formed into the poster on the wall and I just “slipped” into reality seamlessly, never opening my eyes. I burst into a hysterical fit of crying when I explained what had happened to my boyfriend, and had no idea if I was actually awake or not. I was at this point, but didn’t go back to sleep that night in fear of being trapped in a place that was not real.
Hi there
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your experience. I can completely understand why you were worried about sleeping again. I think it’s important though to try not to allow yourself to worry about sleep. It might help, if it happens again, to get up for 10-15 minutes and do something calming or relaxing. Then try to sleep again and hopefully it won’t happen a second time. It also sounds like you had some element of lucid dreaming happening, which is great. If it does happen again, that’s something to try and work on maybe.
Regards
Ethan
I feel like i had sleep paralysis during false awakening today. I looked at the clock and it was around 9 am and i felt like my cousin came and laid down beside me and i heard her baby daughter cooing in another room. Then i heard another cousin asking if they should wake me up. By this time i was trying way too hard to wake up to meet the baby because i love her so much but couldn’t. Then i somehow realised that it was a dream and i looked at the ceiling and there were some numbers and alphabets written on it and i was trying really hard to focus but i couldn’t and all of the sudden i woke up.
Now, i was in laying my bed on my back and i’m trying really hard to move my body but couldn’t .Then i started trying to move just my head and i did. THANK GOODNESS. Then i tried to move my hand and managed to move it from beside my hip to beside my head and then i moved my head to see my hand and it wasn’t there it was still beside my hip and i got really confused like what the hell was happening. And then i heard my parents talking and i was really confuses if i was awake or sleep. I somehow came to realization that i was still not awake. And i was trying really hard to wake up and when i couldn’t i fell back into the first dream where my cousin was laying beside me. I kept on swapping between these two dreams like 3 or 5 times after which i was finally able to wake up. But i felt so tired that i fell back to sleep. At around 11 am, my brother came and woke me up for breakfast and i finally woke up.
It was a bit scary because not being able to wake up is a scary feeling but it was really interesting experience. I’d love to experience it again
Hi Samantha
Thanks for your comment. It’s not always easy to tell the difference, but it seems like you probably had a false awakening in which you were paralyzed, rather than having sleep paralysis itself. If you were definitely asleep, that would be the case. If you were awake and unable to move, it would be different. It’s good that you enjoyed it though – if only everyone found it interesting to go through, rather than scary.
Regards
Ethan
Mine are terrifying. I had one the first time when I was nine. I dream jumped 9 times. Though by the second dream I realized I was dreaming. I kept asking for help for someone to help me and they kept saying I was awake. So u tried to go to sleep in my dreams only to wake up in another. I didn’t wake up till 1pm and my mother was terrified she couldn’t wake me. I now draw things on my mirror so I know the first jump where I am. It’s terrifying because I’m like ugh I have to wake up I have things to do what time is it even I can’t keep doing this. I know can make it where I can watch myself dreaming and once I find myself I can generally jump back in and I’ll wake up.
Hi Victoria
Thanks for your comment. It was interesting to hear the idea of drawing on the mirror! And also the idea of watching yourself dreaming. It sounds like you’re close to lucid dreaming with good control. Perhaps in time you’ll develop even more control and be able to wake up and get on with your day sooner.
Regards
Ethan
Ok this isn’t the first time this has happened to me but this is the weirdest it’s ever gotten. I was trying to go to sleep and I kept tossing and turning and all of sudden my whole body went numb and I liked the feeling, then out of nowhere started breathing rapidly and I remember hearing a sound kind of like a UFO I felt like I was about to go into a seziure fit or something but I was calm I didn’t feel like I was controlling my body. I couldn’t move anything no matter how hard I tried then I was able to move my feet and I was like oh ok I’m fine, then it just kept happening. Everything was dark and I thought I was awake but I wasn’t anyways while this was happening I swear I thought I heard someone behind me standing next to my bed crying but I couldn’t move to see who it was, and I thought I kept waking myself up but every time I thought I did I still wasn’t able to move, in this dream state of mind at one point I was able to move my upper half and dragged myself very slowly off my bed and grabbed someone’s leg (the person who was crying) I couldn’t see anything. And I tried asking the person what was going on. Then once again I “awoke” in the same place on my bed, everything was still dark and at this point I was like what the $%&*, this time I could move my whole body but it was like it slow motion all I wanted was a little bit of light. I grabbed a lighter to try and light it and it wouldn’t, so I found my phone for light but my phone wasn’t working; this is where I started freaking out and getting mad. I threw my phone and tried turning on my light switch and that didn’t work either and I said “why isn’t anything working?!” I came out to the front room and the tv was on but it was so blurry and dim I still couldn’t see and I tried walking closer and I ended up stepping on my dog and I screamed “god damn it Empire!” Because I was still freaking out and it hurt when I stepped on him. After that I found myself in the same spot in my bed and it took me a min to open my eyes for real this time and take control over my body again. It felt so real that I have no other way of explaining it. Like I said this is not the first or second time this has happened, this is probably about the third time. Just this time it was so vivid and truly an out of this world experience.
Hi Heaven
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your story. It does sound very vivid indeed. At least it doesn’t happen very often to you!
Regards
Ethan
So I do this really weird thing 95% of the time and It is quite similar to false awakening , In the morning when my mom wakes me up for school she tells me to get dressed (While I’m awake) .I then end up falling back to sleep and dream that I am getting dressed and it feels very realistic so I usually become quite late … A similar thing happened before when I messaged mymom asking if I could have a day off school , I then ended up falling to sleep and I started dreaming that she had messaged me and she said that I could have the day pff , I then woke up and I I looked at my phone and she messaged me saying no … Do you have any ideas on what this is and how it can be sorted??? Also I’m 15 years old
Hi Jaiden
Thanks for your comment. I’ve heard of other people having a similar problem. It’s actually very common for daily life to influence the dreams, especially if you wake up, do something, then fall asleep again. My advice would be to not allow yourself to fall asleep again. Set a good, loud alarm clock on the other side of your bedroom so you have to get up and go and turn it off. Then try and develop a strong principle in yourself that once you’re out of bed, you never go back to sleep again – well, apart from later that night of course!
Regards
Ethan
I have false awakening a couple of times, but they are more helpful to me than distressing. A few of them were caused by stress, like how worrying I was if my alarm clock didn’t wake me up in time for important events or lessons.
I remember one of them was due to my worries that I will miss the bus for clinical hospital visit (for medical students), I actually dreamed that I miss the bus, but my mother fetched me there instead. I would have continue on had I not felt aware that it was just a dream ^-^.
The awareness came when the hospital became an expensive hotel where I wasn’t meant to be (I even have the luxury to bath in the Jacuzzi) XD
Anyway, all of the dreams always ended 20 minutes before my alarm, so that give me more time to prepare for my day :D.
Thank goodness! There are so many people with the same situation.. it’s such a relief to know.
I have had false awakenings.. many times. I have also had lucid dreams….. almost everyday!! 95% of my life since some years! I have had sleep paralysis too.. when I go to sleep at night.. but they have always beenshort dreams.. lasting not more than 2 minutes…. and then I wake up with a shock..! (almost fell off my bed once, if not for the pillow!)
I admit I do enjoy lucid dreams… exploring into them.. but the problem is.. I let myself dream too much.. and become lazy and reluctant to wake up.. and eventually end up getting late for college or anyplace else for that matter.. :/
Hi there
Thanks for your comment. It’s interesting to hear from someone who regularly has lucid dreams. But yes, it’s important to get the balance right between sleep and daily life!
Regards
Ethan
I’ve had nightmares since I was young about 6 years old also had a Imaginary friend when I was young too his name was Gary family took me about him that I used to just sit and speak with him all the time. But the nightmares started when I was about 6 had one that bad I got taken to hospital when I was little it was so real tho and I was outside screaming for help but no one could hear me I was 8 then. I even had to move my bed into my grandparents room they was so bad I didn’t want to sleep in the end I had a dream catcher and I would sleep with the light on I just fort if I had the light on nothing bad will get me the bad can’t get into the light I still do the same thing today sleep with the light on I’m 25 now back when I was younger some off the nightmares would have my brother in them trying to hurt him I would phone up in the morning to make sure he was okay another one was about people chasing me I woke up fort I was still dreaming and nearly jumped out the window to get away I was 12 my nightmares feels so real Im being shoot at stab too. Nightmares when I was younger following some boy around a hospital I still don’t know what happened that’s just want comes back too me a boy being at the end off my bed taking to me, a girl putting her head into my room someone banging on my window being trapped in a lift being hit loads off times on the back. I think I’m asleep someone shouts really loud. Or I wake up again and again but I’m not awake the first time it does this like about five times even when I do wake up I fell like I’m not and still in that nightmare, I’m 25 and still getting the nightmares but now it’s worse my bf saying I’m screaming in my sleep my body is jerking and I’m taking in my sleep. I’m still sleeping with the light on too and tv on for sound, now I’m dreaming bout anything the other night I was a police women being shoot at and driving cars in my sleep I don’t know how to drive tho. I’ve been slapped in the face too but felt it when I woke up when I get hurt in my dreams I can feel it sometimes. Even tonight I’ve just had about 4 nightmares in one go I went to sleep it happen right away, being poked all over my partner being beat up badly me dreaming about waking my partner up by puniching him to wake up, smoke being blown but I could smell it in my dream being biten too. Heart rate playing up and I get headaches had them for two years now but it’s a really bad headache to night but I’m even having a nightmare about that I feel like I’m going crazy with all this keep happening I fought the nightmares might stop I’m so scared I don’t wanna sleep no more when I’m awake I don’t know if I am I can’t snap out off it so I just cry I’m gonna see a doctor I think
Hi Chloe
Thanks for your comment. It sounds very stressful at the moment with your bad dreams, and headaches on top of it. I think seeing a doctor might be a good idea. If it’s gone on for this long, and is affecting your quality of life and mood, it might be a positive step to get some professional support and advice.
Regards
Ethan
My dreams are so scary that I literally feel as if I am dying. Most of them involve me not being able to get up, or I’m crawling through my house trying to find someone to help me, I’m trying to call out for someone to help me but I cant speak and I can feel myself trying so hard to just speak. At some point I realize that I am dreaming and I even feel like I have woke up but I can’t function and I’m hunched over mumbling or I’m laying somewhere in the house just trying to get up but I can’t, and it happens repetitively until I can finally force myself to wake up for real and I feel like I have just
escaped death. One of which was the scariest, I fell asleep with my son next to me on the couch and a dream started that I was laying there and I started gasping for air and was trying so hard to move and say anything to get his attention, and then my other son walked by and I was trying to get his attention but he kept going, I woke up, my heart was pounding, I felt disoriented, I was terrified, that night I woke up several times mumbling and immediately going back to sleep, I was terrified to go back to sleep because I thought for sure that I would die.
Hi Kris
Thanks for your comment. Sorry to hear you have such bad dreams – it must be very distressing for you not feeling like you can relax and go to sleep. Have you spoken to anyone about this? It might be good to talk to your doctor about it and see if they can recommend anyone you can talk this through with. Perhaps getting some professional help would work for you.
Regards
Ethan
I had sleep paralysis once in my life years ago. Just right now I had a very upsetting experience. In a dream I was woken up, in my bed. I knew it was my bed because it felt like my bed, but I couldn’t see much at all in the room. I tried to move, but failed… well sort of. I called for someone, but couldn’t yell very loudly, and could move my arms but it was very difficult. I could only slightly raise them. Inside the dream I was lucid (or at least mostly lucid) because I knew I was dreaming and attempted to wake myself up. There was a point towards the end where I didn’t know if I was in sleep paralysis or I was still dreaming. When I finally woke up I proved to myself I was awake by finally being able to move my limbs freely. I woke up in the same position I fell asleep in. Was this a false awakening? It was quite distressing, but I can’t say it was sleep paralysis for sure since I could slightly move my arms up and down. Perhaps it was just a lucid bad dream. Someone please reply! Thank you :)
Hi Cherie
Thanks for your comment. It’s hard to say to be honest, but my initial thought was that you were describing a lucid bad dream,
Regards
Ethan
I once woke up and there was a man standing beside my bed. I tried to move to shake my boyfriend awake to alert him, but I couldn’t move. Terrified, I tried to shake my body side to side so hard that I woke up for real, at which point I was finally able to wake my boyfriend and tell him about the horribly vivid dream. The first time I woke up felt so real that I had no idea it was a dream.
This isn’t the first time either. I woke up another time, to a creepy boy (think horror movie child) standing in the corner of my room. I quickly turned the light switch on in a panic and woke up in real life, relieved.
I’ve also had vivid dreams so soon after falling asleep, that someone beside me had no idea I ever fell asleep. One of those times, I began a nightmare and knew if I went downstairs I was going to meet something creepy so I turned towards the wall and shook my head (thinking no no no) and decided I wasn’t going to let it go on and woke myself with from the head shaking.
Hi there,
Narcolepsy runs in my family and have experienced sleep paralysis numerous times in my life. False awakenings are less common, but I have experienced them. Recently I’ve met a new man and he is really lovely. Every time we sleep all night together I ca wake up numerous times, but still the in between sleep seems extremely deep. But in the dreams I have in between the awakenings I always have false awakening dreams. Sometimes I wake up twice in the dream before I really wake up. Sometimes its closer to sleep paralysis in that I feel aware that he’s beside me and I’m awake but still there’s a dream element that might sound like he’s talking to me, and sometimes when I become fully conscious and awake I don’t know if that has actually happened or not. I’m also a lucid dreamer the majority of the time so I find the whole ordeal really strange, because in the false awakening dreams in can be as simple as waking up with him and talking in bed, or turning into a whole dream where a sequence of events happens, but I totally believe it’s real which is strange for me. The most stressful one is where we have woken up and his house is leaking and then he starts to have a heart attack and his friend won’t call the ambulance while I do CPR. Othertimes I will wake up again in the dream after already waking up in the dream then I really really think its real, and he’ll tell me in the deeper dream that I was being strange and loud in my sleep. But it’s only ever with him. I have only slept with him 5 times in the past month. Might t have something to do with my past relationship being very traumatic? I used to get sleep paralysis a lot in my last relationship, but not false awakenings.
Hi Eva
Thanks for your comment. It could be that the change and emotions that go with being with him are affecting your sleep and dreams. That’s totally normal. And as you say, perhaps you’re worried because of your part relationship. Hopefully in time you’ll relax and the strange dreams will reduce in frequency. If they don’t, you might want to talk to someone about it and get some profesional help if you feel you have unresolved trauma affecting your life.
Regards
Ethan
Never played baseball in my life, but dreamt I was on the mound about to pitch and woke up at the precise moment of release and almost struck my wife. This has been happening a lot recently. I actually start or complete the motion that I was performing usually is something explosive like a sprint or a jump etc. I am not scared or distressed by it but I worry that i might injure someone including myself .Any suggestions.
Hi Noland
Thanks for your comment. If you’re acting out your dreams, there’s a possibility it could be REM sleep behavior disorder. Not certain, of course, but it might interest you to read about it.
Regards
Ethan
So not been sleeping good for a couple months and normally just pass my dreams by but this time thought lets check. Never felt dreams within dreams was common to have. I dreamt i was asleep but got disturbed by a noise. I woke in my dream to find neighbours were in my house returning garden tools, thats when i realise i can see myself and im still asleep in bed. Soon after i feel myself in bed asleep but movements on my bed wake me up but i cnt move. My brain is telling me someones on my bed and too scared to look. I ignore it amd soon after wake for real.
Funny that I just found this article, because I do have this quite a lot, especially when I sleep in the morning (and never knew what it was).
I dream that I wake up and for a few moments it does feel like I’m waking up but then something odd happens (I hear a voice of someone I know is not in the house for example) and I realize I’m still a sleep. I tend to panic and try to wake up but I can’t and I just keep dreaming that I’m waking up, and everything just repeats again.
It is very stressfull for me and most of times I wake in tears and frightened.
I don’t know I fight it so much – my husband tells me just to relax without triyng to wake up – but in the dream I desperatley want to wake up and am unable to.
Hi Carolina
Thanks for your comment. I know it can be difficult to control how you react in dreams, but your husband may be on to something. If you can stay calm, it might help you to either gain control of the dream or choose to wake up. You could try setting your mind to the goal of not allowing these experiences to control how you feel or ruin your sleep. If you wake up scared, that’s understandable – but if you can, try to do something calming or relaxing when you wake up feeling bad.
Regards
Ethan
Hello Ethan,
Thank you for this amazing post, it’s 5 a.m now in my local time and i found your article after searching for false awakening in google, yeah i am awake now because i woke up many times in my dream tonight to the point that i felt afraid to get back to sleep again :)
my dreams were so vivid and by hitting dream number 3 i felt like i am encaged inside the dreaming sequence, i saw myself waking up in my bed at night and weird things happen like meeting strangers at home or even the people i know, some was nice and others were threatening. The last dream someone was chasing me and i thought to myself maybe i am dead and am in another world now.. i tried to ask some people to help me get back to reality, they told me that i am hallucinating or bipolar to say that lol, then i saw a big mirror and went to see myself there, before seeing my reflection i thought to myself: usually if i am dreaming am not gonna see a reflection, but i was surprised, i saw myself in the mirror more clear more beautiful than usual, and i got closer to my reflection looking right into my eyes and thinking: who am i? then i woke up
i don’t know what that does mean, just a notice here, i had this false awakening dreams when i slept the second time of the same night, because i had a dream when i slept early tonight, i found myself in that first dream saying some stuffs like i am god and i can awake from this dream of life, then i felt that awakening and i started being aware that am looking to life from an other eyes then i felt scared and i woke up, went to the kitchen drunk water and ate an apple, then when i got back to my bed i had those false awakening dreams..
Hi Kim
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your story. I can completely understand why you might worry about going back to sleep after all that. I think it’s important not to allow these experiences to create anxiety about sleeping – which I know is easier said than done. If you can, try not to worry that every night will be like that. Try to see each night as a fresh start and a new chance to sleep well.
Regards
Ethan
I keep having this dream but it feels sooo real. It’s like I’m awake and I’m aware of my surroundings and nothing has changed in my room. But as I’m laying in bed my front door usually opens and then I hear my keys jingle. As I think I’m dreaming but my eyes are open wide I look up and see my ex standing in front of me. I tried shutting my eyes and kept saying to myself “I’m dreaming” but when I open them he is still standing there. So I fake like I’m sleeping. Then once again i hear my front door open and closed. After a minute I open my eyes and he is gone. Last night was the 4th time I dreamt that. And deep inside while I am “dreaming” this i feel really scared. So after the dream I jump up to make sure all my doors and windows are locked. It’s the same dream over and over..
Hi Kaliegh
Thanks for your comment. I can understand why this would disturb you, especially if it’s the same dream over and over. That can’t be very nice for you! I think it’s also quite a natural reaction to check the house afterwards – many other readers have said they do the same. But perhaps now after reading the article, you’ll be able to find a way to relax about it when you wake up. Try, if you can, not to panic and instead do something relaxing, like some simple breathing exercises for example.
Regards
Ethan
I just want to say thank you for this educational and motivational article. For years now I’ve been suffering from what I now understand as false wakening. Mine usually occurs right after a nightmare which is probably why I never gave it any thought on trying to explore the dream. Now however I’m curious to understand what lucid dreaming is all about.
Hi Shante
Thanks for your comment – I’m happy to hear you found the article useful. And it’s great that you finally have an explanation for what you’ve experienced for years. Good luck with your exploration of lucid dreaming world – I hope you make progress with it!
Regards
Ethan
I was in a nightmare and this Teddy bear was following me so I woke up. My room was dark and I grab my phone to look up what that dream meant. I do this often so I didn’t think much of it. My phone didn’t turn on so I thought I didn’t plug it in to change so I try to turn on my lamp by my bed. This is when things got scary. It won’t turn on so I got up to try and turn on my light but like my lamp it didn’t not do so. Thus I got scared so I try to leave my room and go to my moms room to ask her if the power was out. But her door won’t move. When I look down to see why that teddy bear I dreamt about earlier was sitting in front of my door. So I so I split it aside with my foot but I was very terrified about doing it. I finally got out of my room and went to my parents now then I ask is the power out. My father said no why do you ask and I said my room was dark and I was scared, and he told me to do with it and that’s when I got really scared. I kept telling myself that was a dream but didn’t feel like a dream because it was so real and vivid so I kept holding my face and saying if the dream wake up it’s your dream wake up and finally I woke up but it felt so weird waking up.
Hi Sammy
Thanks for your comment. I know this kind of thing can quite weird and disturbing. It might help if you talk it over with your parents, especially if it keeps happening.
Regards
Ethan
I have a recurring dream where I am aware, in my dream, that I am asleep and see myself in my dream but I cannot wake up. Sometimes I can’t even open my eyes in my dream and I’m fighting it and trying to move, open my eyes, scream out and there is such an intense panic that if I don’t wake up I am going to die. Is this a lucid dream? false awakening? sleep paralysis? My exboyfriend would sometimes hear me making noises and wake me up. When I do wake up I am so disturbed, anxious and afraid to go back to sleep.
Hi Kellie
Thanks for your comment. I think it’s probably lucid dreaming. For sleep paralysis you need to be awake. False awakening you don’t know you are still dreaming. Lucid dreaming you are aware – as you are – and then either can or can’t influence the dream or wake yourself up. Try not to allow it to ruin your later sleep though. If you wake up anxious, get up for 10 mins and do something calming, then go back to sleep. And if you start putting the idea in your mind that you’ll learn to take control of your dreams, in future maybe you’ll have some success with that. Try to see it positively if you can – if you’re aware you’re dreaming, there’s the potential to have some great adventures, even if right now that seems like a distant possibility.
Regards
Ethan
I constantly have multi layered false awakenings and lucid dreams. False awakenings have been scary in the past, but now I am quite quick to recognise them and just have a word with myself, I tell myself in my dream – “that I am in a dream” – if there is nothing ‘dark’ going on I usually continue with the dream. Dreams in a layer of a false awakening become lucid and have great adventures, sometimes quite insightful that help me rethink/understand something in my real life. If in a layer of false awakening there is something ‘dark’ – I tell myself “to close my eyes” – then most of the time I wake up for real.
Hi Margo
Thanks for your comment. It’s great that you’ve managed to develop that level of lucidity. I’m sure other readers will find your comment very useful too. I particularly like the idea of telling yourself to close your eyes if you don’t like what’s happening, and that then wakes you up for real.
Regards
Ethan
I had a dream last night where I was in bed and I saw my blanket that kept moving on my right foot. Then I kept hearing scratching noises on the right side of my bed, so I leaned over to see if my dog was trying to get up on the bed and no one was there. I tried to get up but I couldn’t move and eventually felt like I woke up. I got up and turned on the light and slept with it on till about 4 in the morning. This happens to me a lot usually a half hour to an hour after I fall asleep. This just really scares me
Hi Carrie
Thanks for your comment. I can understand that it must be scary at time, but do try to remember they are just dreams – even if they can be confusing and upsetting. It’s good to try to keep perspective on them, and not allow yourself to be worried about sleeping.
Regards
Ethan
I kept trying to wake up. I think I tried more than 10 times. Every time I think I was awake, I do regular stuff like check my phone, go to the balcony, talk to my bf, etc then I’d notice something unusual and realize I’m still dreaming and would automatically find myself back in bed, unable to move and speak so I’d try to move my head fast to the other side and it will wake me up confused. I’d get out of bed doing normal stuff but feeling weak and I’d realize it’s still a dream and will find myself back in the bed unable to move and speak so I’d move my head fast again to the other side and it would happen a lot of times until I am really awake. Today, I had to go through it more than 10 times. It’s scary cos everytime I realize I am dreaming, I’d find myself back in bed paralyzed. It used to happen to me often 6 years ago.
Hi Erika
Thanks for your comment. Yes, it can be distressing when it happens so many times in one go.
Regards
Ethan
same thing is happening with me.. it’s really scary
What happens to me seems to be an extreme case, I sometimes wake up utpo 4 – 6 times in my dreams, it happens at least once a week. For me I realise I’m not actually awake when I things start to happen to me, these could be not being able to move or being extremely weak, going all dizzy and falling back asleep and even starting to move around my room then suddenly I’ll false awaken again. I never thought to take control of my dreams as I just let them play out, looks like I’ll have to give it a go.
Hi Joe
Thanks for your comment. Actually, many people do have these kind of repeat experiences, or nested dreams. Perhaps you’ll have some luck if you try to take control of the dreams. If you can, it’s a good way to deal with it.
Regards
Ethan
I came to this site after waking up in a dream last night and finding it very confusing but interesting. It felt like I was awake and there was something happening in my room making lots of noise, so I tried to move but couldn’t, then tried to shout, but found it very hard to make any sound. So I tried harder and harder to shout very loudly until I did ( I thought) Then I actually woke up and realized I had been dreaming, but had to smile and wonder if anyone heard me shouting at the top of my lungs! It felt so real, but unless I record myself sleeping, I’ll never know. I’ve had similar dreams, not many but a couple within the last few weeks. The earlier one was similar in that I felt myself trying to scream to prove I was awake, but couldn’t make a sound. The one last night, I was sure I did. Until I woke up.
Hi Susan
Thanks for your comment. It would actually be quite an interesting experiment to record yourself sleeping to see if you do make any real noise to reflect the dream, though I doubt it would be the case! Perhaps with some practise you could try and explore the dream in a different way than shouting – it might be possible to take control of the dream state. Maybe planting the idea in your mind that if it happens again, you’ll stay calm – that might help to prevent the screaming and maybe something else will happen instead.
Regards
Ethan
I do the same thing and have done for quite some time now. U do shout out it takes a lot of strenth to shout out but u do . I no this as its what i do. When i shout and my hubby is still awake in the bed he then noes . He needs to wake me . As he no im having one of my sleep epsoide. But i.hate it and would like to no how to stop the sleep problem i have as it fritens me and makes me cry
This has happened to me many times. I am in a nightmare and that’s what it usually is a nightmare and I want to get out of it. I wake up and see things around my room that are actually there out of the corner of my eye but I can’t fully open my eyes. I finally think I am out of it but I can’t move. I know if I don’t physically try to get out of bed I will just fall back asleep and return to my nightmare. I was under the impression you can not return to the same nightmare twice. When I do finally force myself to wake up I have a headache and feel disoriented. This does not seem to happen often but when it does it is a nightmare or bad dream. I try to slap myself awake but can’t move. Please if anyone knows what this is like or has had this happen to them. They are very disturbing to me. Thank you
Hi Dawn
Thanks for your comment. From your description, I’m wondering if perhaps you’ve experienced sleep paralysis? It could be that you’re waking up in your bed for real, but unable to move because of that. Check out my article about sleep paralysis, and you might find it answers some questions.
Regards
Ethan
I dreamt of waking up in my bed and I tried to sit up so I can get out of bed and do whatever it is I can do but I found out that I was too tired so I immediately fell back asleep in my dream. This happened two more times and that’s when I realized I was dreaming the whole time. When I woke up in my dream the fourth time, I closed my eyes really hard and tried to open them while trying to sit up to see if I can wake up for real. I did this a few more times and nothing was happening. I even tried to really get out of bed in my dream but it was like even dreaming, I wanted to sleep. So I was really just confined to my bed while sleeping. Anybody have an explanation? Can I prevent this from happening again? It worries me, especially since it’s been happening a lot recently. I wouldn’t really care too much if I can explore in my dream but I can’t.
Hi JJPN
Thanks for your comment. I know this kind of experience can be disturbing, especially if it keeps happening. As to why it’s happening to you more recently, I couldn’t say. Perhaps your life circumstances have changed in some way, perhaps it’s pure chance with no real explanation that could ever be found.
I know you say you can’t explore your dream, but that might change if you put the idea in your mind that you’d like to. Try telling yourself in the evening a few times that if it happens, you’ll get out of bed in your dream and explore it. Maybe by putting the seed into your mind, and sticking with it, you’ll be able to take control of your dream, or at least wake yourself up easier.
Regards
Ethan
I dreamt i woke up in a room that wasn’t my room after a few seconds of looking around i relised i was dreaming i panicked and did every thing i could to wake my self up I pinched my self even tried going to sleep in my dream to wake up in what was my room but then turned back in to the room i was originally in so I realised I was still dreaming panicing that i would never wake up i looked out side the curtains to see faces looking back at me that I didn’t recognise I was so scared i sat in a corning crying to which i then finally woke up to my husband shaking me because I was crying for real not just in my dream that was the scariest and most confusing dream I have ever had and I have to really strange dreams over the years
Last night I was having a nightmare and woke up screaming not understanding why my wife wasn’t awoken then I woke again only to realize that the previous awakening was still yet in a dream. This is the only time this has ever happened.
In my dream i woke up and went downstairs then i was gonna eat my breakfast until i realised no none was in my dream and it was really scary.i thought they were kidnapped by killer clowns due to the recent sightings of them. then i also realised that when i pinched any of my body my arms felt numb and couldn’t wake up.i was thinking of an idea and came up with one to wake up. so i was gonna get a knife to make a kinda pinch cut in my hand but there was none there only one being washed as there were thousand of dishes in my sink gone be getting washed.so i picked up one of my knives and was trying to get the sauce off it but it wasn’t coming off. then i got it off all in one go/one turn. as you know i didn’t wanna just play or anything mess around but i knew this was a dream. so i got the knife and pierced it leaving a cut in my skin. and ll mysteriously i saw cat eyes in my hand and the cut in my hand had a massive hole that looked like a big world of skin as big as probably the inside of the tardis in doctor who. but nothing as soon as i said my prayer before you go to sleep i woke up for real this time pinching my self and felling it but there is another way do find out if your asleep check if you have the right amount of fingers so i did.AND when i woke up i put my lights on and it was long time due o the time 4 o’clock to six o’clock 2 whole hours i was in the dream so dreams are really frightening. So next time iam gonna try of dream of chocolates. thank for reading this. Hope this never happens again.
I had the experience of hearing something that was waking me up, I thought I woke up and turned to look what it was, I saw a small black creature next to my bed growling at me, I flew out of my bed, knocking a painting off the wall in my haste to turn the light on. It was so real.
I constantly have dreams where I wake up and am either dragged or struck by a dark entity. I know in the dream that I am dreaming and screaming to wake up. I then replay the scene 12-15 times and each time the entity becomes more violent and I am more desperate to wake up (panicking and screaming louder & louder to wake wake up)..
There is also another version where I am repeatedly trying to wake up (becoming more and more distressed and panicking) screaming at my partner if she can see me.
When I do finally wake from either dream I have a extremely quick heartbeat and am really terrified to go back to sleep.
Please reply and advice me what I can do to avoid these terrifying dreams.
Hi Alan
Thanks for your comment. I think if it’s affecting your quality of life, then it might be worth getting a doctor’s opinion, though that might involve medication as an option. Perhaps you could also try two more things:
1. Have a reads of the suggestions for dealing with nightmares in this article.
2. Perhaps try putting the idea in your mind before sleep that if it happens again, you’ll try to stay calm and change the dream rather than fight to wake up. If that’s not working for you so far, then maybe going with the point that you know you’re dreaming, but in a more constructive way, might be a way forward. Some people do manage to lucid dream to the point where they can take control. Even if it doesn’t work at first, I think maybe it will feel more positive if you’re intentionally trying to take control rather than always feeling that sleep is a potential battle against your nightmares. If that makes sense?
Regards
Ethan
Hey, so I just woke up and its 5:45 am. What happened to me is terrifying. I started to have a nightmare that I was being shot at, so I got in a random car and drove off as fast as I could. All of a sudden an overpass i was on wasnt finished and i went off of it, in the back of my mind I think i quickly thought this is where i wake up right before I hit the ground. Thing is I didn’t wake up, I hit the ground while in the car upside down and a second later I was on the outside of the car looking in. I then remember saying, why am i still here? I was noe under the overpass and there were barrels with fires in them with my car totalled upside down smoking up, at this point I was aware something was right. I began to see rotwiellers walking towards me but I wasnt scared as I was now lucid and running through them, next second I was in bed with my gf. I get up and noticed a fort me and my son had made 2 weeks ago and it triggered an alarm, I told myself Hey, that’s not right we made those a while ago and had taken them all down. As I go back to my gf she begins to act funny, I was now in full lucid mode. I asked her How do I get out of here? She said faintly “You have to get a tattoo to wake you up” ad as I turned my hard there was a tattoo parlor.as I walked towards it their was a ghostly figure of a woman following me, every time I turned around she got closer. She was then using a bowl to mix ingredients for my tattoo, I said this isn’t right..i think my “dream gf” was trying to tell me to do something abnormal to wake up. I then ran back to the scene of my accident with her slowly waving bye to me. When i got there, their was a plastic lawn chair. I sat in it and tried to go back to sleep thinking it may wake me up, well it did but not to reality. I woke up thinking I had done it but everything seemed off again, I was in a dingy place with things morphed and eery. I then said I have to try again, there was a red barber chair and I ran to it and tried to fall asleep again, this time when I woke up i was in bed with my th with the same blanket. I woke up screaming “I MADE IT BACK” Out of breathe. This was my experience and it felt like i was rem 3 and had went lucid and i was fighting to get back. Thanks for reading.
Hi Jason
Thanks for your comment. I can understand your relief when you woke up after all that! It sounds like it was interesting though – perhaps if it happens again you can try and work on the lucid element to take control.
Regards
Ethan
This has been happening to me daily recently. It has caused me to be late for work, or miss work entirely. I’ll “wake up” after my actual alarm, continue my morning routine, then when I actually do wake up it’s been over an hour and I’m late again.
This is causing serious issues and likely stress, which probably is worsening the condition. I just want these episodes to stop so I can go on with my life.
Hi R M
Thanks for your comment. Perhaps you could try using a second alarm as well, and place it somewhere away from the bed?
Regards
Ethan
I used to have these as a little girl. I’ve always been a lucid dreamer. I didn’t realize others weren’t awake and aware wandering their dream worlds as they pleased until a little less than a year ago. I haven’t had many dreams since I was a child, after I had the same scary one for a year in a row I decided dreaming was not for me. Since then I wake up feeling as if I never left. Every once in a while I’ll have a dream and be involved, but very rarely. Marijuana helps with forgetting/not having dreams so I generally just feel like I had none. This morning I woke up at 12:30 am. I lied awake for hours, joined at around 3 by my love, stayed up talking and kissing and giggling then fell back asleep by myself when he left to work at 5:30 am. I fell asleep and could not get out of the universe I was in. I don’t know if you people believe in Alternate Realities/Universes, but I do. No matter what I did I was trapped. I wake up in my bed exactly as it was except my boyfriend is with me and I say “didn’t you just go to work Gavin?” and he looks at me and smiles and says “yeah I did” and his eyes glow this scary, demonic glow honestly it was just dark and evil. and I’m like what the &*%$. Let me get out of here, and I run out of the room and I wake up again and I’m in the hall and everything is normal and fine until I can feel the spirit there again. The dark feeling it gave me when it looked at me in my room. I then tried to scream “Mom” a few times and I wish I could remember the interactions I had at the beginning of the dream, but other details stuck with me and overpowered the rest. (I don’t know why I was screaming for my mom, her and I aren’t very close. But it’s all I felt could save me) after a little while of trying to scream “mom” I’m with my mom and my mom is asking me to tell her what happened and why I’m so upset, as we sit at the bar of her old house. she tells me I need to calm down and I said “no mom. You need me to tell you what just happened i couldn’t get out of it” and she stands up with a plate of food and goes “it was just a dream” and then I realize, how the %$£& did I get to my moms house? My mom would never turn her back on me if I told her she must listen to a story? She turns her back on me as if to walk into the living room. I grab my arm and felt it. When you’re dreaming your arms don’t pinch. You can pinch at them and it will feel like you’re barely touching anything on your finger tips, but even more so your arm will feel NOTHING like it does on earth. She then turns back to me and says “a mom would never say that. A mom would never say it’s just a dream Kaylee” and I’m sitting there like what the &*(% kind of trick is this guy trying to pull over on me? Looks at me through my moms eyes, the same scary look he gave me in bed in the beginning. I grab my arm as hard as I can and scream. Rather than calling for my mom, I decided to call for my boyfriends mom. She was asleep in the room next to me and i felt like I needed to get back to my body.
Have you ever felt like you’re about to lose your body?
I truly felt like this spirit was trying to trap me in another universe. I screamed TEAH TEAH TEAH as much as I could and woke up in my bed. I couldn’t feel the fan on my skin as I generally always feel. No way, I’m still not awake? I sat up in my bed and tried screaming, I couldn’t get a sound out. Why can’t I get myself to make a noise? All I’ve wanted is to wake myself up with a voice. Brain, SCREAM! SCREAM BRAIN SCREAM!! Nothing. I feel myself get a little mumble, barely a whisper out. Am I going to be able to get out of here? I look around and there’s always a glass on my bedside table. I grab it and throw it as hard as I can at my door, the mirror hung up on my door. I throw it and at the same time I SCREAM her. name once more. I then hear her and Eric (the man who sleeps in the same room as her) in hushed conversation. I pass by their room where I hear them and finally wake up in my bed, awake and aware, dripping with sweat, and unable to hear Teah or Eric in their room because of the fan in my room I can feel and hear perfectly. Thank you universe for that. It was around the time Eric wake up to get ready to work, and when I got up to go the the bathroom I heard them talking.
I feel like I couldn’t get out, and if they hadn’t awoken at that time and began talking I wouldn’t have been able to find my way to my body.
This is not unlike another dream I had as a child, where I felt like this scary vampire spirit was following me in my house. I’d hide around my house and wake up again right behind the couch every time hiding, hoping I was finally awake for real. It would go on and on and I’d know it was a dream the entire time but it never felt like a dream. It always felt like this scary thing was trying to catch me.
When I fell asleep around 5:30 in the morning, I felt like I couldn’t hear something. I’d hear voices but then once I listened for them there were none, then I heard a loud high pitched vibration that switched to different pitches and thought to myself “I could talk to spirits if I wanted to”. Then ended up in that dream. I truly haven’t had dreams in a long time, and the ones I remember I can only remember one little part of it. An insignificant part that tells me nothing of the dream.
For this I was there for every step. I can imagine it all in my head again. I can hear and see my mom moving around so much differently than she generally does. The words I said and the thoughts I had while being there, the actions I took to try to get out.
If anyone has any further knowledge on lucid dreaming, alternate realities, dreams like the one I just mentioned, and anything else they think might help, I’d love that. You guys can email me at (removed by editor) if you want. I’ve always been in control of my actions during dreams. I always know I’m dreaming. I can generally move my way about and do whatever I want in the dreams, but these are paralyzing. I can think, I can talk and act, but I can’t find any connection to my human body. It’s different than feeling myself laying at ease and at rest in bed, while my mind is out doing something else. It felt more like my body was going to die If I didn’t get back to it, and like I wasn’t even connected to my human brain anymore.
I’d like to add, I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t drink caffeine, I eat organic foods for the most part and stay away from sweets, I’m not on any medications or anything like that. I’ve now had a job for a few weeks where I am outside doing physical work daily. I honestly don’t want to hear a single comment questioning alternate realities or spirits, so if you’re weary then just don’t respond. I’m aware there’s more than just earth going on and you should be too. Thanks!!!
Hi Kaylee
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your story and ideas in such detail. I’m sure there are readers who will be very interested in your ideas here. Unfortunately, I don’t publish people’s contact details as a matter of policy. But perhaps people will respond to your comment here.
Regards
Ethan
I’ve done lots of reading up on this to finically realise this is what I’m having. Had them for years and find them quite distressing. I often dream that I am trying to wake up but can’t open my eyes pe speak because I’m so tired (in the dream) I then dream that I have woken up and I’m telling people that I’ve struggled to wake an ask them if I really am awake to which they reply yes but I’m not I’m still dreaming, then something happens for me to realise it’s still a dream so try to get myself out of it again, this can happen several times before I really do wake and then I’m exhausted from it all.
It is so relieving for me to see these stories. I have been having these.. false awakenings for about two years. Actually just woke up (HOPEFULLY) from one. I find it very distressing.
What you described: “I often dream that I am trying to wake up but can’t open my eyes pe speak because I’m so tired (in the dream)”. This is what I have most often.
The dreams I just had were so scary. I was just dreaming regularly but I wake up in a big house where I’ve never been before. Still there are objects there I recognize so the dreaming part of me makes up a story why I would be there and I believe it. I walk around the house and no-ones there, even though I feel like there should be. Then I wake up, in the same bed again. It is dark and I hear scuffling in the room. I try to light the lamps beside the bed but it is like I just cant see them properly. I take my phone but it feels like I just cant see ‘light’. I guess it feels similar to not being able to focus on a star in the sky because it seems to disappear when you focus on it.
I don’t remember how many times I ‘woke up’, but it was at least five times, of which one I woke up somewhere else… But after that I woke up in the same place again. At this time I am fully aware that I am not awake and that I’m stuck. I get really stressed out and try to move, but can’t. I hear someone walking in the room. They walk towards me, but it’s too dark to see. When they grab my arms I realize it is ME. An other me is grabbing my arms and trying to tell me everything is fine. I can move again and I kick and hit and scream my lungs out. And suddenly I wake up. For real this time… It just feels like I was really there just now, in that house, with the other me. It feels so different to normal dreaming. I don’t know what to make of it.
I have had times I had these false awakenings and when I woke up for real I had sleep paralysis.
The weird thing is that I ONLY have these false awakenings and sleep paralysis when my boyfriend isn’t in bed with me. And if I wake up early (go to the bathroom or something) and go back to sleep I have a very big chance of getting false awakenings.
Does anybody recognizes this?
Either way. I am very happy I found this thread..
Hi, I don’t know if what i experienced was a false awakening or not; i know it wasn’t sleep paralysis as i have had that before and know the symptoms. about four weeks ago my son and I were staying the night at my folks, my son is only 9 so he was sleeping me. He has a habit of snuggling right up against my back, and he is there all night. I can constantly feel him. im not sure what time it was but i felt myself waking up, i just lay there waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.. once i was comfortable with my sight i noticed my son standing up on the bed. now as it was dark i just saw his shape, i look over at him and i ask him if he was ok, he didn’t respond or even look at me but kept looking at his hand and turning it over and back as if he was looking at something odd. then i realized i can still feel him sleeping up against my body.. i looked back up at him standing there and reached up to touch him and my hand passed right through him. it was odd, but i wasn’t afraid, in fact i remember thinking that it was fine that it was just his little soul going out for a bit, so i mentally asked God to take care of him and rolled back over smiling. it made me feel very peaceful. i told my husband about it and he says i was just dreaming; i told him it was too real to be a dream. …. i have only had one other experience where i thought i was awake but was seeing something that shouldn’t have been there. In this case i woke up in the middle of night and again knew i was awake and waiting for my eyes to adjust.. i started seeing shapes hovering over the wall i was facing.. the were large shapes of people running or other objects, it was very hyrogliphic like… i rolled over thinking maybe i was just matrixing on the patterns on the wall.. i rolled on to my back and those same images were in the air hovering over me across the entire room.. again, i didn’t feel any type of fear, i just thought maybe God was trying to tell me something.. i lay there looking at it a bit more then shrugged and rolled back over … i wasn’t concerned at all, it was all so vivid, i can remember every moment of both incidences clearly.. i told my husband about the 2nd experience and now he is worried about me… im still not worried…. any thoughts would be very helpful
Hi Michelle
Thanks for your comment. I think it could have been a dream, perhaps with a false awakening, or maybe even a sleep hallucination. It’s hard to say, and sometimes it’s impossible to really work out what happened in one incident.
Regards
Ethan
False awakings have become so frequent for me that I am instantly aware of them. Its harder and harder to wake up. Focusing on trying to move my physical body doesn’t work. I have tried shouting for help and that doesn’t work either. I get so scared in my sleep that I wont ever wake up. Recently I’ve become so paniced that I start to cry in my sleep and my physical body starts crying as I sleep. From there my boyfriend wakes me up since he now knows that I am stuck in my sleep.
… and i had a lot of coffee as well.