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 had a dream this morning and it shook me to the core. I had fallen back to sleep after I took my children to school. I had laid on the couch for a while waiting to fall asleep it took me a while, but I finally fell asleep. In my dream, I could see myself walking around my house. (It seemed way to real that I doubted myself). I see my husband in his office but all the furniture is moved around, not in its normal spot. Then my dreamself walks away and I could see myself laying on the couch and I try to wake up. It didn’t, I didn’t wake up. I remember getting back up and seeing my kids get ready for school. (they were already there). In my dream, I panicked thinking this already happened. my dream self tries to wake myself up again. it didn’t work. This next time my dream self decides to get up and and lay down in the exact same spot on the couch that I am already. I panic even more. In the dream, i could feel my heart beating like crazy and i start to freak out. I am able to finally wake up only to have my husband standing over me, reading my phone’s text messages, which startles me even more. I wake up in sheer panic mode, it took me a while to realize that I was actually awake this time. I hope I NEVER experience that type a dream. It messed with my entire day.
That’s how mine are. I just continuously wake up from a dream but am never actually awake. And I’m aware that I’m dreaming and I keep trying to wake myself up. I’m like in first person mode screaming out to nothing/myself, if that makes sense, to wake up! And then I’ll wake up to find that I’m still asleep and dreaming. It’s terrifying and I have had it happen twice in a week.
OMG! Me too!! For the past two nights in a row! Multiple false awakenings (felt like 10 in the one I just woke up from). And I am fighting like MAD to wake up and I think I do only to realize that I am still sleeping – and this cycle just keeps repeating. And it is really freaking me out. I’m afraid to try and fall back to sleep tonight.
I just moved in with my dad and the house is haunted. This does scare me but I do think that it is starting to affect my sleeping. Recently, I had just start to experience sleep paralysis. I have experienced this multiple times and just today I started to experience a new dream where I am dreaming, of a dream within a dream. And in that last dream, I have the sleep paralysis. Then I think I wake up when really I haven’t and I wake up actually and I’m just like in shock. This has stopped me from getting the amount of sleep I need because it freaks me out so much.
Do you try to scream something but nothing comes out? And when you think you woke up and actually got up and walked around, you never even woke up? Finally, when you do wake up you’ve never actually moved? Did you see the ghost in your nightmare?
So about a hour and a half ago I was sleeping with my husband. I was having a normal dream when all of a sudden this guy started screaming and didn’t stop. My heart started racing, that dream ended, I was still dreaming but I still heard the screaming and I could see my husband in bed with me. I kept saying “babe wake me up” and I was trying to move but couldn’t. I then woke up and told him about it. I went back to bed and heard a really loud beeping, my heart felt like it was racing again and I was trying to touch my husband so he would wake me up but I couldn’t move again. I got up and turned on the t.v. and thought maybe that would help. He got up for work and I went back to sleep. In my dream I was up and about and then was sleeping in bed with my baby. I kept waking up in my dream to see if my husband was there and he was I could see the t.v. and excatly what was playing. I told him about my dreams and he comforted me. As I was laying with him he started talking jibberish in another voice. I’ve never experienced anything like this before but I hate it, It’s so scary. I woke up crying.
I just woke up for real from a false awakening and this article was extremely helpful. I tried to wake myself up three or four times, and legitimately thought I did it in the dream because I could roll around after feeling stuck for a few moments. Almost afraid to fall back asleep tonight at this point, but the article helped
I had this dream this morning where I woke up but kept feeling paralysed and very tired
So I started to try and get myself awake as I didn’t want sleep paralysis as I have had this before. I couldn’t open my eyes and I was walking round in the dream with my eyes closed and everytime I managed to open my eyes it was completely different to where I thought I was. I then thought to myself in the dream that this could be a dream so I kept my eyes shut and went for it. Obviously still in the dream but rather than fight the weirdness of it all I realised I was dreaming so I carried on. I think I have just had my first lucid dream which started from thinking I had woken up!
I woke up and struggled to get out of bed I felt slow and heavy like I was drugged up. I went to the bathroom and then to the kitchen. I thought I may be still dreaming due to that drugged up feeling having happened the last time this occurred. I went to the mirror and looked around my house for clues of dreaming. There were balloons in the living room, i started popping them to wake myself up. Husband came home from work and I told him I was dreaming and that I needed him to wake me up. He tried tickling me but it didn’t work. I grabbed his glass of water and threw it in my face and then hit myself over the head with the glass. I also started shouting out very loudly. Husband was asking me to stop I was telling him I needed to wake up. I asked him the date and he said june 17. I told him it was August and that proves I’m still asleep. I looked at my phone to check the date, June 17th. I tried to read some text messages and could just about make a few out. A stranger then walked into our house and grabbed me. I was shouting my husband for help, he got on his knees and begged me to wake up. Stranger threw me onto the bed. I smelt his breath as he spoke. I knew I had to wake up and was trying so hard. I bit his hand as hard as I possibly could before finally waking up.
My issue is I have multiple false awakenings in a dream. At first I dont realize whats going on but then I start to realize that I am once again going through a dream where I wake up only to be in another dream. I “wake up” about 15 – 20 times and each time I get more and more freaked out to the point that when I am awake I am not sure if Im actually awake. I am only 20 and this has been going on for as long as I remember.
I’ve been having these kinda dreams for as long as i can remember, i dont know, since i was like 7 or 8. And i woke up today from a false awakening as well, i didnt find it distressing tho cuz i woke up by someone hugging me. I was still in a dream, but the hug felt so real. I even asked my sisters if they were the one who hugged me after i actually woke up. The most I got are 2 false awakenings in a row, that one was distressing for me tho. But the dreams weren’t as bad as the first time i got them. Cuz id always wake up feeling neutral, like i wasnt happy nor scared (eventho i dreamed about an old lady wearing red chasing people who she saw had fingernails and threatening to cut them off…welp i hit mine cuz someone told me to). In all my dreams, i never know that im dreaming, it doesnt cross my mind. But there was this one time (actually 2) that i woke up questioning if i was still dreaming, cuz i woke up feeling surprised, like that dream felt so so so real that i was surprised i woke up and that creeped me out. I once almost had a lucid dream but somehow in that same dream i forgot i was dreaming, when i found out i was dreaming the next few minutes my head started hurting and i felt dizzy, it didnt take more than 2 min before i forgot i was dreaming.
I’m 42 years old and I believe I just had my first “dream inside if a dream.” At least that’s the only way I can describe it.
In the first dream, I was back in the National Guard and was sitting in uniform inside a classroom at my unit’s headquarters. There were other people from my unit there. However, some things were strange. I remember forgetting my beret and was worried about that in the dream. I had it in my mind to ask someone if they had an extra in their locker that I could borrow, but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Anyway, enough strange stuff happened that I realized it was a dream and became intent on forcing myself awake.
It took quite an effort, but eventually I willed myself awake. I awoke only to see one of my closest friends who was in the National Guard with me standing above me in my bedroom. He was in full uniform. I realized that he had been shaking me awake from my dream. I said his name and he was speaking to me but there was no sound coming from his mouth.
It took only seconds before I realized that this couldn’t be real. At the same time, I began to doing I was still dreaming because I had just woken up. My mind kept telling me that I was surely awake.
I decided to try and wake myself again anyway. It took incredible effort but I told myself I had to wake up. I had to get out of this.
This time when I awoke I was actually awake. My heart was pounding and I was feeling a wide range of emotions from shock to fear to finally, relief.
I believe this is the first time in my life that I experienced a “false awakening.”
I have been able to realize I was dreaming in the past and was able to become aware enough to control the dream.
This was different, though. I must say I hope it doesn’t become a habit, because it was quite unpleasant.
I then Googled the phenomenon and came across your artice. Very informative BTW.
I actually had experience it last night. I tried to wake-up 4-5 times only to find-out, i was still dreaming. The first time i tried to wake-up, i couldn’t see my hands, i tried to wake-up again, the second time and i already started reciting prayers the only thing i can depend on. The 5th time i tried, it feels like i had a hard time breathing still i continued to pray, then alas, i finally woke-up. I look at the room, wiggled my eyes, i tried to cover the window with curtains because it feels like somebody is making me having bad dreams outside the window. Also, when i woke-up, i was full of sweat eventhough the room was very cold due to aircondition.
I really have to stop watching rick and morty this false awakening dreaming was one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me I woke up several different times in my dream only to realize I was still in the same exact dream and every single time I would wake up in my room but as I walked out everytime the places would change……
I had a nested dream where I couldn’t wake up in reality but in my dream I woke up numerous times after every 2 to 3 seconds. I couldn’t leave my bed in my dream and that was very frustrating.
I’m having a terrible time with nested dreams or dreams within a dream that are like sleep paralysis.. I’m stuck between being asleep and awake…I know I’m asleep and can’t wake up..I panic and try to scream but can not..I usually have to wake up SEVERAL times to get out of it.. It seems to go on for hours. But I know in reality is only a few mins..I don’t feel a presence.. I’m alone stuck in my head and feel like I’m dyeing.i have the type of urgency u would feel if being stuck in quick sand right at your face sinking, struggling in vain and making it worse. I also suffer terrible night terrors..I wake screaming and crying hysterically several times a month. Like I mentioned there is no presence or thing after me.. My mind uses the Ppl that I love to torture me.. I’ve seen my children die multiple times ect.. My grandparents that are deceased are alive.. So even the dreams that aren’t horribly scary are emotionally draining.. It’s a special kind of hell… I’ve struggled with this for years.
I frequently have these dreams, and they can be quite distressing. I will “wake up” 5-6 times but I’m still inside the dream. One common event is that I try to turn on my bedside lamp, but it won’t turn on. This is when I usually realize I’m still asleep. Or I grab my phone and try to look at it, only to realize that the phone is still on my nightstand and my hands are not doing what I tell them to do. Sometimes I do get the phone, but it’s full of weird symbols and images (weird mails, cartoons, one time deers’ antlers intertwining endlessly). I can’t get to the main menu, there are endless layers of apps that won’t close.
The problem with trying to lucid dream is that usually, nothing interesting happens. I might float up into the ceiling and look down at the rooms while hovering. Since I can’t turn the lights on, I can’t see much in the dark, and I’m just hovering over empty, quiet rooms. I can’t turn the TV or computer on to entertain myself. I feel a strong sense of boredom that leads to anxiety, because I’m trapped inside a very dull place. Sometimes I start wondering if I’m in fact in Hell and I’ll never wake up for real, this cycle will just go on forever.
What often helps is holding my breath. I just will myself not to breathe for a bit. When I start gasping for air, I almost always wake up. It’s not a comfortable feeling, but it usually works. It can also help me wake up from nightmares.
I’ll try the tips in this article when I next have this kind of dream. It’s a relief to see I’m not alone and there are many other people who get caught inside their dreams sometimes.
I get these on a routine basis. Sometime 3 or more times in one morning.
In one, i woke up like i normally do, noticed that it was full daylight outside, and left the room. The first thing that tipped me off was that the door was harder to open than usual. As soon as i left the bedroom, the house was suddenly too dark to see clearly (my house is small and has many windows, so this is never the case). There was no familiar furniture that i could see, there were doors in walls that i knew had no rooms behind them, and nobody was home.
I didn’t get to explore much before i woke up for real, fell back asleep without realizing it, dreamed i was checking social media, and woke up again. Then I’d had enough and marched out of my room before i could fall asleep again.
I had a really bad dream of waking up but nothing in the house was the same as then I actually woke looked on google for answers went back to sleep to then have another dream just like it I tried to wake up but nothing was doing it, it scares me too know that I felt stuck like I would never wake up
I JUST woke up from the most terrifying dream of my entire life. All of my dreams I realize I’m dreaming and then can wake myself up if I need. Once I had one false awakening before actually waking up. I thought it was cool. This time turned into a nightmare. I must have had at least 6 or 7 false awaking “layers” as I described them. First I realized it was a dream and because I was taking a nap, decided to wake myself up. And I did only to realize that I was still dreaming, so I tried to wake myself up again, only to wake up and STILL be dreaming. As this went on 4 or 5 more times I felt myself become trapped in something similar to a casket or as if I was under a bed. I couldn’t sit up, couldn’t wiggle out, couldn’t slap myself awake. I had to then will myself awake mentally while panicking.
Once I did FINALLY wake up, which I knew I was because of how different my surroundings were, I went out into the living room and actually had my husband pinch me to make sure I really was awake this time. I’m still freaked out about it and terrified to go to sleep tonight.
same happens with me bro…plz help me..i am afraid..
When I was 12 or 13 I woke up, I couldn’t move, I heard and felt a loud and intense humming all through out my body. It felt like someone was hold all of my muscles down. I opened my eyes and could see the daylight coming through the blinds from the window beside my bed and could feel the warmth of the sun on my face. I could not move a muscle. After a few seconds I fell back asleep only to wake right back up, run downstairs and tell my mom, who was sitting at the kitchen table reading a book and smoking a cigarette. I told her what had happened and then I woke up again, ran downstairs and told her again. This happened probably 5-6 times. When I finally woke up for real, I ran downstairs to tell her and she was sitting in the very spot she was in my dreams, smoking and reading just as she was in my dreams. I’m now 34. Last night I had a dream I was riding a bike out my road and came across my friends husband who was riding a dirt bike, it was broke down so I was trying to help him and we were talking. All of a sudden his dirt bike turned into his truck and we were both sitting in it parked at the side of the road still talking when his girlfriend (my friend) came around the corner driving someone else’s car. She looked at us like we were doing something behind her back. I got out, went to her car and she would barely let me speak she was so mad! I stopped and said to her ” it’s all okay! This is my dream” and speaking started to get harder but I managed to slowly tell her “I know this is a dream because I can’t talk very well and your eyes are rolled back in your head” then I looked at her eyes after I said that and they were completely white. That was so weird I went into a different dream for a bit and then woke up.
I just woke up from a nested dream with
1 false awakening. Previously a few weeks back I ‘woke up’ about 15 different times. It’s surprising to me that this is normal because I’ve never had it before. All you can feel in that situation is trapped. I know I’m dreaming, majority of the time I always know and my dream ends up being about me trying to wake up but I can never do it unless there’s an external factor (like someone entering my room or some sound) to wake me up. The sound can be very soft like just a handle turning or a door opening and it’s enough. But on my own I can never do it and that itself is terrifying.
Last night I tried to punch a wall or scream or run and it was like I couldn’t or at least I couldn’t feel it. So I don’t know how to get better and stop this because i hate it and no one around me understands what I’m talking about
I understand you. I had a dream like that. I tried screaming. I know I was screaming too the top if my lungs. But nobody heard me. I only woke up because I was panicking so bad I couldn’t breathe. It’s very scary
I just woke from a “nested dream” on which I woke up (or I should say thought I woke up) about 6 different times. In each instance I woke up in my bed, wearing what I went to sleep in with my daughter sleeping in her bassinet next to me. The first one I realized I was dreaming and the energy in there room was odd so I tried to wake up, then I woke again only to find I had something in my mouth I needed to get rid of and I went to the bathroom door, it was closed when I opened it I found my fiancé in there with a friend of his and they were wearing hooded sweatshirts and I basically threw up and out a white substance that landed on them like snowflakes… I knew I was still dreaming then I woke up again to look for my fiancé and he wasn’t in the livingroom but when I went back to bed he was there I asked him to wake me up I felt like I could hear the real him through my subconscious and I wanted him to yell to wake me up, then I woke again to the sound of my 6 month old daughter singing (um she can barely talk) so I knew I was STILL dreaming and that happened again and that very last time before I finally and truly woke up I was just panicking and wanting to be awake to be out of the dream. During the 3rd go around within this dream sequence I wanted to enjoy it and do something cool and fun but each time the energy of my apartment was off and made me feel uneasy so I was lucid enough to know I was dreaming but just wanted to wake up. I have had only one other lucid (nested) dream which happened a few months ago and felt the same way. I am glad I read this article- it helped me to know they’re techniques to getting out of these dreams… ok back to bed- wish me luck!
Had a dream last night where I woke up and thought I need to go to the loo, however when trying to get out of bed found I couldn’t move without the greatest of effort and before I could get out of bed fell asleep only to re-awaken repeating the cycle. With each successive awakening I found it harder to move as if being held to the bed, eventually I woke up and found that I could move and got out of bed, it was after about 20 minutes of this I realised I was actually awake.
Cant honestly say I enjoyed this new experience, but have to say all my dreams were extremely OTT last night and very varied, might have been something I ate.
I woke up in the morning today and was listening to class lecture online. After a while I got really tired so I closed my eyes. Eventually I realized that I was awake enough to know I needed to listen to the lecture but I was asleep enough to be dreaming. So I turned off the lecture and put my alarm on for one hour. About 50 minutes in, I realized that I was trying to wake up but I couldn’t really move because I felt so tired. I opened my eyes and saw that my alarm was going to go off in five minutes. I was awake enough to know it was a dream and I didn’t need to worry but not awake enough to realize that I could stop the dream and actually just get up. i was trying in my dream to get up somehow and sometimes I would sit up but just fall back down again because I was so tired. Then I tried to move my arms and legs one at a time so that I would get enough strength to move my whole body. Then doing that in my dream made me actually wake up and be able to move around. By then I just fell asleep for another three minutes until my alarm went off. Then when I had to get up it was actually really hard to because of how tired I was.
I had this happen to me today and it’s made me feel ver strange. I fell asleep however can’t remember what I was dreaming about although thought I had woken up. Tried to pick up my phone and my arms wouldn’t move, fell to sleep again then this happened twice more before I actually woke up and could move.
Had a false awakening happen for the first time this morning. Actually 3 of them. What was troubling was I didn’t wake up in my bedroom that I have in my home now but instead, my old bed at my former home I grew up in with my family. I had not slept in that bedroom for almost 20 years, yet 3 times I experienced it today. It was so real, the same bed, dressers, bookshelves,etc. My parents recently moved to a smaller home that’s more accommodating for them at their age, and a much safer neighborhood. I think I still have a lot of regret and anxiety since that house had been in our family for generations. Needless to say it was both bittersweet and frightening false waking up there.
I’ve been experiencing this for a couple of years now. I open my eyes and sometimes I can move only my arms and legs. I can’t get up and move. It usually happens when I fall asleep on the couch. It happened today, only thing was, I got the blanket off me, but when I could get up, the blanket was on me still. It used to terrifyme, sometimes I can’t breathe, now I feel like I got no sleeping and it creeps me out.
I have had sleep paralysis and false awakenings. The craziest one I had was a night I decided to sleep on the couch because my boyfriend was gone and I had moved to a new apartment and I wasn’t used to it yet. I fell asleep and thought I had awakened in the night by something moving in my apartment. I get up from the couch and turn the light on and I see rats and squirrels covering my living room floor. I new that I was dreaming then and tried to wake myself up. I actually think I have awakened myself at this point because I am in my apartment and I am laying on my couch where I had started the night. Okay, so this time I hear something coming from the kitchen. I get up from the couch and go to the kitchen, turning on the light when I go in. I see my stove, a gas stove, opened up. The top part of the stove can be lifted to clean out grease and food and it was up. Only difference is that all the burners are lined up in a row, not in a square pattern and the craziest thing is that my cell phone had been hooked up to the burners like some type of jerry-rigged bomb, LOL. At this point I realize that I am still dreaming and struggle again to wake up. I think I am awakening but this time I end up outside my apartment in a grocery store that I had never been in before. It was huge, with all kinds of displays and large rooms for produce and the like, not like a regular store. It is literally like a maze and I have to find my way to the exit. Once I find my way to the exit, there are three men in black outside the exit trying to keep me in the store. I manage to get by them and I again wake up. I think there was one more sequence of the dream that I don’t remember and I finally woke up for real on my couch. I think I did something to see if I was really awake but I don’t remember what it was. I think the sequence with the rats and squirrels was because of the apartment complex. It had all types of animals like squirrels and bats, flying squirrels but oddly no rats that had gotten into my old apartment in the same complex. The second sequence with the stove I think was because my boyfriend and I were having some problems and I had been texting some pretty ugly texts because I was convinced he was seeing someone else and he kept lying about it. The one in the store I think was because I was trying to lose weight and was really a slave to calorie counting. I was using this website to log all of my calories, sugar, salt, potassium, etc in order to make sure everything was in balance and I was also getting enough water and the like. I have had others but managed to wake myself up without really seeing what would happen. It was distressing to me to not be able to wake up.
This happens to me only if I sleep with the TV off and everythingsee pitch black. My recent one happened at work. Ok so I do security and i was the only guy at my post and I feel asleep not knowing I was sleep, I then dreamed I woke up from my exact spot everything seems to be normal. I did my rounds as I usually do but this time I was called down to parking lot, which never happens. I go down to the parking lot and a women tells me security is needed to check out a suspicious car. I then went to the car it was a black car with black rims and dark black tint. Mind you I have no gun. As I approached the vehicle the guy let’s down his window. I tell the guy hey man this is private property can you please leave. He then proceeds to shoot me in the side of my head. I didn’t die I just walked off holding my head and there was no blood. I was confused, so I go back in the building to see my baby daughter sitting in the chair and as I went to reach for her she starting sounding like my phone when she opened her mouth. I then woke up to my phone ringing. It was creepy.
Ive had sleep paralysis and false awakenings many times. I have noticed sjnxe having my baby 8months ago i havent had one since….and it used to happen every month or two.
They were unsettling. Worst one was multiple false awakenings… i woke up heart pumping i was terrified. I kept waking up in my bed start my day to then realise it wasnt real…so my dream self would go back to bed…to try wake up for real….and i culdnt… this happened sso many times in the 1 dream i cant even count and i was becoming more and more distressed that i couldnt wake myself up. I also kept seeing a little boy or girl each time thats How i knew it wasnt real… i have read if u let your dream happen you will wake up…but because i was so terrified i couldnt. That was a really bad one.
Ive plenty of times woken up only to find my mind is awake but my body isnt…paralysis..its a horribly sluggish feeling. When i was a small child i think i lucid dreamt too…. i remember waking hp above my bed and seeing myself and my sister alseep… i remember telling my parents i floated lol they told me i was dreaming..but it felt so real i remember it to this day. I always have whacked out crazy scary dreams even repetitive ones… maybe having a baby sorted my brain out!?! Only time will tell!! :)
I am 26 now.
it happen to me in a loop…usually i started with the lucid dream,, then i want to wake up from it and end up waking up in a dream, it scared me a lot then if i try harder to wake up i get sleep paralysis,,,try to scream and other things, then woke up again, still in side my dream,, but usually i didn’t notice that for awhile until i walk out of house and see it’s still dark,, than it’s just turn to some nightmare like chased by something, or seeing my self still asleep,,, this just way too scary sometime,, it’s go in a loop,,, and after i woke up for real,, ham afraid to get back to sleep again,,, and end up getting more loop,,,, so from my experience,, after almost every night having those last year,, it’s really important to be relax and not thing too much before you go to bed,,, if you not sleepy than don’t try too hard to sleep.. for me listening to music help me a lot,,, just usual music,, the type of “going to bed” kind of music will not help much,, its just scare me… if you get sleep paralysis u’ll end up panicking, but make sure u calm your self and realize it’s just part of the dream,,, if you calm you’ll end up wake for real.. refers way of sleep,, if you get those scary thing when you sleeping up side,, then try to sleep right/left side way,,,and the opposite, it does help me a lot,,
As I was sleeping last night I had a horrible nightmare but I don’t know if it was a lucid dream because I thought about how I could wake up and tried so hard to wake up but I just wouldn’t budge! and when I did “wake up” i just woke up in that dream? If that makes sense. It’s like I woke up but I just woke up in that same dream just a different area of that scary house. It was terrifying! It was like a…i don’t know um…I have to do this in order to wake up kinda thing. The dream was:
It was the first day of school apparently and we sat at this desk. Then we went to lunch and there was this HUGE hallway filled with water. Only the bottom was filled with water. And I touched it. I think this is the part where I started to realize I could do anything I wanted. So I jump in it and splashed around in the water. I even kissed my crush! Hehe, but I knew it was a dream. Then my dream was getting scary and the scenery turned a little different. My grandparents house was there and that where Monique (a person I know in real life) apparently lived there! She had kidnapped me! And I don’t remember some but I remember asking my friends to help me get out of this horrible dream and they did. Thank god. I said if I go through a Forrest I’ll be able to wake up. They took me to this Forrest type thing but it was upside down? And they pushed me in and trees were flying by me…then I didn’t wake up I was still terrified but I was safe. I called my mom on the phone I had. Where I was which was where I used to live. (condos) I left the condos and I thought something I was like “wait what I am I doing? Go back, my mom is probably sitting on the stairs!” And I go back and there she was! We hugged then went inside my moms friends house. I was safe…then I woke up.
What was this? It was scary and I don’t want to go through this again. I always wanted a Lucid Dream but not like this!
I’m also 13 but I’m not stressed or worried about anything. But before this dream I had slept the day before. Maybe that caused it? Because I was in a deep sleep. But I was also aware of myself laying in bed wanted to wake up!
I’ve had false awakenings many times. The usual pattern is that I’ll wake up seemingly normally and then quickly become aware that I’m actually dreaming and then I try to will myself to wake up, but keep waking up in another dream and the cycle will repeat several times as I get increasingly frustrated. When I finally wake up in real life, it’s obviously not a dream, but I feel afraid to fall back asleep and into that cycle.
Another pattern is that I’ll dream that I’m in my room in my bed and the room looks normal. I can see my partner sleeping next to me. I become aware that I’m stuck in a dream and want to get out, so I’ll scream frantically to my gf to wake up. Eventually, I’ll wake up for real, but my gf is still sleeping soundly so I know that I wasn’t screaming in real life. I usually end up feeling distressed about these dreams throughout the day because the feeling is so unsettling.
It also usually happens after waking up too early and falling back to sleep.
I don’t see or feel any other presence aside from my gf. Just a sense of panic, like my consciousness might get stuck outside of my body and in a dream world forever if I can’t make myself wake up.
I have recently been falling into very lucid dreams that are now including false awakenings. In my situation I know when I’m about to experience these types of dreams because my bed starts to feel like it’s bending and pushing up against my back which leaves me feeling like I can’t move. I then start to experience something close to sleep paralysis, where I can’t move anything but my eyes. Last night I had a very strange dream where I kept waking up in my room only to find myself still dreaming. The funny thing is that each time I “woke” I would notice that something was out of place like the color of my room or a window out of place. This would lead me to realize I was dreaming and caused me to explore the boundaries of the dream. Each false awakening would lead into a lucid dream that was either based around sexual fantasy, assault, or strange worlds that took me through maze like situations. I don’t seem to mind these dreams but I do hate the sleep paralysis part especially when I feel or see, out of the corner of my eye, a demon like presence which seems like a little girl running around my bed. I also experience a spirit like voice whispering my name or asking me a question right before I actually wake up. If anyone has similar experience I would love to hear about them.
I literally have the exact same thoughts and feelings as this! The demon bit is horrible!
Hi John.
I would like to know if you recently had a traumatic experience or by any change anesthesia. I had the same experience, and it only started after I had surgery and general anesthesia. The only difference was in mine the little girl was a man at the end of the bed. Would love to hear from you.
Juni
I’ve had False awakening and sleep paralysis all at one time and i wake up stressed out and sometimes i have false awakenings twice in a row after i wake up from the dream it feels real like i woke up but i didnt then when i really wake up i cant go back to sleep bc im scared it will happen again but how it starts is that i cant move my body but only my eyes i can move then i close my eyes and i can feel my blood pumping hard and thats when the dreams start
I have the exact same experience. Sometimes I will “wake up” 4 or 5 times before actually becoming physically awake. Mine are always terrifying. A lot of times there is a figure at the end of my bed. I have been getting these for about 10 years. No rhyme or reason as to when it will happen. Always happens right after falling asleep though.
This exact experience happened to me three times in a row. Does it happen often?
I never leave comments on anything but I honestly woke up so confused and slightly terrified (even though this won’t sound scary when you hear it).
I woke up at 11.48am really tired still. I remember looking at the clock and thinking to myself, oh well I don’t have work today so if I sleep until like 2 pm it doesn’t matter. I then rolled over to face the other side and went back to sleep. I must have fallen asleep because I started dreaming, it was really random but didn’t end very well if I’m honest. So the dream must have woken me up because I woke up thinking about it nearly crying and filled with anxiety (bad dreams don’t bother me as the feeling passes pretty quickly), anyway after I woke I rolled over to look at my clock again to see how long I’d been asleep for (felt like forever) and low and behold it was 11.48am iv never been so confused in my life. I have been sat up for the past 20 minutes trying to work out what happened (even pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming again!) does this sound like a false awakening?
sorry if the answer is obvious, this has never happened to me before and this is the first article iv come across that sounds similar !
Hi Courtney
Thanks for your comment. Well, it’s hard to say really. I guess there’s the possibility that the first time you woke up and saw the time was a false awakening, yes. But usually if people remember these experiences, they kind of know that the previous waking wasn’t real. Is there the possibility that you misread the clock first time round, perhaps in the blur of waking up?
Regards
Ethan
Same thing happen to me I fell asleep at 10:50 pm and felt like I slept for like 8hrs woke up it was 10:51pm I was like what just happened and I wasn’t tired anymore didn’t go back to sleep til like 3am it was weird
Ever since a traumatic experience, I have false awakening dreams and sleep paralysis all the time. Many times I go from one to the other until I actually wake up. Some times (rarely) I know I am sleeping other times I am trying to figure it out the entire time until I actually wake up. This makes me panic and I do not get good rest. I try to force my eyes open and no matter what I do they wont open. Then I feel like I see my self out side of my body and all the different stages of my self almost like a flip book.. of what I was doing to try to wake my self up. I sometimes feel like there is a male presents in the same room. Last night was the first time they spoke to me and he said he was going to kill me. I was unable to move and had no control over my body to run or move. These are extremely frightening dreams. I wish I could learn to control them and have some fun like fly around and have a good time. I have these dreams often enough I hope to get control. I know this sounds unrealistic, but part of me wonders if there actually are presents (spirits) around us that influence us and our dreams.
I just woke up like this, I tried to wake up for the longest, and I couldn’t. I pictured I was in a very dark hospital with just this woman. And I remember thinking, I’ve had this dream before. And I remember that dream in my dream. So “I woke up” to notice I wasn’t awake. I was in bed still, and I would fall back asleep. But in reality I had never woken up. I finally did, and I still didn’t feel like it was real. I did feel a presence in the room, but I don’t like saying that because I feel like you invite that stuff in your home. But reading your post. Tbh made me more scared, but it’s interesting!
I get the false awakenings where you wake up in your room and you know you are dreaming but everything feels off and scary. At first is just trying to wake up for real, but after 6 times of waking up within the dream it’s just downright terrifying. I have done all the tricks in order to wake up but I can’t.
Sometimes I do the reality checks and for some reason the dream passes the tests (I clap and it sounds and feels normal, I’m able to speak again) but then I wake up again. Also, pictures are clear and I’m able to read text off my phone. It feels so freaking real but I know it’s not reality because usually there’s not a scary atmosphere in my room.
It’s so distressing because I keep thinking “this time, I’ll wake up for real” only to find myself in other stupid dream. When I wake up in real life, it’s pretty obvious that it is my reality but I start doubting whether I am really awake and it just freaks me out. Then I can’t really go back to sleep because I’m scared it will just happen all over again. Usually, my body is a bit sluggish and my movement feels as if I’m underwater, but as I wake up several times it feels closer to reality.
If anyone has tips to take up besides blinking, shutting your eyes and opening them, screaming, focusing on something, jumping off the stairs and hitting the walls, please tell me. Also, does anybody feel that someone is watching you as you try to wake up? I feel like a show, like there is someone watching me in every dream (but I never see said person).
The same EXACT thing happens to me. Nothing helps to wake me up, and everything in my house look and feels exactly the same except I know something’s wrong. It’s absolutely horrifying. I feel like someone’s watching me too, even though I’ve never heard or seen anyone.
Every dream starts the same- I wake up and feel strange. I immediately question whether I’m actually awake or not. The second I question it I know I’m still sleeping. So I try everything to wake myself up. I try to find my dog so she can lick me and wake me up. I read, I look at pictures, I touch my face, and everything is so real. So I convince myself I’m crazy and that I’m fine and I’m actually awake. Then it gets fuzzy and it resets in the same exact position, and I do it over and over again (at least 5-6 times) before finally waking up.
The worst part is that when I finally do wake up, I’m so afraid of falling back asleep. I just want it to go away and I don’t know what to do.
This is what happens to me exactly. Eventualy though, i go to turn a light on, and it doesnt work. None of the lights work. And thats how i know im asleep and i get soooo angry
It happened to me this morning. I tried to get out of bed, but was unable to move the blanket. After several attempts, I started calling loudly, but my voice was not projecting any sound. I remember to casual friends where near by and got out of the same bed. Very strange. The room looked the same, except for some strange looking very dark knotted string in the corners of the room. I finally removed the blanket of the bed and actually was awake. Very disturbing and a repeat of a similar dream.
Last night was very stressful with my dogs and the fireworks. In addition,we tried to save a baby seal from two circling eagles. This must have incorporated itself into my dream.
Every time it happens to me, I try to wake up but I can’t. Then I start to panic, and suddenly I can’t feel my body and I struggle to breathe. Eventually, I wake up, and it really scares me. I feel like my body might remain that way and never wake up again. Sometimes when I go to sleep, it happens again.
I’ve always dealt with sleep problems, Insomnia, Sleep Paralysis and I also Lucid Dream very often with no intent on doing it. Lately though, I’ve been getting alot of false awakenings. Infact the first time I had ever experianced False Awakenings was when I was a toddler, it was a horrible nightmare. Thankfully I was able to gain consciousness of it at such a young age. I’ve decided to make a guide on what I do for every situation, hopefully it helps anyone reading this.
SLEEP PARALYSIS :
This is probably the most frightening sleep disorders that I deal with on a regular. Some nights I will get it 3-5 times in a row. This is when your body is in a “sleep mode” but you are still conscious. When falling asleep your brain sends signals to your body, such as a common ” roll over ” where a person switches the side of thier body they are sleeping on. When the body doesnt respond your brain begins to put the body in a sleepmode aka the paralysis part of sleep paralysis. This is why you are unable to move during a period of time, there is a chemical unbalance in your body. This is very similar to when your leg, arm, foot pr hand falls asleep. You cant move that part of the body.
What I do to “fix” or rather just deal with sleep paralysis is to just realize what is happening. Once I know i’m in a sleep paralysis state I begin to say in my own mind ” This is sleep paralysis, nothing that you are experiencing is real, its all fiction. ” In a few more seconds you will be able to move and gain control of your body once again. The best and only tactic I use for sleep paralysis is accepting its happening and waiting for it to finish.
INSOMNIA:
Ive experianced 2 types of insomnia, No sleep insomnia and Always sleepy Insomnia. Over the course of 4 years I only got around 2-3 hours of sleep a night. The only thing that bothered me during the 4 years is that if I wanted to fall asleep I couldnt. That bothered me the most, although I was very energized and didnt experiance any congnitive disfuctions during the 4 years. Over the last year Ive been able to sleep 9+ hours a night! I know this sounds amazing and seems like suck an improvement but unfortunately Ive felt the most dragged and unenergized Ive felt in my life. My competitive drive in sports is gone and so is my extrovert personality.
I’ve yet to find something that gets rid of my insomnia. Eating well, drinking water and getting enough vitamins in my body definitly improves how I feel. Listening to uplifting music and staying goal oriented even when not motivated also helps with the slouch feeling I get all day. My philosophy is: Things only have power over you when you give it that power. Stay in control and great things will follow.
LUCID DREAMING:
This is very different, I’ve been able to lucid dream my whole life. It is very natural for me. I simply notice that Im dreaming so I begin to make my own decisions in my dreams. Ive never taken lucid dreaming to far, I usually stay within the boundaries of what the dream already was. I simply do whatever I want in the dream and see how it pans out. If the setting is at my house, I usually stay in that setting. I’ve never pushed the limits of lucid dreaming, Ive never seen the reason to do so. I do look foward to trying to control my dreams on a new level. Traveling my mind during a dream with no limits.
FALSE AWAKENINGS:
False awakenings is a very annoying and stressful thing I go through. I get anxious because I go through about 10-25 false awakenings before I actually wake up. I always get the sense of being trapped, so I begin to get extremely pissed when I can wake up.
All I do is try something new every false awakening. I usually try and alter the dream so it breaks up the pattern. I might bite my hand to see if I feel any pain. If I dont then I restart. Next time I “wake up” I will stand up and jump. If Im still not awake I’ll try to force myself to wake up on the other side of my body. I simply try any and everything I can to trigger myself to wake up. I look at it as a puzzle, I force my mind to work at its highest capability. Im literally looking for the key ( trigger ) that will wake me up. Its never the same stimuli that will wake you up, so dont get fustrated, continue to do different things until you wake up.
Hi Adam
Thanks for your comment and for sharing all of your ideas – that’s really helpful of you. I particularly liked the sleep paralysis concept of acceptance. I think staying calm is key, so that’s good advice.
Regards
Ethan
This is so distressing. And it usually happens to me after i’ve woken up in the morning and finally fallen back asleep. These sleeps are just so deep. i get sucked in. And this morning it was probably the most distressing of all. It happened TWICE in a row. and multiple times EACH SEPARATE time it occurred. The first was a nightmare about my ex.. i could almost feel him in bed with me. He wasn’t there. I just felt his presence. And it wasn’t even my current bed. It was my old bunkbed in my old house. The when I realised I could no longer control what I was doing or saying.. the last thing that I say usually resounds in my head like a broken record player as i lay there and stare at the ceiling or bed railing. (this happens in most dreams). This time, I was trying to tell my sister who was on the top bunk with me that “it hurts, Rana.” (as in the pain of my break up). Eventually that line was all i could hear on repeat while i lay there stuck. After finally waking up for certain, I checked my phone.. texted a few people, looked at my email.. (this all ACTUALLY happened) and all the while my eyes were so heavy. And i knew i should stay awake. I just KNEW i would get stuck if i fell asleep again. And it was just lulling me. I needed to shut my eyes. It didn’t take long before I gave in. Lo and behold, my next sleep was even worse. I was Lucid dreaming. I was in some weird festive place and a young gentlemen was trying to market something to me on an app on his phone. Eventually he left my line of sight and i was just scrolling through my instagram feed and stalking people I want to stalk. I knew he was still around. When i realised I was going to get stuck, I called him back and told him i was scared and that I didn’t want his phone. I started sobbing and crying because i knew i was going to get stuck. Eventually the scenery changed to my actual current bedroom and i had about 3 false awakenings while where i felt my eyes were open but my body was frozen. I could feel the shortness of my breath. I was panting. and again the broken record player “God, please help me.. God, please help me..” again and again. I woke but i still couldn’t move. I tried again. This time I felt the presence of my sister (who sleeps next to me). But i knew i was still dreaming because she had already left for work at 7am when i DID wake up. I heard her say “Zena… Oh my god…” as she realised i wouldnt wake up even after she nudged me. I FELT her nudge me. And i started to panic even more because i felt like even she couldn’t wake me up from the outside. Part of me knew she wasn’t actually there but part of me kept thinking it was real. Eventually I woke up with heavy eye lids once more.
It’s really really stressful. and sometimes it makes me afraid to sleep.
I have been confused whether am having sleep paralysis or false awakening…? I know that taking a nap during the day is something I avoid as I always tend to have hard time waking up or I see myself up while I know I am still sleeping. Last night however, was terryfying as I saw someone touching me with her hands but like I was really awake… I remember calling to my husband “wake me up” three times I repeated this and I even felt touching him so he could wake up but I guess it was all in my sleep. I was scared. I did my best to wake myself up, I looked into my room about three times but always finding myself wanting to sleep again… I remember making up my mind to wake up and I finally did and the first thing I did was woke my husband and he heard me and he turned on the light and wet my head because I wanted to be really awake… this is the first time I experienced this and at night. Do you think this will continue to happen to me at nights? Because it is frightening.
I experience lucid dreams. They’re not all pleasant. like you, I have learned to call out to my husband if they turn nightmarish and he wakes me. I had a false awakening where I called to him and he woke me, or so I thought. I awoke into a false reality and I was suspicious that he wasn’t my husband. I told him that I knew he wasn’t my husband and his face became contorted and he took on demon like qualities. He sat in the bed and laughed as I called out to my husband to really wake me up. He didn’t hear me. My mind was fully conscious that I was trapped and began to reason that I may have died in my sleep and that this half world was what remained for the mind once the body had died. I woke up very suddenly in a state of shock. I didn’t even trust then that I was awake. I had to physically shake myself. I got up and put a comedy on the tv as I knew the dream was waiting. I managed to escape it but it has affected my whole day.