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 have lucid dreamed, long before i ever heard of it, practically since i can remember, I had to. I have severe PTSD, though thanks the the Lord, Jesus Christ, I have been able to get rid of about 98% of my triggers. I have had nightmares since i can remember, and i was always aware of them being dreams and would beg Jesus to wake me up, it seems to have become a trigger to wake me up now, i almost always wake up when i pray that now.
At the sane time, dreams are a large reason i have healed, I use the scenarios in my dream to quirk past my trauma. The other day i dreamt about zombies and no one would listen to me when i told them there were zpmbies, not listening is really my only ptsd trigger left, so that’s what that dreams about.
I constantly have dreams within dreams and they are ALWAYS unpleasant. I wake up in my room, but i almost immediately know it’s a dream b/c something is never quite right, lights are on but they’re very dim, my alarm clock wont turn off even i unplug it, stuff like that. I immediately attempt to wake up and it almost always results in another false awakening until my dreams are so frightening i wake up screaming.
I also have sleep paralysis both before or after falling asleep. I have had night terrors my while life, etc.
I think one time i counted i woke up 2 times within my dream, again getting increasingly scarier.
I don’t actually want them to stop in a way because, like i said earlier they help me resolve issues i have in my waking life. I think dreams can often be a very safe place to work out problems.
I have had numerous dreams where I confronted ppl I can’t in waking life and it actually was what finally got me over my anger at these ppl. I can think of about 10 or sho different ppl i have evidenced this with. Most out of my life. I was and even very recently been heavily abused. I’ve been stalked several times, harassed sexually and otherwise on a frequent basis, assaulted physically by strangers, and assaulted sexually by strangers. I’ve been raped, beaten, screamed at for long periods of timefor no reason, manipulated and then advantage of a lot. That doesn’t cover 1/2 of what i have and do go through.
Dreams have been a safe place for me to work out issues and figure out what’s really going on with me. AND I have learned how to trigger nightmares, easier than you think, to allow me to finally confront the things that have bothered me most and it has changed my life. I stated to use what scared me to finally heal effectively from PTSD, and the host of autoimmune issues it has carried with it for me.
God Bless ~Amy
The other night I thought I had an episode of SP which I have had before, but I now think it was multiple episodes of false awakening. I ‘woke up’ and was aware that I was awake but couldn’t move, like normal with SP. Then, I swore that I had regained just enough muscle control during the SP to get out of bed and army crawl to my bathroom. I never got to a point where I could stand up and look in the mirror. This action was kind of in a loop, happening several times. Each time when it was over, I would realize I was still in bed and still could not move, even though it felt 100% real that I had. With SP, normally I can remember “I moved my finger and felt my sheets, and that’s how I woke up”, but with this experience I don’t remember actually waking up, I just sat straight up in bed.
So I’ve been reading others comment and I’m pretty astounded how many of you have similar dreams as me. I used to able to be lucid in dreams and fly, one time standing on top of the golden gate bridge and I’ve never even traveled there in real life but ever since my Uncle committed suicide, I have the same reoccurring dream. It feels like I wake up, real time, it happened last night. My dog was in the room with me, the lights were off which scared me so I get up to turn them on, they won’t work, so I get more scared because I hate the dark, so I go to get out of my room, well last night I had locked my bedroom door and the lock is shifty, so I’m getting more scared cause it’s like I’m aware there is a ghost or something messing with me and I’m trapped. Then I wake up with the strangest cold chill that is indescribable. I never know what it means, the dreams stopped for awhile after cleansing my home with sage. It sounds crazy but it helped. Might be time for another smudging!
Earlier today, I had a nap on the couch and I kept waking up except my eyes were very very heavy and I was trying to call for my girlfriend who was napping in our bedroom, I could faintly see the tv on how it was and this repeated a few times anyway I couldn’t open my eyes until finally I did and I was actually awake. It didn’t really freak me out. Now it is nighttime and I have literally just awoken after having a much scarier experience this time. First I was in a bad accident and it was so real it hurt so bad and I was left really banged up. Then I would jump to a new dream new location a few times over all feeling eerie and then I was in my room except it was completely different and I was trying to wake up once I realized I was in a dream and I kept nodding off I was sooo tired and my eyes were so heavy but there’s was a glowing red light bacially a sign telling me not to stop and to focus on waking up. So I kept nodding almost falling asleep(in my dream) and I tried so hard and I was so terrified… I finally woke up and my girlfriend was awake beside me saying I was whimpering and moving around that she was about to wake me up… I woke up heart racing and confused and scared. It’s now 12:47 am and I do not want to go back to sleep. I’m worried this will just keep happening. I’ve never had his in my life until today
Finally I know what it’s called. With me it’s nest dreaming. It is just distressing to me, because once I’m aware that I’m dreaming . I try to wake up but I can’t remember where I fell asleep. I start breathing fast and start panicking. Than I have to calm down and let go of try to control everything and I wake up panting and feel like crying. It usually only happens if I wake up early and go back to sleep after being awake for a while. Hate it. Also know the sleep paralysis. Does not happen much anymore but when i had my depression i had it regularly.
I came to this site from Google search because I had a dream inside dream.
I wanted to wake up, opened my eyes but still on same place, now because I had such situation many times and I knew I am still inside dream, my husband was sitting next to me in my dream, so I made good sex with him, of course, still inside dream.
It sounds funny but yes I used my false awekning in very pleasant way then I easily came out from my dreams without feeling scared :)
im not exactly sure if its false awakening or its a sleep paralysis since i experience both.
i had a morning nap since i always dont get enough sleep at night due to my work. i would like to wake up but i couldnt move a muscle so i decided to go back to sleep. but since i needed to do some work , i need to wake so i woke up, do my my chores etc etc only to find out that it just a dream. the worst thing is when i woke up i felt so tired!!! it makes me really scared!!! it happened trice already.
I keep having the recurring dream where my mother is trying to kill me she takes a pillow and suffocated me then the dream jumps to another the location in the home it was her office in the house and it’s as if she’s stressed with life and her partner all I remember is her sitting in a chair out of it stressed, bald headed and blood coming out the sides of her head while she talks to my stepfather. I knew I was dreaming when I noticed there was a dog their that I never seen in my life. Once I realized the dog was fake I knew I was dreaming. Then I skipped a dream and I was locked up in the room I sleep in but it was a bit different and I was scared… I wanted to wake up I was trying to yell but I couldn’t use my voice and then for some reason all the cellphones I ever had in my life appeared on the table in the room I was in and I couldn’t find my actual cellphone And I had no desire to explore I was devestated and scared and overwhelm I wanted to wake up and I don’t know if it’s because I remembered what my mother did to me in my dream and I was expecting her to come out and do the same again but I was afraid I was trying to make noise in my dream so that I can alert my roommate in my real life to wake me up but it was of no use. So I gave up and turned off all the phones and went to the bed and lay there and finally awoke. —— it was in deed an odd dream.
I had another one a couple months back ever since I started living with my roommate. Long story short, I rented a room and for some reason in one night I had 6 awakenings in my dream and the 7th one was the real final time when I actually woke up. I remember in one of the episodes that I woke up since I knew I was dreaming I was trying to imagine myself wearing this dress I wanted from Macy’s and it didn’t work I got so mad and said whatever, and for some reason when ever I laid back on the bed and gave in to the idea that this will wake me up. I woke up in another dream that happened 6 times. And in one of the episodes I also remember opening my door and instead of seeing the kitchen I saw a hallway with a bunch of doors and one door was open and when I went to peak in it looked like a crime scene, I knew I was dreaming and since I do have pretty frightening dreams I ran out and went back into my door and jumped into bed. Lol in the dream I was thinking I probably left my dna there so it was a mixture of deep sleep and lucid dreaming so confusing. And every time I jumped into bed with hopes of waking up I’d wake up to a dream. When I woke up I felt exhausted and I even felt paralyzed for a minute that felt forever I didn’t move afraid because I didn’t know if it was another dream. Thankfully it wasn’t but it was too early and I had to fall asleep and I wasn’t looking forward to another lucid dream.
Idk guys but my dreams are a bit too odd and overwhelming for me, and i can’t explain this state of fear that I tend to be in I was panicking to wake up it feels real and exhausting.
I had a false dream last night. This was my third one so far. In my dream, i was at school with my friends and we were having fun. That day there were visitors and we went to watch the a special show they prepared for us. While watching it i realized that i was in a dream. All of a sudden i saw something blurry. It was a button. My friends were arguing at that time and it felt like that was going to happen to distract me telling them about it. Stupidly i pressed the button. I woke up. But not at home in bed. Instead i woke up in a forest. I saw a man that look like he was 43 or something. He said there were monsters in the forest. I was freaking out, saying to myself how am i gonna get out of this dream (i knew i was in a dream)? I thought if i go killed i might wake up. I went to search for a monster to kill/eat me. I found one but for some reason i was too scared so i screamed. I ran till i reached the old man. I said to myself, its my only chance to wake up. So i went up to the monster and it ate me in one piece. Was scary but didn’t hurt. Finally i woke up. I was relieved and saw my sis on her phone so i hugged her (she had no clue what was going on). That’s the end of my story :)
It doesn’t happen every night but this happens to me often.
I go to sleep, then i ‘wake up’ in my room. Everything in my room look EXACTLY like my room to the last detail before I went to bed. Like my blue cardigan hanging of the left bedpost draping just so. Or a dinted solo can sitting on top right hand side of my cupboard. The only thing out of place is how I feel which is an instant terrible dread like something horrible is going to happen at any moment. And when I try to get out of bed I can’t move at all. I try to move again and again and it doesn’t work…
I’ve had this dream so often that I can now recognise pretty quickly it’s a dream and I tell myself to wake up. I wake up in my room and then I go through the same process. It’s still a dream. I realise it’s still a dream while not being able to move and tell myself to wake up. This process can repeat itself three or four times in a row before waking up for real. It’s pretty crazy.
I have the same dreams almost to a T of what you described
hi,1st I had a dream but just usual dream its happen to me like a year ago in that dream a black women close my face with pillow to suffocate me n wants to kill me on that dream i don’t know its a ghost/other things after that i woke up fast and i was like what just happened but i’m still alive thanks god its just a dream but its not about that coz i just had dream within dream right now,i’m in bed sleeping and bcz i miss my bf hand so i just imagined his hand on my face but that hands feels so real and it pushes me on that pillow n that things i mean black man with shadow said something to me but i can’t recall,i can’t breath or moves my body n i taught i’m goin to dead but then i wake up on that dream n run go to toilet coz i was frightened by it n my bf suddenly back home n i told him that i was dreaming n same dream like a year ago and he said that was just a dream don’t worry and then i suddenly woke up n think about that weird dream
i have dreams that i am awake and wake up and not awake but still I wake up and then I wake up and wake up repeatedly it can happen for hours after the alarm clocks been going off for hours already and i’m going to get fired from every job I’ve ever had because I can’t wake up like normal.
I have nested dreams aswell but not to your extent. that really sucks, have you thought of getting therapy for it? It’s not fair for dreams to interfere and ruin your everyday life.
I have the same problem
Thank you for posting this info. I have experienced false awakening or nested dreaming twice in my adult life. Both times I have been far a long in pregnancy around the seventh/ eighth month in real life. First time was in 2014. Terrifying falsely woke up at least 7-8 times before actually waking up. Then it happened again last night waking up 3 times before I actually awoke. Both times were terrifying and I then have a hard time deciphering the dream world from the real world. I have to seek reassurance from family that I am now in actually in the real world and no longer in a dream state. Very panicked and terrified once I actually do awake. The Dreams are so vivid and detailed they feel real. Last night the first two were mundane and seemed short in length, the third however was extremely frightening involving moving into a house where I recalled it as a memory that was actually from a dream long ago. The house had an ill feeling a very negative energy. Then a little boy appears and he seems so real, but when others claim they cannot see him I realize he is actually ghost. Once this realization sets in his face begins to morph into more demon like features and his eyes turn all black. He gets angry with me that I am trying to get him to move on to the after life. He will not leave the house. I gather my family and tell them we are leaving immediately even without our half unpacked belongings. A large dog is then there trying to keep us from leaving the house. He lunges for my neck to bite/attack me. I jump out of the way just in time and we begin to leave the house. Once outside a landscaper approaches me and asks “are you Oriana?” I say “yes why” he says “I have a call on my cell phone for you” he holds out a flip phone and I can hear static and a voice trying to speak through the static so I refuse the call and tell him “anyone who I know will reach me on my own phone.” And I continue to leave with my family knowing the voice on his phone is the demon boy in the house trying to get me to stay.
I awoke in reality to my young daughter crying and my older daughter asking me if I was alright. I was very shooken up and couldn’t move for a few moments. I blinked several times and had to ask her if we were back in reality.
I woke up in my Dream in my room panicked panicking, Freaking out & I grabbed my phone for light an some reason no lights in my room would turn on I felt something in the room with me I tried playing loud music in my dream thinking it’d wake me up but I couldn’t I was so scared I remember slapping myself & pinching doing everything & I still couldn’t wake up at the same time I was feeling drowsy like I was going to fall asleep in that dream I’ve never been so scared I walked by the animals in my dream an they were hissing as if I were something bad an I went back to my bed an laid their scared then woke up for real am breathing heaven an stayed up after that ☹️
I remember dreaming about something. Then in the dream I remember vividly feeling like I was suffocating of drowning. So I woke up (False awakening) and I turned over thinking “Thank you that was just a dream” and I remember reaching for my phone, turning it on and looking at the time. It was 1:26 pm. So I turn back over and went back to sleep. Then I had another weird dream. I don’t remember much but I remember feeling as if the two dream were related but I didnt know how. So when I actually woke up I turn over, turn my phone on, and it’s only like 9:30 am. The weird thing is it was so vivid that I thought it was real life.
I just had a nested dream but the last one was really weird maybe it was sleep paralysis mixed with a inner outer body experience? Anyway I “woke up” feeling relived I had escaped the last two false Awakenings. After a few seconds in though I relised I was still dreaming and started freaking out because I couldn’t move so I thaught I was experiencing sleep paralysis. I than relised though that I was lying on Someone elses body when it moved it’s toe I did too but I couldn’t feel my toe move only see both of our toes moving. I started freaking out more because this usually leads me to some how feeling like I’m suffocating because I’ve rolled over or the blankets going over my mouth. I could see out of my eyelids because when I woke up I was looking in the same place I was in my dream. In the background it was a mix of weird humming noise that slowly got louder, music I had just listened to or that were stuck in my head, and some dude the same I was lying in reading about lucid dreaming. When I woke up it was one of the best feelings I had ever had.
So I just came across this because I just woke up from having multiple false awakenings in one of the worst nightmares I’ve ever had. I have nightmares a lot, probably 3 or 4 nights a week, but this one wasn’t the average nightmare for me. It was a lot scarier, partly because I knew I was dreaming in the dream, so I would do something in my dream like try to move my hand or grab my phone. And I would think that I was awake, but kept drifting in and out because I was so tired. In this dream where I thought I was awake I would actually get up in my room and everything would seem so real. But then I would start hallucinating and seeing a monster or something and it would kindof start all over again with me being in a dream and “waking up” from it. I’m honestly scared to go back to bed. Like I don’t know if I was sleepwalking at all but it definitely felt like I was moving my body and I’ve never done that before. I’m 20 and a female.
The last false awakening I had was just a while ago, but I somehow can’t stop thinking about it which is the reason I’m on this site. I guess I was having a nightmare of being chased by this thing, it looked like a women. She was wearing a gown that was basically torn everywhere and looked all ghostly like. I closed my eyes in the dream which resulted to “waking up”. I was in my bed and just lay there for a few seconds staring at the ceiling before I sat up only to be met with that women standing at the end of my bed. False awakenings can be really frightening.
Also, there was one night that I guess I was awake but I wasn’t? I dont know it’s a bit hard to explain. But my body felt heavy, I couldn’t move but I was aware that I was in my room but I couldn’t see anything. I tried to call for my parents but I couldn’t move my mouth or speak. However, a few minutes later I could move and speak again. Does anyone know how to explain that?
Just tonight I dreamed within dreams, I dreamed that I woke up for 5 times or more and my surrounding looks so real. At the 4th and 5th time it bothered me, because I voluntarily tried to wake up but I was trapped inside a dream. After a while my dog barks at me then my eyes gets to open, it took a some seconds before I was able to move. Moving felt heavy as well as if something is pressing down on me. It was a weird scary event that I only experienced for the first time. But the 4th and 5th time I tried to wake up was the fun part, I can control the scenes in my dream like I was awake.
My “false awakening ” wasn’t per say a bad one I dreamt i was in my bed and my ex tapped my shoulder and asked me to move over so he could lay down with me. I only concern is that why would I be dreaming of an ex when i have a husband is it a sign that I yearning my ex’s company or that I’m not happy. It just confused me a little when I woke like why?
My other half was away for the night last week and around 5am I was woken by a really strange loud noise coming from the floor by the side of my bed and thought I must have knocked my phone onto the floor in my sleep and an app had opened but I couldn’t see it lit up anywhere so got up to turn the light on but it wouldn’t work, I got back into bed and the noise started coming from the other side of the bed and I could hear people talking to each other outside my bedroom door, then the talking started coming from my tv in the corner of my room and because my light wouldn’t turn on I was trying to turn on the tv but that wouldn’t switch on either so I got back into bed and pulled the duvet over my head because I was scared and just lay there with my eyes closed until I fell asleep…. which is when I actually woke up.
I had no idea I was dreaming because all of my surroundings were the same and I consciously made the decisions (or at least I think) to get up and turn on the light and try to turn on the tv but I couldn’t make them work.
hi everyone, i just came across this site after having a dream with 4 false awakenings…this is the first time in a very long time i have had one.
i kept waking up in my bed but the sutroundings were different. i knew it was my room but didnt click on to why it looked so different i could see a staircase behind it and my house isnt set up like that. i kept walking down these zets of stairs which were like a quiet old hotel amd made my way into the reception area where people were watching a programme on a historical war. then as soon as i was looking for my cigarettes id wake up again in the same bed thinking i didnt hace a cigarette and so i went down the stairs again and this time different people there including a friend of mine so i was talking to him when out of nowhere u wake up again…but this time i was trying to make sure i was actually awake. when i get up i click my neck out of habbit amd when i was doing it i put my fingers on my neck and could actually feel the movement i feel when i really do it so this convinced me i was deff awake.. so i sat up which was a major struggle and focused on this weird lego looking statue thing in my room…i wasnt scared just confused as ever and gasping for a cigarette then out of nowhere it turned at me and within 1 second i was fighting with an older looking man and i chased him back down the stairs amd coins were on the floor so i started to pick them up and throughout it all i was thinking please tell me im awake…but i wasnt the last episode was sleep paralysis but i knew just nefore it that i was dreaming but had no intention of staying in the dream..i finally woke up and felt very confused…wouldnt say distressed but uncomfortable that my own mind is capable of tricking me repeatidly for some reason…ive had my cigarette now and eating some sweets haha. message me if you get something like this.
I had multiple false awakening with a nested dream, and only twice I got up and moved around. It felt different and I was scared to see what was behind me, and I felt tired as well. Trying to wake up only to find out I was there again in the same position as I did when I left. Then when I went to walk around a family member came to visit and it was during the holidays. The last time was when I called my aunt because she’s a nurse and she had the same voice of worry, and I was on the verge of tears. Finally I woke up and wondered if it was still a dream and I reached out to get my phone and relief flooded me, seeing everything how it was when I fell asleep.
For the people who get scared when they false awaken in their dream and see something that they are scared of it is becuase of your subconscious fears and the truth is you are doing this to yourself, so remember this is your dream you controlled every movement of your body and when you get scared you think of some more scary things that might happen.
last night I had it about 5/6 times in a row, I knew immediatly that I was dreaming though, and I tried to wake up because it was very unpleasent, but everytime I did wake up I woke up in another false awakening, and then, when I did wake up I was in a staat of paralysis, for a minute or so so it wasn’t that bad, but I’m sure I was awake at that time because after that I got up to drink some water and smoke a cigarette, and I did some realitychecks, because normally when I’m in a dream I’m kinda numb and everything is a little bit different, and everything seemed to be normal so I’m pretty sure I was awake, I didn’t like the experience because they were no pleasent dreams, not nightmares either but it had a dark mood / tint to it so I tried my best to wake up before I did end up in a nightmare. however, next time this happens and it’s not in such a dark mood I wil try to switch over to lucid dreaming because I’ve had that before and it’s a fun experience, but you wake up pretty confused not knowing if you’re still dreaming, until you realize you’re no millionare anymore, LOL
Lucid dreaming is kinda fun but be careful because sometimes your subconscious fears may mess up your dream scape and may cause your fears in your dream.
Fyi I got that from Jake in Adventure Time
In my dream one night it was a nice dream then I felt my eyes opening and me waking up Iw as sort of sad becuase I enjoyed the dream then when I woke up something didn’t feel right so I got under the covers then thought to myself “am I still dreaming?” so I remembered that they say in dreams the clock goes the different direction so I saw a small square clock in the desk of my room, the hands were moving the right way but the small hand was moving like the thin one that is for the seconds and the colors in my room were brighter the I realised I was still dreaming I got scared becuase as I usually randomly wake up in the middle of the night I was thinking it was night then I was scared what will happen next, will I be able to wake up and is something or someone gonna barge in the door will something from my nightmares come. I didn’t want to control my dream or do lucid dreaming becuase I was scared that my subconscious fears will mess up my dream and I will get scared and I will be traped in this dream. So I tried waking up by closing my eyes and opening them but still nothing happend and the more I got scared so I tried to do it again while saying wake up repeatedly but nothing so I was hopping someone will wake me up.Then finally I woke up and I was so relieved then slept again then I had a normal random dream but the night after that I was so scared to sleep becuase I was worried to have that dream again.
I had 6 of these last night. I’m still not sure what was real and what wasn’t. I knew after the first dream, that when I switched the light, and no lights turned on, that I was dreaming. But I don’t know if I woke up after that, only to fall asleep to have it happen again, or if I woke up in the dream, only to repeat, but change the events while in the dream. I can’t even explain it, but it was terrifying because they weren’t regular dreams, each one was a higher level of a nightmare. Until I finally woke up for real and drunkenly walked into my office, the light switch actually turned on the light and I found this article. I assume I’m awake, because the lights are working. But it is so confusing, that there is every possibility I’m not actually posting this, and I’m still dreaming.
I just had four or more in a row. I got up this morning at 5am, school days that it my wake up time. Got my grandson off to school, came home from the bus stop, and climbed back into bed. I woke up in my dream more than four times, finally when I did wake up, I was so mad at my husband for what he said in the dream, it was so real. What gets me is the dream of me waking up happens several times in a row in these dreams. These type of dreams have been happening to me a lot in the past year, I never had them before in my 60 years of life , and yes it’s scares me to death because how I actually think I am awake. My main fear is that I won’t wake up, that I will be stuck in limbo somewhere in my dreams, yes I know that sounds crazy but it truly scares me.
Am so happy I’ve found this. Last night I was trapped in 4 dreams. I can see myself screaming at my husband to wake me up. I’m shouting so loud ‘Chris please wake me up’ I’m hitting the bed and he’s just looking at me!
I only realised I was in a dream half way and tried to change it but ended up deep in to the dream and I made myself walk up stairs from my old school…you know that feeling you get when you walk up the stairs and it feels like someone is behind you. I actually made myself feel terrified and I don’t know why? At the top of the school stairs there was about 3 maniquins that had twisted faces, I feel like i made them have that face like i forced then to do it? l don’t understand why I’m bringing fear into my own nightmear. I can feel myself doing it on purpose! Then that’s feeling comes where i can’t move and feel like I can’t breath and I panic and I’m trying so hard and it’s hurting. Then I felt my dog bite my hand but I can actually feel my hand tingling like I’m being bit. And I wake up still trying to saying ‘wake me up, wake me up’ I can feel my husband shaking me saying my name. Then am awake and I know I’m awake but can’t open my eyes yet. Last night for the fist time I busted in to tears. I’m was so scared I felt like I’d never wake up. I felt so trapped. I can remember all the dreams and how they changed. I can remember me hitting the bed and even saying ‘Chris wake me up please’ and for some reason thinking ‘i said please…thats really polite’
To Collete:
The reason you were scared and had those scary events in your dream was becuase of your subconscious fear and the more you get scared the more you think of more scary things that will happen next and remember this is you brain, your mind, your dream you create your thoughts so you create your dream and you control it. Just think about it you were controlling your body going up the stairs.
I’ve just had a dream and am quite distressed by it. I must discuss the reality first as it may have some connection. I was listening to a relaxation meditation cd which actually guided me into sleep in the first place and was probably playing for about 20 minutes. I dreamed that I was driving in a car from the back seat. A friend’s dad was in the front passenger seat. I felt like I didn’t really trust him but I tolerated him and was nice to him. It felt like he was a but of a sleaze actually. **He wasn’t actually a friend’s dad. I don’t have a friend who’s dad looks or makes me feel like this man in my dreams did. It was more like he was a representation of a friend’s dad or at least this is how my subconscious mind portrayed this figure** I was dropping off to sleep while driving and so he took over. Dont know where we were meant to be going in the early part of the dream. When I “woke up” he said that I had fallen asleep and that he’d taken over. When I looked around, we were so far away from where we were meant to be. In a town called Mota. **I don’t think this is a real place, certainly nowhere I’ve ever been** I got upset and a little scared that he’d taken me so far away. Somehow, I feel asleep again only this time, it was in a room. Not one I know but I felt comfortable there. By this stage, I was aware that I was asleep and was trying to wake myself up because I could sense him in the room. It’s like I was trying to move and possibly groaning. I felt very fearful that I couldn’t wake up. I felt a cold kiss which really freaked me out. It was him. He implied that he was trying to comfort me because he could see i was having a bad dream. I tried to slap him and tell him off but it’s like I was still asleep. I was fighting to wake up. I was incredibly frightened and felt paralyzed. I was trying really hard to force myself to wake up because I was afraid of this guy and what he might do to me if I stayed asleep. I was trying to move and to open my eyes. I was also trying to scream but I couldn’t talk or move my mouth. I was also trying to kick my legs. I have experience false awakenings before and so I was aware that I was in a dream state by this stage. The mediation cd I’d been listening to was about mindfulness and focusing on your breathing during times of anxiety. So I stopped trying to wake up and focused on my breathing while I was still in the dream state. Within a few seconds, I woke up back to reality. I have woken up feeling extremely exhausted and scared. Took me about 10 minutes to wake up fully and feel better. I have been abused in the past ***Not by a friend’s dad but a man I knew and was trusted by family*** I have repressed allot of this but since I have been awake just now, memories have come to my mind. First thing I have done is try to look up dream interpretations which is how I found this blog. Ive had dreams like this many times before where I’ve either dreamed that I’ve been dreaming or that I’ve not been able to wake up from a nightmare or that I’ve felt like I was awake doing mundane normal things but actually was asleep. Not being wale to wake up is terrifying and very distressing. Interesting that this time I stopped fighting and just concentrated on breathing which was how I managed to wake up. All in all it is a very terrible experience and one that i definately do not enjoy or wish to explore
In real life I woke up at 3 AM thinking I drank too much champagne that evening and that the heat in the house was too high, went to the bathroom, was praying and fell asleep shortly after.
In my dream I went to the bathroom AGAIN and was so groggy about it; stumbled back into my room and couldn’t see out of my right eye and realized I had a pillow stuck to that side of my face. Collapsed into bed to “fall asleep again” and I’m not sure if I thought I heard something or just felt a presence in the roo but I kind of peeked over my shoulder to look at my door and just felt soooo tired and nearly drugged and started whispering “Jesus” and even tried to yell it but wasn’t able to. I felt unsafe or under attack. And then I “woke up”, looked around, felt super groggy and might have even gone to the bathroom again and “tried to fall asleep” again and felt like I heard a voice or felt a presence and I tried to yell “Jesus” again and felt choked about it. I felt held down to my bed, paralyzed and I managed to sing/ belt out “our God is an awesome God” (which is not a regular tune in my head, by the way) and then I ACTUALLY woke up mid song.
This used to happen to me a lot years ago. I had never heard of false awakenings before and believed I was having out of body experiences.
These dreams really bother me. Years ago i had them. And 7 years later i am again. I hear people talking and think they are coming into the house. I try and try to wake up and think I do but find myself in the bed and almost paralized. By the 3rd or 4th time i wake up terrified. Years ago i kept a lighter on the night stand. I knew that when the flame hurt my hand that I was finally awake. I may have to start doing that again.
I’ve been having this lucid dreaming-type problem since high school that is often like False Awakening. I have some that aren’t about imagined insomnia, but often it’s a hyperrealistic dream about waking up or being unable to sleep. In either case, they are so realistic that I don’t realize they were dreams until I find some evidence that proves they didn’t happen (e.g. it turns out the person I was speaking to in what I thought was reality was out of town that day). It’s kind of scary because I pretty regularly can’t easily distinguish dream from reality… I will try to use these tips for recognizing whether I am dreaming, and I do often have lucid nightmares-where I’m aware of the fact that it’s not real but still can’t prevent the scary events, so hopefully I can figure it out…
I have had these false awakening dreams a lot, so I thought I had gotten used to them by now. They are not pleasant at all to begin with, but they have been getting worse. I just (woke up?) from a nap, and I feel disoriented as hell and still tired, but I’m too afraid to go back to sleep. It seems like it has been taking longer and longer to wake myself up from these dreams, and to make it worse, they haven’t been the everyday life false awakening ones I used to get.
These days, they’ve been the false sleep paralysis false awakening ones. In this particular one, I (woke up) in bed on my stomach (the way i fell asleep) and someone/something’s fingers were trailing up and down my back. I tried to flip around because I sleep on my own room on campus and have no significant other. I couldn’t move though, and the fingers kept going. The crazy thing is, I realized I had to be dreaming soon after (idk how) but still couldn’t get out. When I tried the steps I used before for real sleep paralysis, my head began hurting tremendously. That’s when the fingers grabbed my head and held it into my pillow. I’m still freaked out a little.
Sometimes it’s like when I wake up (for real) I left the house of someone who didn’t want me there in the first place. It’s like I don’t own my own sub conscious.
i just had five or six false awakenings in a row tonight. it was/they were quite disturbing as i felt quite unsafe and in danger in my dreams. i fear if i go to sleep again it will happen again.
Just had a nice afternoon sleep and woke up as my phone was ringing. Tried to answer it but my eyes were stuck together, thought I must have conjunctivitis as I have a cold. My dogs started barking, someone knocking at my door and thought it may be my daughter knocking and ringing me from outside the front door. Desperately tried to open my eyes to answer my phone again and saw, through a tiny gap in one eye, my phone screen, had a brightly coloured my little pony screen saver, (which is not usually there. At last, I answered my phone, my daughter was saying “hello mum”, but I tried to speak but nothing would come out of my mouth, so she hung up. Then over the top of the dogs barking, I heard motorway traffic outside my bedroom window, I thought what on earth could be happening. Then through a tiny slit in my eyes, I noticed my bedroom walls were decorated in the same wallpaper I had as a little girl! My dogs were running up and down the stairs, I was starting to feel frustrated that I couldn’t open my eyes, then all of a sudden I actually felt someone’s hands on my shoulders shaking me , then a hand on my forehead pushing my head into my pillow. This is when I thought that I must be experiencing psychosis……………………then I opened my eyes………………My daughter hadn’t called, my dogs hadn’t been downstairs as my bedroom door was closed, I didn’t have conjunctivitis, and there was no heavy traffic outside as I live on a quiet street.
I REALLY thought I was awake, SO glad I wasn’t terrified of the person shaking me, but still in my dream had come up with a “rational” explanation of what had happened.
I don’t think this was a lucid dream as I wasn’t aware that I was dreaming. I THOUGHT I was awake!
Were these hallucinations?
I’ve had dreams in the past, hearing noises that were actually happening and were incorporated into my dreams, but never one like this…………….all new to me!
I just woke up. I never had a nested dream before it feels unreal but completely terrifying to me. In the dream I wake up in my room but it’s dark then out of nowhere my eyes wont open like as if someone is lightly putting their hands on my eyes without the feeling of the hands if that makes sense. I wake up at least three times in the dream, I walk out see my family and go on my phone which has some sort of detail I was on snapchat but the guy I was talking to I’ve never met in my life. When I woke up I didn’t feel scared as I felt in the dream. And that worried me for some reason.
I’ve recently started having these type of disturbing dreams. I’ll try to follow some of this advice as they are extremely distressing.
I had about 10 false awakenings this morning it was amazing, as at first it felt like I was really waking up in reality but things and behaviours in tHe dreams made me realise that I was dreaming every time. I could explore my dreams but after I tried to wake myself I kept waking up in a dream it started getting stranger and stranger as it felt so real every time. Once I really woke in reality I was very drunk and disorientated. I was surprised at how many time it happened and how much I could remember also how little things in the dreams could make me realise I was actually dreaming. I love dreaming and it excites me when I am aware I am dreaming.
Yeah I had a few this morning but I definitely wouldn’t class them as “Amazing” in fact quite the opposite lol