Waking up while still inside a dream

Have you ever experienced a dream where you suddenly noticed that it is a dream?

On rear occasions, my concious would sort of wake up during a dream, and I would suddenly notice that it is a dream, for sure (dream images tend to be blurry and vague and reality is clear and sharp, as far as I can comprehend). Now, I am sort of free in the dream before I truly wake up from my sleep. From my experience, there is usually about a minute of "grace period" (as I call it) that remains before waking up from the dream.

I've had this happen a few times while during nightmares involving some inhuman creature (monster, ghost, whatever). It's annoying, when I really want to wake up from it, but I just can't get myself to do so. I've even tried pinching myself. It's a myth. It never seem to work. Sometimes, I don't even feel the pinch.

In more relaxed dreams, once I noticed that it is a dream, I can sort of feel this freedom, as if I was no longer confined to some sort of determined theme. I can walk around it and explore it, but just a very small amount of it, because the "grace period" ends very quickly.

These occurances are quite rare, and I haven't experienced any within the past two or three years as far as I can remember. Can anyone explain this strange phenomena?

i've had them also.

when i was little, i remember when i had a nightmare, or a particularly boring or annoying dream (like the kind on cartoons, with the multicolored elephants...those are terrible!!!!!), i would lick my fists and rub my eyes. this woke me up 100% of the time.
not sure why i licked my fists, but it worked... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

Do a search on "Lucid Dreaming", this is what is happening to you.

GregR

I frequently have dreams like that. Once, I was with my father in a dream, realized the dream was going to end soon and asked dad to give me a hug. That hug felt real as could be.
oldgrandpajack

When I was a teenager I awakened a couple of times while I was paralyzed. That's scary.

Dreaming is an interesting phenomenon. Everyone does it. I guess animals do it too. Apparently the brain has to perform some maintenance daily. Probably it runs virus scans, defragments hard disks and archives data.

The mind is not the brain. In lucid dreaming, you take control of your dream. Also, there are Symbolic dreams, as well as those where you are out of body and doing a bit of traveling. Most people wouldn't know the difference.

For symbolic dreams, there are dream interpretation books. However, there is no certainty that your symbols will even be listed. Even if they are, the meanings listed may not be accurate for you.

In my case, the symbols were not listed, and I had to use Tarot, Runes, and/or I Ching to get a meaningful interpretation. All 3 methods dovetail quite nicely and you get a very full dream interpretation. Any given symbols may not have identical meanings in different dreams.

eluminator... you my sir have narcolepsy. My wife has the same thing. Periodically she will have sleep paralysis, a sure sign of the disorder. It comes in various "strengths", and is usually not what is seen on TV.

I have one specific dream which has occurred for as long as I can remember. Its freqency comes and goes, and I haven't had it in about a year, but when it's "in" I may have the same dream every night for a week or so.

The dream is really vague and hard to describe, but is as follows: I somehow get into this "repetition" of sorts. I'm either repeating a movement with my hands or repeating a thought in my head, I can't remember. Either way, the more "accurately" I repeat this routine, the more comfortable and immobile I become. And the more inaccurately I perform this routine, the more I realize it's a dream, and the closer I get to waking up.

As I'm waking, I can sense this buzzing in my feet and hands, and the more I wake, the louder and more intense the buzzing becomes. And at the moment I wake up, it's like somebody bangs a gong inside my head, and I get this intense headache. There is a definite sense of shock and pain, but after a few seconds it's all gone. And if I fall back asleep, I can slip back into the same dream, up to about 5 or 6 times.

Yeah, I know it sounds strange. Anyone care to explain this one?

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turbodog said:
eluminator... you my sir have narcolepsy.

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I don't think so, but thanks for the heads-up. It only happened to me twice and hasn't happened in 45 years. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As you may know, our bodies are partially paralyzed during REM sleep. I think I just awoke at the wrong time. Here's a link that says it's common and harmless.
http://www.lucidity.com/paralysis.txt

Catapult - a college roommate had the same experience you've described. My understanding is it's a slight glitch in your sleep cycle - basically, when you're in deep REM sleep, the brain inhibits motor functions. What you're describing sounds like you're regaining consciousness but your recovery of motor functions is lagging. I've heard this isn't uncommon, but that it can really be disconcerting - often the person is awake, immobile, and can either feel a "presence" or see what appears to be a looming figure just out of focus on the periphery.
My roommate found these episodes to be really disturbing (feeling that some unseen presence is looming), and tried to follow recommendations he'd read - that if you count, you'll wake yourself up because that's such a concrete, grounding kind of action (this didn't work for him).
I would consider lucid dreaming to be different - you're still in a dreaming state but recognize it as such - still see the dream imagery, but can influence or direct the dream as you prefer, making the ending conform to your preference.

This has happened to all of us. Waking up while still in a dream. My wife never remembers her dreams. Usually I don`t remember mine...but every once in a while...Anyway, this is common amoungst Flashaholics. It is the very reason we became interested in flashlights at an early age. To keep the monsters, bad stuff away.

DR. Ken /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif

I have had that happen a few times.

Its actually called "sleep peralisis" (sp?).. thats when you know your sleeping, and cant wake yourself up. You try to move, but cant.

For me, if I realize that I am dreamming, I HAVE to wake up. Its not really fear,,, but a VERY unconfortable feeling.
I lay there kinda jerking, and shaking my head side to side trying to wakeup.

I have heard of ppl knowing they are sleepin, and then being able to control their dreams, but for me, I HAVE to wakeup, so I dont get to try that.

It hasnt happened to me in a long time actually,,,, great, now it probably will tonight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

is that anything like dreaming that you have bad guys break into your house, and when you go to beat the crap out of them, you move in slow motion?

That sleep paralysis sort of thing used to happen to me frequently. It's great to read that I'm not the only one but I'm not sure I buy into its being harmless. And it terrified my wife once as she saw me shaking on the couch (trying to wake up). Sometimes it'd happen when it's physically hard to breathe.

It'd happen quite predictably if I got too much sleep.
Being too warm would bring it on too, I think.
I have kids now, so I've been at the opposite end of the enough-sleep spectum for years and I haven't had to deal with the fear of it.

It's an interesting lead that it's some aspect of narcolepsy. I'll look into that. I simply figured it was just one of those things I uniquely had to live with.

You guys are talking about sleep paralysis now? I was talking about being in a dream and suddenly discovering that it is a dream.

Anyway, I've experienced waking up paralyzed about ten times or so. The last time I had this I think was earlier this year. The first time (maybe four or five years ago) was scary. I didn't know what was going on. Did someone do this to me? Am I drugged? Or even the doubtful: aliens??? I rolled my eyes around to take a look for anything suspicious and found nothing. After experiencing this the second time, it's just an annoyance. So I do the usual routine. Start movement with the fingers and toes, then gradually to the hands, arms, and legs, and finally, to the rest of the body. Then once I can freely move, back to sleep again.

I though I might have an abnormality or something. After reading the posts, these phenomenon seem to be much more common than I thought.

Check out Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge. He has done lots of research out of the stanford sleep labs on lucid dreaming.

Catapult,

Cataletpic states are quite common. The body shuts itself down while asleep. Sometimes when waking up the body takes a bit of time catching up with the brain...and you experience a period where you are paralyzed. Good fun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

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Rothrandir said:
is that anything like dreaming that you have bad guys break into your house, and when you go to beat the crap out of them, you move in slow motion?

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Cops and soldiers in combat have that type of dream. Most commonly it manifests itself as a weapon that is either not firing or your rounds have no effect. I think that would be a bad dream to wake up in not realizing it is a dream.

i get sleep paralysis too....first few times i was really freaked out, but after i found out what it really was about its just an annoyance. sometimes i get sleep paralysis when i need to **** really bad, and lying there having to wait for the episode to pass is frustrating /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

jtice: i do the head shaking and jerking routine to snap out of it as well. in my experience its the most effective method, since it seems my muscles from the neck up regain motor control the fastest.

Well... since I have to take antidepressants all of my dreams are bizzare and usually not good. Dramatic, 70mm blazing color and THX digital 15-track surround sound, waking up more tired than when I went to sleep because I'm so worn out from the dreams.

I have had dreams, knowing in the dream that I *am* dreaming, falling asleep in the dream and then having a dream within *that* dream. No wonder I've got no energy... sux being a crazy person! I'd like to be able to shut them off and just *sleep.*

The most draining dreams are when I'm in the borderline between asleep and awake; hearing the real world around me and not coming out of the dream.

http://www.lucidity.com/paralysis.txt just explained that. It happens to me most of the time.

This is my experience: http://www.lucidity.com/EWLD10.html

You guys got it easy!!

Rich

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