False awakening is when you wake up in your dream
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woke up in another dream, then woke up in "real life". It is a fact, at least to all of people like me, that remembering dreams within a dream is much harder because once you wake up in a dream, you are focused on that moment and tend to forget what just happened.
VeryWell
If you have ever had a dream in which you thought you had awakened but instead remained asleep, you are all too familiar with the concept of a false awakening. What is a false awakening and what does it mean? How is it related to lucid dreaming? Do false awakenings require treatment? Learn more about this interesting phenomenon of sleep.
Defining Two Types of False Awakenings
False awakening occurs when an individual dreams about waking but in fact remains asleep.
It is a fairly common occurrence. Almost everyone who remembers their dreams experiences them at some point in life.
Interestingly, false awakenings may occur repeatedly; like a Russian nesting doll, the dreams and false awakenings may be layered within one another. As a result, the dreamer believes they have finally awakened yet they continue to sleep only to falsely awaken yet again, sometimes numerous times.
False awakenings may be associated with anxiety and confusion about whether you are in fact asleep or awake. They may also be associated with an out-of-body experience in which the affected person is separated from his or her body and perceives it like an outside observer. In addition, it may be linked with lucid dreaming, the phenomenon by which the sleeping person becomes partly aware of the dream state and takes control of the narrative.
False awakenings are divided into two types.
Type 1 is characterized by mundane activities of waking: getting up, taking a shower, getting dressed, having breakfast, and leaving for work. At some point, the dreamer realizes something is not quite right and this may provoke a true awakening in which the person recognizes it was just a
Type 2 false awakenings are described as less pleasant with a more tense or ominous feeling. These may be associated with hallucinations or apparitions of foreboding people or monsters.
Why Do False Awakenings Occur?
False awakenings may suggest a degree of dream and sleep fragmentation. It is possible for the brain to be in multiples states of consciousness or sleep simultaneously. One might imagine that with false awakenings the part of the brain that is responsible for consciousness may be activated while the part that generates vivid dreaming persists. Sleep may be fragmented for many potential reasons, including as a result of sleep apnea, insomnia, environmental noise, and other causes. When consciousness is more fully attained, waking from REM sleep may trigger the symptoms of sleep paralysis. In addition, intense fragmentation of sleep and wakefulness may frequently occur in narcolepsy.
As false awakenings occur commonly without any associated psychiatric or physical illness, it is unlikely that they represent any abnormal pathology. Instead, it is a frequent manifestation of dreaming that does not require any treatment. If recurrent dream content proves to be upsetting, dream rehearsal therapy can be employed.
It may be necessary to treat anxiety if this is identified. In the setting of PTSD, medications like prazosin may be helpful to relieve nightmares.
If you are experiencing disruptive or disturbing dreams, speak with your doctor or a board-certified sleep specialist about some of the options available to help you to sleep better.
What is a False Awakening?
Also known as a double dream, a dream within a dream or nested dreams, false awakenings are dreaming that you’re awake while sleeping. People who have experienced false awakenings recollect that the dreams span from mundane to vivid, but majorly unnerving.
A peculiar case, the double dream is observed when the sleeper has an awakening dream while sleeping. After the false awakening, the sleeper often follows a familiar waking up routine, with the only difference being that it is in his dreams. On the contrary, certain people also experience oddities in the routines which tend to raise fears and make the dream terrifying.
Simply put, when you’re dreaming that you’ve woken up, you may even wet the bed because the dream makes you feel like you’re in the bathroom! When the dreamer realizes the subtleties of why the dream is merely a dream, he or she can control it. Hence, it becomes lucid dreaming.
How to check if you are really dreaming
The nonplussed practicality of the false awakenings is jittering. The first step is to be aware of your state of mind and question it- Is it too real to be your dream? Usually, only when you wake up, do you realize how bemusing the dream was.
False awakenings can be distressing to a point that the sleeper might feel trapped in own dreams like De Caprio in Inception!
· Doubt
The mind is a mystic; but it can also give you signals to recognize whether or not you’re dreaming. Except for patients prone to narcolepsy, the jolting realization about realizing that you’re dreaming is uncommon. Same is why if you’re doubtful whether you’re in a dream, you might really be!
· Memory Test
Yet another important and enlightening test to ensure that you’re awake is to try remembering precise thoughts like addresses, phone numbersand digits. Science vouches that if you cannot recollect these tiny details, chances are, you are dreaming!
REM sleep tends to intervene and put our brain to rest during the sleep stage and accounts for the memory test.
· Threshold Test
An important test to use if you’ve been worried whether you’re awake or asleep is the reality check. For this, you must explore your surroundings within the dream. If you chance upon a strange new room suddenlyfrom your bathroom or hallway, you are dreaming!
Types of False Awakenings
It is not that everyone who dreams about waking up while sleeping shows the same characteristics of false awakenings. Depending on the person and the sleep style, there are two types of false awakening.
Celia Green, a British Philosopher and Psychologist submitted discernible studies on the matter first and the following are the classifications provided by the same.
· Type I False Awakening
The most common type of false awakenings, Type I tends to make the sleeper dream that he or she is woken up, but in a strange or new setting never seen before. A common example of this false awakening is the introductory late-for-work false awakening.
Bedwetting is a common result of Type I False Awakening.
· Type II False Awakening
A rare type of false awakening, Type II tends to make the sleeper dream about waking up in a normal yet, apprehensive or mystic setting full of suspense. The dream is stringed by a peaking excitement in the dreamer where distressed sounds are a common effect.
Concepts that explain False Awakening
Just as none of us know why do we dream and forget the dream each night and day, false awakenings are still a mysterious yet, commonsleep disorder. From paranoia to erratic disturbances in sleep schedule, there are many adversities that can add to worsen or expose a person to false awakenings.
Most common Causes of False awakening are
· Anxiety
The root of most evil in the modern age, anxiety is at the throat of a majority of the populous today. Most of us worry about everything from waking up right, to being fine, happy, and sad, content or rate of being alive!
If you have a big day ahead, false awakening about waking up late for the event or doing something embarrassing at the event can occur in tonight’s dream!
· Stress
The right-hand of anxiety, stress is eating the cheers out of our world today. From stress about the present day to your freshmen years, there are many things that can trigger or add to the stress of a usual day. The same can pop up in your dream as double dreams too.
False awakenings in stressed conditions can lead to disconcertingdreams.
· Sleep Fragmentation
A little known cause of nested dreams is based on our brain’sinvincibility of juggling more than one consciousness at once. Detailed and HD dreaming is a proof of the dream corners of the brain intersecting with your conscious brain and drawing on real-life experiences, colors and details.
In such a case, the sleeper dreams about waking up in an accustomed setting.
The conjugal bond of False Awakening and Sleep Paralysis
It is true that false awakenings can intersect and introduce sleep paralysis. When the sleeper dreams about feeling trapped in an uncanny dream, the occurrence of sleep paralysis can terrify the person. Sleep paralysis is a sleeping problem where the sleeper wakes up in a paralysis unable to move about or rebel the dream trap.
Under stress and anxiety, the active brain tries to put itself to rest through imaginary resolutions for your worries. These dreams tend to play out your mind’s conflicts, simultaneously making you feel as if it is happening. Same is why; people can take false awakenings as spiritual elixirs at times.
What happens when false awakening and sleep paralysis coincide?
The sleeper thinks he wakes up from a nightmare, into an eerie new room, bed or ceiling. The body restricts the movements and tends to feel paralyzed or continues the cycle of dreaming about waking from one dream and drifting into another. Read more on sleep paralysis here.
Ways to Divert False Awakening into Lucid Dreams
False awakenings are excruciatingly hard to recognize when you’re sleeping and dreaming. The reason is not the subconscious state of your mind, but the finesse of the dream to make the dream a realistictrip. For some, the episodes can be traumatizing and the best way to positively channel these terror attacks is by diverting your false awakenings into lucid dreams.
The best movie to teach the essentials of being an amazing dreamer is A Waking Life. Once you’re aware that it is a dream, paint the sky in the color of roasted smores or grow wings to begin lucid dreaming!
· Alarm Clock
Just like the movie A Waking Life denotes, the easiest way to establish your dream as a lucid dream is by checking the time on your digital alarm clock. If the number changes, morphs or tangles into each other, you’re definitely dreaming!
This is because, during REM sleep it is impossible for the brain to read or use linguistic skills. If you don’t have an alarm clock, try to read any text around your room within the dream.
· Memories
The next best way to establish that you’re dreaming of entering lucid dreaming is by recollecting memories. If you feel like you’re simultaneously enacting the memories or failing to recollect, there are high chances that you might be dreaming!
This happens when the cognitive part of the brain overlaps with the REM sleep phase.
· Check the Mirror
A silly yet, explicit way to divert your scary episode of false awakenings is to check yourself in the mirror. Can you spot the mole above your right eyebrow or is it blurring out?
If your face begins to morph or change in the due time, dream more with authority!
· Notes for the dreaming you
If you use paste-it-notes and personal remainder around the house, the same can help you turn your false awakening into a lucid dream! These things can act as a reality check and ensure that you’re lucid dreaming.
· Breakfast Check
A common and important characteristic virtue of false awakenings is the lack or excessive sensitivity towards taste. Go to your breakfast table and begin eating. If you feel as if there’s no taste or if the taste is excessively trippy, then you’re dreaming and it surely is a heavenly dream!
· Reality Check for everyday Waking up
The truth about doing reality checks are that you must wake up with these and you must do the reality checks every day. The same will help you recognize that you’re dreaming during nested dreams. This must be something that you have enthusiastically trained yourself into regularly.
Pushing your hand through a wall or holding something that you love will help you distinguish dreams from reality.
Getting rid of False Awakenings
For getting rid of false awakenings, you must discipline your sleep schedule. The best way to treat false awakenings is via Dream Rehearsal Therapy or Medications for Stress, Anxiety or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Nap Snack
When your body and mind are not stressed, you have a peaceful sleep sans false awakenings. A nap snack that is heavy on carbohydrates is ideal to keep your sleep pattern intact. A glass of warm milk before bed does the same benefit!
· Exercise
Try to do ten minute exercises before bed. This can include Yoga to aerobic workouts. Make sure that you do not overdo it as certain exercises can trigger your mind to keep awake.
· Relaxation exercises before bed
Meditating before bed can help to vent out your emotional blocks and stresses. As false awakenings are linked to being hyper alertness of feeling, the sleeper must first feel at ease and comfort when going to sleep. From playing with your pet to the teddy bear, good night exercises ensure cozy sleep without false awakenings.
· Alcohol and Caffeine
Partying too hard and pumping the body with alerting chemicals will worsen your distressed mind that is prone to false awakenings. Nightcap is highly downvoted, so is caffeine as well as nicotine!
The Magic to Waking up from a False Awakening
It is common that people find false awakenings terrifying and disturbing to normalcy. If you’ve been wondering how to get rid of these nightmarish episodes and have a good night’s sleep in addition to a happy waking up routine, you will love the following natural methods-
- Begin moving your toes and fingertips slowly.
- Slowly, start moving your eyeballs rapidly.
- Try to maintain your focus on one object within your dream.
- Alternatively, you can try to do something sophisticated like cooking or writing.
Final Word
False awakenings are definitely not a cause to worry. They do not worsen akin to sleep terrors or sleep paralysis, but if they do, you must seek the professional support of a sleep specialist immediately.
The right to sleep happily is quintessential to keep the quality of life standardized. The best way to use false awakenings is to explore your dreams with control via lucid dreaming and fulfill realistic dreams.These can help to vent out emotional turmoil and help you become more focused. On the other hand, if you cannot tolerate these episodes and the same shatter your peace, you need immediate help. Try practicing the above methods and techniques to reign your dreams, but if you don’t hesitate to seek help.
If you feel that your experience of false awakening was terrifying and feels helpless, think not twice about sharing your story with us in the comments below!
A false awakening is a vivid and convincing dream about awakening from sleep, while the dreamer in reality continues to sleep. After a false awakening, subjects often dream they are performing daily morning rituals such as cooking, cleaning and eating. False awakenings, namely those in which one dreams that one has awoken from sleep that featured dreams, take on aspects of a double dream or a dream within a dream. A classic example is the double false awakening of the protagonist in Gogol's Portrait (1835).
