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What is a false awakening, and how to turn it into a lucid dream?
False awakenings can be an odd and scary experience –
waking up from a dream, only to realize that you’re still dreaming.
Sometimes things are surreal and it’s very obvious that you’re in a dream.
Other times, things appear to be so normal and you can’t figure out whether you’re really awake or not.
False awakenings can be uncomfortable.
Luckily, there are methods you can use to distinguish between the waking-world and dream-world.
If you’re into lucid dreaming, a false awakening can also provide you with an excellent opportunity to cultivate awareness and a gateway into a lucid dreaming state.
Keep reading and you’ll discover:
What does it mean when you have a false awakening?
Why do you experience a false awakening?
How to recognize false awakening
How do you wake up from false awakening?
How to turn false awakenings into lucid dreams
What does it mean to have a dream within a dream (false awakening loop)? Can you get stuck in it?
What does it mean when you have a false awakening?
A false awakening is a convincing dream where the dreamer dreams about waking up. In reality, though, the dreamer continues to sleep.
Have you ever woken up in your bed, taken a shower or even started to eat breakfast, only to then wake up for real and realize that you were dreaming?
While it may seem like a strange phenomenon, it’s actually pretty common.
There are two types of false awakenings:
Type 1:
This is more common and involves the dreamer appearing to wake up in unfamiliar surroundings, for example, a random room that looks different from a bedroom.
Pre-lucid dreaming can ensue where the dreamer is not quite certain if they’re really awake or not.
Type 2:
You wake up in a familiar setting, like your bedroom, where you wake up every morning. But on further inspection, you start to realize that all is not how it should be.
You feel suspicious and start to recognize there is something different in the atmosphere.
Imagine dreaming that you’re late for work. The ensuing panic and anxiety will often be enough to ‘jar’ you back into waking consciousness. You may wake up, or fall back to sleep within the dream.
Why do you experience a false awakening?
One of the commonly suggested causes of false awakenings is that it’s due to sleep fragmentation.
This is when you tend to go to bed at night and sleep in short bursts, finding yourself waking up frequently throughout the night.
At the time of false awakening, it’s thought that the brain is operating in multiple states of consciousness or sleep simultaneously.
What this means is that the part of the brain that’s responsible for conscious, waking activity gets activated, while the part that’s responsible for generating dreams continues.
Why does sleep fragmentation occur?
It’s usually associated with the following sleep conditions:
- Sleep apnea
- Periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS)
- Insomnia
- Environmental noise (using a white noise machine could be a helpful tip if you live in a noisy building or neighborhood)
- Stress and anxiety from your everyday life
How to recognize false awakening
Unsure if you’re dreaming or not?
In order to figure out if you’re awake or experiencing a false awakening, you have to carry out a reality check.
Before going through some favored methods, understand that it’s important that you carry out your reality check every single day.
In this way, your levels of awareness (both in your wake and dream world) will increase. This is especially important if you wish to turn your false awakening into lucid dreaming.
Reality check methods include:
Count your fingers:
Dreams, no matter how realistic, don’t usually tend to have all the details in their proper place. If you try and count your fingers, you’ll find it hard to concentrate or you probably won’t have all digits intact.
Doubt your reality:
If you’re doubting whether or not you’re in a dream, you’re almost 100% dreaming. Deep down, we’re extremely efficient in knowing this.
Test your memory:
It’s hard to access long term memory while in REM sleep. Therefore, try remembering something simple like your phone number.
The threshold test:
Simply cross the threshold by walking out of the room.
If you’re dreaming, when you open the door and walk through it, you won’t find yourself in the bathroom as you’d expect, but more likely some random fantasy room.
“Am I dreaming?”:
Simply ask yourself this question. We, as human beings, are pretty good at determining these kinds of things and you’ll usually find yourself being given the correct answer.
Meditation:
Great way to become better acquainted with both your surroundings in both the waking world and your dreams.
By practicing mindfulness meditation and making it part of your daily routine, you could find yourself being highly skilled in knowing whether or not you’re dreaming.
Not to mention all the other great benefits that come from meditation.
What are you waiting for? A daily practice of just a few minutes each day should be more than enough. You can also find our beginner-friendly meditation guide here!
How do you wake up from false awakening?
If you find yourself wanting an ‘exit’ from your false awakening, it helps to have at least one of the following methods in mind:
Open and close your eyes really quickly
Eventually, your mind will trigger what’s going on and you’ll break through the dream realm and into a state of wakefulness
Focus
Pick an object. It doesn’t matter what it is. Just focus all your energy on it.
Even though the appearance of the object may start to warp and distort, focusing on something usually kickstarts your brain into waking up.
Feel your own presence
Simply lay down where you are and close your eyes as if going to sleep. Then, start to wiggle either a finger or your big toe.
Physically feeling the presence of your own body will stimulate your body into waking up.
How to turn false awakenings into lucid dreams:
Want to turn a false awakening into a lucid dream?
The best way to do this is by performing reality checks. Because as mentioned, a key part of lucid dreaming is having higher awareness in your dream world.
But first, there is one very important note that you must follow in order to be successful.
You have to perform a reality check every single day.
Every time when you wake up, do a reality check. Why? Because you need to:
- create a habit of doing reality checks
- increase your awareness
Asking yourself whether or not you’re awake (rather than just assuming you’re awake) is the first step to cultivating the awareness needed to enjoy lucid dreaming to the fullest.
Here are some specific reality checks you can perform:
• Breakfast
If your false awakening extends to breakfast time then your food and drink will provide you with the perfect opportunity to do a reality check since the taste will be far more intense that it would be in the waking world.
• Look at your reflection
This is known for being effective since most people, upon waking, go to the bathroom and look at themselves in the mirror.
• Use your alarm clock
When in a state of dreaming, the number and language center of the brain isn’t operating properly.
Therefore, after spending a few moments staring at your alarm clock, the numbers or symbols won’t make sense. Your dream state will become exposed.
Like anything, it takes practice. By performing a reality check every day, you’ll find yourself getting better and better at recognizing that something is not quite right. In no time, you’ll be transforming your false awakenings into lucid dreams.
What does it mean to have a dream within a dream (false awakening loop)? Can you get stuck in it?
For some individuals, false awakening can be a confusing and scary experience. What can make things even more intense, is a false awakening loop.
What do we mean by this?
In a false awakening loop, you awake from your dream… Only to find that you’re still in a dream. And then wake up again… Only to find that you’re STILL in a dream.
This cycle can repeat itself many times. It can be tiring, frightening, or just plain annoying.
Can you get stuck in it?
While you’re not going to get stuck in a loop (of course you’re going to have to eventually wake up), there are steps you can take to prevent false awakening.
The key is to expand your awareness:
A meditation and mindfulness practice is one of the best ways to enhance your level of awareness (both while you’re dreaming and when awake).
While the cause isn’t 100% clear, there are many who suggest that false awakenings are more likely to occur if you’re stressed or anxious in the waking world.
While it’s easier said than done, taking active steps to reduce stress, for example by not doing any work before bedtime, or by taking some time each day to do some exercise and get outdoors, you’ll be taking a step in the right direction.Do a reality check first thing upon waking up. Remember that the key is to build up a habit, so be sure to do reality checks every day!
I have many lucid dreams but also have had multiple lucid dream loops. This last week i had a dream loop last over 30 false awakenings, it was frustrating and eventually scary. Please send more info. Thank you!
Hey Lisa. I’ll try to share some more information, just let me know what more do you want to know about the topic. 🙂
I had that happen to me once and it was awful. Every time at the moment i realized i was still dreaming everything would freeze, like someone hit the pause button. Then everything fell apart. Literally, everything would physically start to break up into pieces or like would fragment away. Its kind of hard to explain exactly what it did but it was terrifying. Then i was so relieved to be awake. Start in on the morning and within a few minutes i would notice something wasnt right and that sickening feeling would hit the bottom of my stomach and poof, it would all fall away again. Happened like 20 times. Horrible experience. Thanks for listening to my story i had not thought about that in a long time.