False Awakening: Dreaming About Waking Up

False Awakening: Dreaming About Waking Up

Have you ever had a dream in which you’ve woken up, only to then wake up a little while later for real?
False awakenings are remarkably vivid dreams in which you think you’ve woken up and then realize that you are still asleep.

In this article I’ll be looking at false awakenings and ways to manage them. You’ll find some practical techniques for preventing them if they’re upsetting you.

Too real to be a dream?

One of the fascinating features of a false awakening is just how vivid and real it can seem. Even you feel that it is a dream you might not have any question to your feelings.
It's only when you wake up in real, than you realize and get puzzled about your dream.
False awakenings can seem so real that perhaps even on finally waking up you might wonder whether you’re still dreaming or not.

What causes false awakenings?

False awakenings don’t yet have any firm scientific explanation. It’s understandably a difficult area to research. The two most common theories are:

Worry or anxiety

If you’re worrying about something happening the next day, you might dream about getting on with the day. Your brain might then dream of waking up.Or If you’re worrying, you might expect to sleep badly and wake up in the night, or need to wake up early for an important day. This could influence your dream and create false awakenings.

Sleep fragmentation

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 that for consciousness are both active. This fragmentation could then lead to vivid dreaming of gaining consciousness and waking up.

Treatment

False awakenings are not thought to be an indicator of mental illness. In fact they are quite common, and it’s thought that most people experience them during their lives. So in that respect they don’t usually require treatment.
Anxiety or stress treatment if thought to be a cause.
It could be though that the best option is not to worry about it and try to accept it as a normal part of dreaming.

Alternatively, there are different paths you can go down in terms of self-help: stopping them happening.
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 odd it was.

Have you had an experience where a false awakening has then led to a lucid dream? Do you think it’s something you would like to try and achieve, or would you prefer to just stop them happening?

Feel free to share you story and views in the comments below. I’m sure other readers will also find your experience useful and interesting.