False Awakenings

What Are False Awakenings?

A false awakening is very simple: it occurs when you believe that you have woken up but in fact are still asleep. You in effect dream about having woken up.

Literature and the movies have used the concept of false awakenings to great dramatic effect. Often in a film someone will wake from a nightmare situation and believe themselves safely in bed. Then, a few seconds later, the monster will leap out of the cupboard or whatever.

The reality is often more prosaic. Certainly in my case false awakenings just see me going through my normal waking routine. A cup of tea, breakfast, possibly even travelling to work - and then I wake up for real. For me at least false awakenings are more common when I have something in the day ahead that I am either strongly looking forward to - or really dreading!

Perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of false awakenings is that they often seem to repeat themselves. In such multiple false awakenings, you believe yourself to be awake, go about your routine, then find yourself back in bed. You think "Oh, I was still dreaming", get up and go about your routine... then find yourself back in bed. This can repeat several times and the concept of being trapped in an infinite set of false awakenings has inspired much fiction.

False awakenings share the "clarity" of a true lucid dream and to an extent the dreamer has control over the environment. The crucial difference is that unlike a true lucid dream, in a false awakening you do not realise you are still asleep. As such you don't achieve true lucidity and your control of the dream world is limited.