False awakening - wikipedia False awakening 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 ). Contents 1 Further concepts 1.1 Lucidity 1.2 Continuum 2 Symptoms 2.1 Realism and unrealism 2.2 Repetition 3 Types 3.1 Type 1 3.2 Type 2 4 Cultural references 5 References Further concepts Lucidity A false awakening may occur following a dream or following a lucid dream ( one in which the dreamer has been aware of dreaming ). Particularly, if the false awakening follows a lucid dream, the false awakening may turn into a `` pre-lucid dream '', that is, one in which the dreamer may start to wonder if they are really awake and may or may not come to the correct conclusion. In a study by Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett, 2,000 dreams from 200 subjects were examined and it was found that false awakenings and lucidity were significantly more likely to occur within the same dream or within different dreams of the same night. False awakenings often preceded lucidity as a cue, but they could also follow the realization of lucidity, often losing it in the process. Continuum This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( June 2012 ) Another type of false awakening is a continuum. In a continuum, the subject falls asleep in real life, but in the dream following, the brain simulates the subject as though they were still awake ; i.e. the subject thinks he or she is still awake, but in reality, is asleep. At times the individual can perform actions unknowingly. The movie A Nightmare on Elm Street popularized this phenomenon. This phenomenon can be related to that of sleep - walking or carrying out actions in a state of unconsciousness. Symptoms This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. ( September 2009 ) Realism and unrealism Certain aspects of life may be dramatized or out of place in false awakenings. Things may seem wrong : details, like the painting on a wall, not being able to talk or difficulty reading ( purportedly, reading in lucid dreams is often difficult or impossible, ) In some experiences, the subject 's senses are heightened, or changed. Repetition Because the mind still dreams after a false awakening, there may be more than one false awakening in a single dream. Subjects may dream they wake up, eat breakfast, brush their teeth, and so on ; suddenly awake again in bed ( still in a dream ), begin morning rituals again, awaken again, and so forth. The philosopher Bertrand Russell claimed to have experienced `` about a hundred '' false awakenings in succession while coming around from a general anesthetic. Types Celia Green suggested a distinction should be made between two types of false awakening : Type 1 This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( June 2012 ) Type 1 is the more common, in which the dreamer seems to wake up, but not necessarily in realistic surroundings, that is, not in their own bedroom. A pre-lucid dream may ensue. More commonly, dreamers will believe they have awakened, and then either wake up for real in their own bed or `` fall back asleep '' in the dream. A common false awakening is a `` late for work '' scenario. A person may `` wake up '' in a typical room, with most things looking normal, and realize he or she overslept and missed the start time at work or school. Clocks, if found in the dream, will show time indicating that fact. The resulting panic is often strong enough to jar the person awake for real ( much like from a nightmare ). Another common Type 1 example of false awakening can result in bedwetting. In this scenario the dreamer has false awakened and while in the state of dream has performed all the traditional behaviors that precede urinating, including arising from bed, while still asleep and in bed. Type 2 The type 2 false awakening seems to be considerably less common. Green characterized it as follows : The subject appears to wake up in a realistic manner, but to an atmosphere of suspense. (... ) The dreamers surroundings may at first appear normal, and they may gradually become aware of something uncanny in the atmosphere, and perhaps of unwonted ( unusual ) sounds and movements, or they may `` awake '' immediately to a `` stressed '' and `` stormy '' atmosphere. In either case, the end result would appear to be characterized by feelings of suspense, excitement or apprehension. Charles McCreery drew attention to the similarity between this description and the description by the German psychopathologist Karl Jaspers ( 1923 ) of the so - called `` primary delusionary experience '' ( a general feeling that precedes more specific delusory belief ). Jaspers wrote : Patients feel uncanny and that there is something suspicious afoot. Everything gets a new meaning. The environment is somehow different -- not to a gross degree -- perception is unaltered in itself but there is some change which envelops everything with a subtle, pervasive and strangely uncertain light. (... ) Something seems in the air which the patient can not account for, a distrustful, uncomfortable, uncanny tension invades him. McCreery suggests this phenomenological similarity is not coincidental, and results from the idea that both phenomena, the Type 2 false awakening and the primary delusionary experience, are phenomena of sleep. He suggests that the primary delusionary experience, like other phenomena of psychosis such as hallucinations and secondary or specific delusions, represents an intrusion into waking consciousness of processes associated with stage 1 sleep. It is suggested that the reason for these intrusions is that the psychotic subject is in a state of hyper - arousal, a state that can lead to what Ian Oswald called `` micro-sleeps '' in waking life. Subjects may also experience sleep paralysis. Cultural references The ancient Chinese text, `` Zhuangzi ''. The video game Neverending Nightmares. The film An American Werewolf in London. The television program, Star Trek : Voyager, Season 4, Episode 13, `` Waking Moments ''. The movie Inception. The movie Waking Life. The album Until the Quiet Comes by Flying Lotus The book Doctor Sleep by Stephen King References ^ Jump up to : Green, C. ( 1968 ). Lucid Dreams. London : Hamish Hamilton. Jump up ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Flying dreams, false awakenings, and lucidity : An empirical study of their relationship. Dreaming : Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams. Vol 1 ( 2 ) p. 129 -- 134, Jun 1991. Jump up ^ see Green, C., and McCreery, C. ( 1994 ). People may also experience blindness. Lucid Dreaming : the Paradox of Consciousness During Sleep. London : Routledge, Ch. 10, for a discussion of this topic Jump up ^ Russell, B. ( 1948 ). Human Knowledge : Its Scope and Limits. London : Allen and Unwin. Jump up ^ Green, C. ( 1968 ). Lucid Dreams. London : Hamish Hamilton, p. 121. Jump up ^ McCreery, C. ( 1997 ). `` Hallucinations and arousability : pointers to a theory of psychosis ''. In Claridge, G. ( ed. ) : Schizotypy, Implications for Illness and Health. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Jump up ^ Jaspers, K. ( 1923 ). General Psychopathology ( translated by J. Hoenig and M.W. Hamilton ). Manchester : Manchester University Press ( first published in Germany, 1923, as Allgemeine Psychopathologie ), p. 98. Jump up ^ McCreery, C. ( 2008 ). `` Dreams and psychosis : a new look at an old hypothesis. '' Psychological Paper No. 2008 - 1. Oxford : Oxford Forum. ( 1 ) Jump up ^ Oswald, I. ( 1962 ). Sleeping and Waking : physiology and psychology. Amsterdam : Elsevier. Dreams and oneirology Phenomena Lucid dream Pre-lucid dream Rapid eye movement sleep Non-rapid eye movement sleep Rapture dream Recurring dream Interobject Anxiety dream Veridical dream False awakening Oneirogen Dream speech Nightmare Spirit spouse PGO waves Hypnopompic Hypnagogia Out - of - body experience Therapy and interpretation Guided imagery Oneironautics Dreamwork Dream dictionary Dream art Dream diary Dream incubation Dream interpretation Dream sharing Dream yoga Dream guide Embodied imagination Sleep medicine Psychoanalytic dream interpretation Social dreaming Treating nightmares Activation - synthesis hypothesis Cognitive neuroscience of dreams Oneiromancy Thought recording and reproduction device Psychophysiology : Sleep and sleep disorders ( F51 and G47 / 307.4 and 327 ) Sleep stages Rapid eye movement ( REM ) Non-rapid eye movement Slow - wave Brain waves Alpha wave Beta wave Delta wave Gamma wave K - complex Mu rhythm Sensorimotor rhythm Sleep spindle Theta wave Sleep disorders Dyssomnia Hypersomnia Insomnia Kleine -- Levin syndrome Narcolepsy Sleep apnea Central hypoventilation syndrome Obesity hypoventilation syndrome Sleep state misperception Circadian rhythm disorder Advanced sleep phase disorder Delayed sleep phase disorder Irregular sleep -- wake rhythm Jet lag Non-24 - hour sleep -- wake disorder Shift work sleep disorder Parasomnia Catathrenia Night terror Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder Sleepwalking Somniloquy Other Bruxism Night eating syndrome Nocturia Nocturnal myoclonus Benign phenomena Dream Exploding head syndrome False awakening Hypnagogia / Sleep onset Hypnic jerk Lucid dream Nightmare Nocturnal clitoral tumescence Nocturnal emission Nocturnal penile tumescence Sleep paralysis Somnolence Related topics Bed Bunk bed Daybed Four - poster bed Futon Hammock Mattress Sleeping bag Bed bug Bedding Bedroom Bedtime Bedtime story Bedtime toy Biphasic and polyphasic sleep Chronotype Dream journal Excessive daytime sleepiness Hypnopompic state Lullaby Microsleep Nap Nightwear Polysomnography Power nap Second wind Siesta Sleep and creativity Sleep and learning Sleep debt Sleep deprivation Sleep diary Sleep hygiene Sleep induction Sleep inertia Sleep medicine `` Sleeping sickness '' Sleeping while on duty Sleepover Snoring Somnology Not a sleep disorder. 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Question: what does it mean when you wake up from a dream in a dream
Answer: false awakening