A fals awakening by any other name...

**kevinmwhm** · 02-19-2013 09:33 AM

Starting a couple weeks ago and, most recently, about 3 times last night, I have been on the opposite end of a false awakening. I get ready for bed and I feel like I'm having trouble falling asleep, then a "false" dream hits where I still feel awake, I'll envision myself downstairs saying good night to somebody, or in the bathroom getting ready for bed, etc. It never lasts long and I always seem to wake from them but...

...are these the same type of episodes as FAs?

...could I use the same FA tips in order to gain lucidity in one of these "false sleep" dreams?

...have any of you ever even had these with any kind of regularity?

I'm imagining that I should reverse the role of the reality check. Instead of trying to remember to reality check whenever I wake up, I should see if I could get into a method/habit of quick step awareness checks leading up to bed. If this were you, would you do this before, after, or on both sides of a pre-sleep meditation?

Also, I don't get too deeply into a mantra, but I try to repeat some general suggestions leading up to the first waves of sleep. Would you break this up with RCs or do you think it would be counterintuitive?

-Kevin

**gab** · 02-19-2013 04:31 PM

I think those are hypnagogic images, or dreamlets.

FAs are a regular dream, in which you happen to dream about you waking up.

**faceonmars** · 02-19-2013 05:20 PM

Sounds a bit like the daydreams one has just before sleep. You state that you envision yourself downstairs . If you did not willfully envision yourself then you were in a NREM dream (or dreamlet as GAB stated) . See if you can control any aspect of the dreamlet next time this happens. NREM lucids can be very exhilarating. Good luck to you!