Waking Dreams?

Hi folks,

First post here and just wondering if anyone has ever had a waking dream?

When I was 13-14 years old I can vividly remember two instances when I woke up but was still dreaming.

I'm not refering to a false awaking because in that case when you move or open your eyes it ends the dream state. However, in these two cases I was very much awake but still seeing dream imagery. Hallucination....maybe.

My fist experience was very very brief and kind of fascinating. My uncle had taken me to a drag strip to watch the funny cars that day so it was interesting that I was dreaming of being at a racetrack. I was standing in the pit area watching two cars going round the track. The lead car was a bright yellow formula stye car the second was an indistinct blue car close behind it.

I woke from my dream, sat up in bed then watched as the two cars circled around the room as if all the furnishings in the room were now in the pit area and the cars were going round the track. They made two passes before fading away. At the time I thought it was the coolest thing.

The second time it happened was not so pleasant. It was terrifying and lasted much longer and was far more vivid. (Growing up I was always outside "exploring" with my best friend. Turning over rocks and finding bugs and frogs and salamanders so the subject of the dream isn't surprising.) I awoke from a disturbing dream about a giant beetle on my bed. When I say giant I mean about he size of two shot glasses placed mouth to mouth. So big enough to be scary but not godzilla or anything. Suddenly I saw it among the sheets scurrying toward my legs. I instantly jumped out of bed and threw off the sheets trying to figure out if this was real when I sensed movement around my feet.

I looked down to see two of these monsters coming at me from each side, so I leapt over them towards the foot of my bed and they started following me. I backed out into the hallway as they kept getting closer. Then I turned and looked down the hallway to see dozens of them closing in on me.

We lived in a raised ranch style home and my room was at the far end of the house with the kitchen and living room at the opposite end.

Now seeing all these bugs coming for me I have often wondered what it would have looked like if someone who was actually awake had seen me dancing, leaping and tiptoeing down the hallway in the dark trying to avoid all these bugs. Finally I made it to the kitchen. I paced a couple of times wondering if I should try to wake someone up. I looked down the hall and saw that the bugs had changed direction and were heading my way towards the kitchen. I was just about at my wits end so I flipped on the light switch, The light was literally blinding, but when I looked down the hallway all the beetles were gone. I turned the light back off and looked again. Nothing. I cautiously made my way back to my bedroom, turned on the light and looked around, again nothing. I took all the sheets off my bed, shook them out thoroughly and when I was convinced there were no beetles in them I remade the bed. Eventually I calmed down enough to turn off the light and get back in bed.

As a side note, I have had hallucinations brought on by fatigue. On one occasion a friend and I spent an entire day skiing at Killington in Vermont.
On the ride home I was so tired my eyelids started getting heavy. At one point, I blinked and the highway turned into a snow trail, while a building in the distance turned into a mountain/hill covered in snow. ( Fortunatly I was in the passeger seat LOL) On each side of the car skiers were zipping past on both sides of the car. After watching this for several seconds I blinked again and it all returned to normal. I always recognize that stretch of highway now.

The differences between the hallucination and the waking dreams were clear. In the hallucination, it lasted only a few seconds. (One blink of the eye to the next) and while I could identify features details were sketchy. For example, I could see men and woman sking past but their faces were fuzzy and indistinct.

In contrast, the waking dreams were extremely detailed and very vivid to the point of being real. I wasn't dreaming that I was jumpng over these giantic bugs, I literally was. I didn't actually wake up until I turned on the lights in the kitchen, at the opposite end of the house.

Has anyone else ever had similar experiences? What would you call it...sleepwalking, OBE? I always refered to it as a waking dream.

I'd be interested to hear some of your experiences with this since I can't be the only one.

Although, I hear Ambien can have some strange effects LOL

Hey Justbe, welcome to the forum :)

About your experiences, I guess they could be called severe episodes of hypnopompic hallucinations (look here for a short wiki article on it). I dont think it is very uncommon, though maybe the cases you described are somewhat more intense than average... it might very well have to do with your personal brain physiology. Some people have more trouble waking up than others, and some people stay more easy in a dreamlike state (where brainwaves stay for some time in theta range, which is the state in which your brain dreams). I dont think it is anything you would need to worry about though. Hope this helped a bit.

Thanks for that. Interesting if not short article.

Personally; considering my age at the time I figured it was just puberty. :P

But Hypnopompic sounds so much cooler. :banana:

It sounds as if you were lucid dreaming while sleepwalking, actually. Strange!

Earlier I saw a thread with someone discussing something similar, I'll try to find it for you.