How Many Dreams-Within-a-Dream (layers) Have you Had?

I'm sure most of you are already familiar with the idea of dream layers thanks to Inception. However, if you are not, here's the thing:

If you are in a dream, and you go to sleep in your dream, often you'll enter another dream that seems to behave like a second 'layer' to your overall dream. When you wake up from layer 2, you'll find yourself in layer 1, and so on.

Just because it's kind of a fun concept, I thought I'd make a thread where people could share the dream that had the most layers, or dreams-within-a-dream, that they can remember. Let's see who can dream up the most layers! :D

Here's mine (4 layers deep):

Spoiler for My 4-layer dream:

The dream began as a false awakening. I got out of bed and was about to begin my daily routine when I decided to go back to sleep for a few more minutes. So that's just what I did; I got back in bed and lay my head down and I was out.

Now I was in a dream within a dream (notice the darker text indicating a deeper level?). I found myself standing on the edge of a vast canyon and exploring the surrounding area. Something didn't feel right, but I couldn't tell what. After about a half hour of looking around and finding nothing interesting, I decided to lie down and go to sleep.

Now in layer 3 of the dream, I found myself at a friend's dorm at the college he goes to...only the actual layout of the place was nothing like the real-world college. The dream explained it away as remodeling, and I never caught on that it was a dream. My friend was asking me about dreams, particularly lucid ones, and if it would be possible to share dreams.

"Sure it's possible, I've done it before." I said. "We could do it right now in fact, if I can manage a WILD."

"Well, want to give it a try?" He asked.

I agreed to try, so we lay down and went to sleep.

I was now in layer 4 of the dream, aware that I was dreaming, and in a white void. All around me all I saw was white. I couldn't move anywhere or speak, and when I tried, it simply woke me up into the previous layer of the dream.

"Did you do it?" My friend asked.

"Yeah, but I couldn't stay in for some reason."

In another moment, I woke up from that dream and into the layer before it. I was only at this one a split second before I shot up into the air as the dream faded out into the first layer, and I sat up in my bed.

"That was a crazy dream!" I said to myself as I climbed out of bed.

Then I woke up for real, and was totally disoriented from all the waking up http://static3.dreamviews.org/smilies/tongue2.gif

Very cool. But what if this is a dream?

I'm watching inception in five minutes for the first time.

I've had a two-layer dream before:

Quote:

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It's my first day out on the road on my way to the retreat. I'm spending the night in a room that has bunk beds. I get into the top bunk and go to sleep.

I wake up in that top bunk, look at a digital clock, and think, “It's the wrong time to get up! I overslept!”

I wake up in that top bunk again. I look at the digital clock again, and see that it's now the correct time to get up. I've just had a false awakening, I realize. Now my parents are there in the room with me.

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Happens all the time.

Most recent one was three layers I think

Yeah, except my mind tries not to make it obvious until i'm at the top layer. Then it hints by visual aid. It pisses me off that it's smarter than me. >:

I'm not sure if this counts, but I woke up in a dream once, and I thought I was awake for real. The lighting was messed up, everything had a yellow tinge. I lived in an apartment back at the time.

Then I woke up again into reality.

Technically that was two layers. But I don't think I've ever fallen asleep in a dream. I simply woke up twice.

Ive had 2. But do false awakenings count? Because I've had like 4 consecutive ones before.

In non-lucids, 0, in lucids however, up to 12.

3 layers for me,
Had a reoccurring dream of me driving as usual, its this truck I cant seem to get rid of.
Woke up, looked at the time and was running late for work, hurried up, showered, got ready, went to get my lunch but kitchen was in the living room, and living room was in the kitchen....
Woke up again, I thought it was reality, but when I grabbed my cell phone it wasn't my blackberry.
Woke up again..

I find those interesting how you cannot figure it out right away.

Two. I think.

3 layers. It was the first and only time I LD. I was getting ready for school and hurrying because we were about to leave, then looked at the clock that said it was still like 5:00 in the morning or something. I realized that it wasn't real but then suddenly fell through the floor and had a false awakening in a replica of my room. There was a strange shadowy figure standing by the door too. I couldn't move and was convinced that I had woken up but was still paralyzed. Then I had another false awakening and the same thing happened except no shadowy figure was there. Once again, I stared at my hand that couldn't move, totally freaked out. I tried to yell for someone to come help me but couldn't. Once I tried hard enough to yell, I had a real awakening at like 5 something AM.

If I currently had access to my dream journal then I'd know the times.

Two layers, here. It started out non-lucid, and in the dream, I WILD'ed... so the second layer was lucid :)

I pretty much treat all my false awakenings like this now (WILD and go into a second-layer lucid).

I don't think I've ever had a layered dream before. I've had a few false awakenings, but they're usually isolated (that is, they weren't part of another dream but were dreams in and of themselves).

Hmm I think all this "dream layering" nonsense seems to occur because people watched Inception and assumed that's how LD-ing is supposed to be like. I once fell asleep within a dream but it was dreamless then I woke up in the same place.

Two ... but when i awoke the first time , i thought that that i had awoken for real-allthough i knew that it was a dream .

My most layers.. 3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by himikalka

Two ... but when i awoke the first time , i thought that that i had awoken for real-allthough i knew that it was a dream .

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How is this possible? You thought you were awake but at the same time knew that it was a dream?



Yuriythebest, I never saw Inception and have no idea what it is.

alright, this one is a little weird: my dream started with me waiting for the bus to secondary school (i apparently forgot i finished school), but there was something weird with the clocks i couldn't put my finger on (for starters they weren't digital) and i thought i could get a few minutes of napping, and so i moved onto the second layer...

weirdly, i can remember msot of the whole dream sequence of most of three specific levels, but level 2 and 3 were NOT them, which skips us straight to level 4:

in the level 4 dream i was the very best student of mystical background at a magic school similar to hogwarts, but EVERYTHING was blown way out of proportion and the stayed in that state for what was about a whole week (which transfers to about an hour in reality if you include the 'time' i spent in other dreams), now that means a cycle would have been build into my subconscious where you should sleep at night... and so i did, this brings us the LEVEL FIVE DREAM.

just to make things simpler i'd like to point out that this dream is the fifth dream in a series of dreams where i got to it from falling asleep in a dream.

in my level 5 dream, there was nothingness. no light, no dark, no happiness, sadness, anger, fear, pain, lust, joy... i was everything and i didn't exist; i forced myself to feel and i felt my arms and legs as if they were a conglomerated and unified extremity and it felt warm and cold, it felt painful and numb, it felt like everything and i swore i was crying because of the beauty- even that deep in my dream, i could feel my body crying, sobbing even!

that was the kick, it launched me back to the magic school and i witnessed day seven, i remember someone saying behind me "edward, they're coming... WAKE UP!" and then i flooded back to the level one dream and the same person who tried to wake me up before led me through what appeared to be a maze through the local town and after fighting our way through an overcrowded chinese restarant, i questioned his judgement and all he said was "they're coming" then he looked at his watch and said "you're late WAKE UP!!" and i woke up to reality exactly when i needed to get ready for college

Yes, I've had such dreams. How many levels did I experience? I'm not sure. I do recall dreams in which I kept wondering when it would end.

Yeah, this happens to me a lot actually. I have a lot of false awakenings, where I think I wake up but then I'm just in another dream. I'm not sure what the most I've ever had was ... I remember one time I had a dream where I "woke up" and had slept through class, but then I quickly realized it was a dream. Then I "woke up" AGAIN and was like, "Oh phew it was a dream" and then looked at the clock and I was like, "Oh no, I REALLY slept through class!" And this happened like three times in a row before I woke up for real. (And no, I hadn't actually slept through class.)

Sorry guys, there's no such thing as layers. There's no dream-within-a-dream, only dream-after-a-dream. Sometimes a dream scene may repeat, giving the illusion of layers, but there are actually no layers. The brain is an analog computer and therefore can't simulate itself.

Like cmind said, there is no such thing as layers. It's simply just the dream transitioning.

Usually in the morning on weekends I can sometimes have around 6-7 different dreams. I always get plenty of dreams on weekend mornings because I sleep in till around 12-1 PM. Sadly not many of them are lucid, and I never get to dream journaling all of them.

I had an experience some days ago (forgot to DJ it), where I got lucid in a dream, the dream faded and I felt into a convincing FA. So I performed DEILD, entered in the other scene once again, only to realize that the FA made no sense, and I woke up once again to it and then finally woke up for real. Was pretty funny lol.

3 that I can recall, I keep waking up thinking I woke up and then I am still dreaming. This will happen a lot. It also caused me to wet the bed when as was younger thinking I was getting up. I also have dreams that I still remember to this day and can at times call a dream back if going back to sleep in the early hours of the AM. I have wondered if I'm just weird, but I guess not!

One thing I have struggled with is other people. I have never met a person that had this happen or understands. I also never dream of horrible things, sex, murder, etc.

But to be honest, I never tried to do it or read how. I just have been like this all my life. So, you know when that happens and there is this dream and you wake up, you want to get back in and finish it. That is difficult to do, as if I can't get back to sleep right away, I can't get back in. Irritating as so much is left undone.

Oh, wait... I am not saying sex is horrible. I just never dream of it.