Disturbing Dream Within A Dream - I REALLY Need Some Advice

**GrowingAngel** · 03-14-2011 02:04 PM

I'm going to try and keep this post as short as I can, but forgive me if it gets lengthy.

I figured that this was the best section to post my experience, since at the end, I did realize that I was dreaming (so at the very least, I believe I attained some form of lucid awareness).

I posted this on another site in hopes that someone would be able to help me but so far no one's been able to. Even though I only made the post about a day ago, (and I'm usually a patient person lol) this dream has me so disturbed (I haven't slept yet and its almost 8am) that I'm seeking out more help.

In my dream, I was sitting in a woman’s lap that resembled an “older” version of a girl that I went to elementary and junior high school with. In the dream, she had long black hair, pulled back into a ponytail, I couldn’t tell if the hair was straight of it was actually dreadlocks. She was wearing a red shirt and we were sitting in a red chair. In her hand was a device that looked like an i-Phone or a similar smart phone device. She was showing me pictures of her restrained in a chair by leather “restraints”.

These restraints weren't causing her any harm; in fact it seemed more sexual in nature. (think BDSM/bondage). While she’s showing me these pictures, she’s also flirting with me (perhaps a better phrase would be trying to seduce); asking me if I understood what was going on in the pictures and what it meant.

The next thing I remember, I was showing her videos of myself on a smart phone device that I owned. It was a video of me sitting at a table, in a house, and I was talking about the Earth. I have no memory of what I was saying about the planet, I just remember hearing myself say the word “Earth”.

I’ve always been self conscious of myself and my looks and it wasn’t my intent to show her the video. I remember constantly hitting the exit button on the phone (yes, there was a button on the phone that said “exit”) in an attempt to get back to the main menu on the phone.

I looked up from the phone, and saw my cat knocking over pillows and a lap, being mischievously destructive (like cats can be lol). My cat jumped from the chair and started to playfully chase another cat that looked just like her! That’s when it clicked in my brain: “Wait a minute, I don’t have 2 cats!” and I realized that I was dreaming. Usually when I realize I’m in a dream, I attempt to go lucid, but this time, the only thing that was on my mind was getting out of this “place.”

I woke up, thought it was a weird dream, and proceeded to walk towards my computer. I began to debate on whether or not I wanted to finish watching a video or if I wanted to do something else. Before I could decide I heard my grandparents’ voices. Earlier that morning, my grandparents went to the ER because of a toothache my grandmother was having. My first thought after hearing them return was “Wow, That was a quick trip the hospital”.

My grandmother proceeded to come into my room and began asking me questions about a CD that I had made for my mother and she wanted one as well. I told her that my mother had the blank CDs and that she would have to wait. My grandmother appeared to get a bit agitated about this and said that she would just go to the store and get some blank CDs herself. At the same time, I noticed that the light in my room started to get really dim and I looked up into the ceiling and noticed that my bulb was burning out. I asked my grandmother were the light bulbs were kept and she told me where they were. Before I walked out of the room, I looked back up at the ceiling and noticed that my light fixture contained 6-8 sockets (I can’t remember the exact number).

That’s when I realized that this wasn’t really my room and I was still dreaming. Now, I’ve experienced a dream within a dream before, but this one definitely rubbed me the wrong way. I couldn’t help but get the feeling that I was being tricked into believing that I had awaken and my day was continuing from my nap.

Needless to say, I immediately tried to wake up. And that’s when the sleep paralysis kicked in. It took me 2-3 times to finally open my eyes. Once I did, I felt extremely drained and exhausted, I felt more exhausted after I woke up than before I napped!

Now that I was really awake, and quite disturbed, I decided to go outside and get some fresh air. Once outside I began to feel a little bit better, but I forgot something and went back into my room to retrieve it. The minute I did, I felt the same exhausted/drained feeling. It was as if it was a lingering wave and I had walked back into it.

After a while, the feeling went away.

Sorry about the long post, just wanted to recall as much as I could, and to be quite honest, I’m not sure if this was actually a dream.

Does anyone have any opinions/thoughts/interpretations of why I experienced this?

**astraalipaska** · 03-14-2011 03:06 PM

For me that sounds like a normal false awakening when you woke up from the first dream, not a dream within a dream.(?)

When you actually woke up and felt exhausted, that was probably because you woke up from short REM(?). I heard when people wake up from REM they feel more sleepy than they would if they woke up from NREM, or heavy-/light- sleep. (I remember watching this document that said so.)
But not sure about why did you get the exhausted feeling when you walked back to your room, maybe you thought you would experience something when you walked back to your room and you did? Or did you keep your window(s) and door(s) shut when you were sleeping, and you werent getting fresh air?

Correct me if I said something wrong, for example that when you nap its a short REM, because im not sure if it is?

**Mrsf0011** · 03-14-2011 03:22 PM

well i dont see it as anything unusuall just a wierd dream, its happeed to me as well. it seems like you were struggling to wake up specally with the SP. so as you woke up you slipped into a dream again and the last thing you remembered from that event was you waking up without realising the wake up failed and your in a dream again, just didnt register, so you thought you were awake until just like the first dream something happened foryou to realise your still in a dream. thats why people always do reality checks.

i dont see anything disturbing about this dream

**Philosopher8659** · 03-14-2011 06:40 PM

If you ever come to believe that dreams are a langauge, then you have to realize that it is directed towards you and your particular psychology.

If you want to learn the language in a somewhat limited way, you have to ask very specific questions while entering the lucid state, otherwise you will probably never figure out the topic unless the "speaker" of the dream desires you to. In other words, you have to learn it step by step just like you learned your conventional language.

**GrowingAngel** · 03-15-2011 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by astraalipaska

For me that sounds like a normal false awakening when you woke up from the first dream, not a dream within a dream.(?)

When you actually woke up and felt exhausted, that was probably because you woke up from short REM(?). I heard when people wake up from REM they feel more sleepy than they would if they woke up from NREM, or heavy-/light- sleep. (I remember watching this document that said so.)
But not sure about why did you get the exhausted feeling when you walked back to your room, maybe you thought you would experience something when you walked back to your room and you did? Or did you keep your window(s) and door(s) shut when you were sleeping, and you werent getting fresh air?

Correct me if I said something wrong, for example that when you nap its a short REM, because im not sure if it is?

You're right. It was a false awakening. I'm still learning the lingo. lol
I have no idea about the short REM, I'm still new to all of this, but when I've had naps before I usually wake up feeling more tired or not feeling like I had any rest. I guess you could say this was the same, except it was way more intense. I'm not sure why I felt the same feeling when I walked back into the room either, perhaps I was expecting to feel this way and didn't realize it and no, there weren't any windows or doors open.

Originally Posted by Mrsf0011

well i dont see it as anything unusuall just a wierd dream, its happeed to me as well. it seems like you were struggling to wake up specally with the SP. so as you woke up you slipped into a dream again and the last thing you remembered from that event was you waking up without realising the wake up failed and your in a dream again, just didnt register, so you thought you were awake until just like the first dream something happened foryou to realise your still in a dream. thats why people always do reality checks.

i dont see anything disturbing about this dream

Thanks for the link about reality checks MrsF, I'm going to check it out.
The disturbing part was the dream after the false awakening. It seemed as if I had awoke and was just continuing on with my day. It was eerie.

Originally Posted by Philosopher8659

If you ever come to believe that dreams are a langauge, then you have to realize that it is directed towards you and your particular psychology.

If you want to learn the language in a somewhat limited way, you have to ask very specific questions while entering the lucid state, otherwise you will probably never figure out the topic unless the "speaker" of the dream desires you to. In other words, you have to learn it step by step just like you learned your conventional language.

Boy this language is going to be difficult to learn lol. Thanks for the tip about asking questions while in lucid, it never occurred to me that I could ask questions.

**Shadow27** · 03-15-2011 01:00 AM

As everyone else said, its just a false awakening. Nothing to worry about. I would recommend doing reality checks
and know you dream signs. You mention "Dream within a dream" I would just like to point out that such a phenomenon
does not exist. You can't have layers in dreams. You simply have false awakenings or "fake sleep" in a dream. You aren't
falling asleep or waking up, simply changing the scene of the dream.

Hope this helps.
~Wes