Am I the only one who actually thinks False Awakenings are useful?

**Laurelindo** · 11-01-2013 05:06 PM

False Awakenings seem to have a strangely infamous reputation among lucid dreamers, and are generally considered a "problem" - but... why?
I used to have lots of False Awakenings when I first started out lucid dreaming, and I found them really useful because it was much easier to think rationally since I assumed I had woken up, and therefore I tricked my brain into becoming logical, and this made it much easier for me to become aware and critical - and on every occasion I noticed it was a dream within just a couple of seconds.
So why are False Awaknings considered such a problem?
If you have a False Awakening and notice it is a dream then it is essentially a lucid dream, and isn't that exactly what we try to achieve?

**stupid** · 11-01-2013 05:17 PM

Well for me usually when i have false awakening its still dark so in dream i go to sleep so its annoying or i wake up do the boring stuff but then i wake up again for real and have to start again. That used to be the problem but now i find them usefull because i do reality every time i wake up

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**Laurelindo** · 11-01-2013 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by stupid

Well for me usually when i have false awakening its still dark so in dream i go to sleep so its annoying or i wake up do the boring stuff but then i wake up again for real and have to start again. That used to be the problem but now i find them usefull because i do reality every time i wake up

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Yes, you are right about that, I had made it such a habit to always question my state every time I woke up, so becoming lucid in False Awakenings was really easy for me.

**Sensei** · 11-01-2013 05:23 PM

FA = Easy LD.

**FryingMan** · 11-05-2013 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by BrandonBoss

FA = Easy LD.

Yes! I *wish* I got stuck in a "FA loop" -- noticing each time that I'm dreaming. It sucks waking up from an LD before you want to, the next best thing is to land right into another LD!

**vasiona** · 11-01-2013 06:12 PM

You're definitely not the only one - false awakenings can be really useful for becoming lucid. I understand why some people don't like them, though. Before I got into lucid dreaming and started doing regular reality checks, I used to have a lot of really vivid false awakenings which never turned into lucid dreams and were all the more terrifying for how realistic they seemed: usually almost everything would be just as it was in real life except for some scary detail (like there being a dead body in my room.) I still have false awakenings which don't quite turn into lucid dreams sometimes, and they're particularly annoying when you "wake" from an interesting or non-lucid dream or get stuck in a loop and keep waking up in a dream over and over again. Just a few days ago I dreamed that I woke up and decided to try to WILD whilst lying in my bed - only to, much later, after finding that there was a random guy standing over my bed and talking about operating on me, realize that I'd never even woken up for real

So those are the reasons I used to consider false awakenings a problem (they were almost always terrifying, often came in loops and broke up other interesting dreams) but now that I'm increasing my awareness, I agree that they can be very useful for someone who wants to have lucid dreams.

**Saizaphod** · 11-01-2013 07:11 PM

I have never considered FAs as a problem neither, they are easily turned into LDs, well, depends how familiar you are with this phenomenon.

**Jacen** · 11-01-2013 10:46 PM

Its just annoying because I get up, do all the usual chores and then wake up and have to do them again

**Antoia** · 11-02-2013 01:01 AM

My first lucid was due to a FA. I dreamed that I woke up later than I wanted to, and that led to me wondering if it was a dream and became lucid. I think that they could be really helpful, especially if you remember to RC, etc whenever you wake up/get out of bed...

**Sivason** · 11-05-2013 04:54 AM

FA happened to me for years before LDing. It was the first semi lucid state for me. I often knew I may still be asleep.

**Electrode** · 11-06-2013 09:01 AM

I think they have bad reputation is they are frustrating like everytime it happens to me I feel like I was so stupid not to do an RC and wasted it

**Lancell** · 11-06-2013 09:59 AM

My personal opinion on this: Every Lucid Dream is a good LD. I had two FA's and just to do your normal chores in a LD is much more magical after when you think about it, also they are by far the longest LD I have ever had, since all my other LD is about 10-30 seconds. Also since you didn't know that it was a LD I think you learn to have more LDs. Just talking about personal opinion here, I think a lot of you can prove me wrong, but not being able to tell real life apart from dreams is what makes you able to LD.

**Joon** · 11-09-2013 12:17 AM

I can't agree more. When false awakening happens, I let it happen over and over. This actually helps me make better decisions in the dream. It's just like how you get unlimited tries in a video game.

**Miau** · 11-09-2013 02:31 PM

You're certainly not the only one who thinks FAs are useful. When I first started LDing I never had or heard about FAs ( At least I don't remember having them ) but when I did I really wanted to have one and it happened. Most of my LDs come from FAs because I always do a RC when waking up just to be sure. I can't think of any reason why they can be frustrating, I really can't.

**Ashikael** · 11-09-2013 04:05 PM

I love false awakenings! I automatically do a reality check when I wake up in the morning, so when I have any sort of FA I wind up knowing it's a dream immediately. Pretty much 90% of my lucid dreams start with me waking up in a bed and finding out my RC works.

**Shantak** · 11-09-2013 05:48 PM

I see 2 sides to FA's though overall I like them.

I'm very prone to them. I unconditionally do a RC whenever I get out of bed in RL because of this, and also do them if I wake up but not getting out of bed yet. Though most of the time in a FA I don't do this, which is pretty annoying.

Good things from FA's for me are that I'm a bit better at getting lucid from them than from other dreams, and also, being in my bedroom or something similar gives me a good starting point rather than being in the middle of a wierd situation. I've also noticed FA lucids can be very realistic at times.

The bad side for me with them is that I tend to be very groggy in them, if I become lucid from a false awakening, its much harder for me to think or have energy, most of the time my eye sight doesn't even work right and I have to try and solve that (usually not having the brains to do so).

Another note is that I have had many times where I have had a FA from a lucid, and while I do not become lucid in the FA, the dream story is often of me preparing for a LD or having equipment promising one, I then dream of going back to sleep and the next dream scene immediately becomes lucid because of my situation before sleeping again. Interestingly when becoming lucid again, I am unaware that the FA in between the lucids was a dream, I seem to accept it as real. So really the FA is giving me a lucid.

**FryingMan** · 11-17-2013 08:58 AM

I just got my first FA which I immediately knew was a FA. I woke into my childhood bedroom, immediately suspected it (sound change perhaps of room fan in WL), stood up, things were dark, did nose pinch, could breath, things got lighter, and I was solidly in the LD at that point, "Yep this is a dream." Stayed in the house went downstairs, and did DC summon, DC "fun with female", DC command control. Lightened (slightly) a dark room. I welcome an FA at any time!