FAs

I'm not someone who has FAs very often at all. Almost never in fact. Last night, or rather this morning, I had 3 back to back. I didn't do RCs because I have not established that as a habit since I so rarely run into the situation. I had very little sleep the night before, so I was going into a sleep period overly tired, which was reflected in how groggy I was on each awakening during the night. I always wake up 3-5 times a night naturally due to issues.

Anyway, for those of you who have more frequent FAs, is there a stimulus that is normally present that causes them, or are they simply random events for you?

Thanks for responses.

They happen sometimes... I'd say about 60% of the time, I was either a bit sleep deprived or just going through a stressful moment in my life. The other times, though, I'd say it happened... for no (apparent) reason.

Oh, but. When I'm working really hard on LD and RCs, it does happen a bit more often.

They are random events for me.

I believe false awakenings are dreams centered around an awakening of some sort in your waking life. An awakening is defined as an act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something (noun), and as coming into existence or awareness (adj). So, there are lots of things that you can be awakening to or that can be awakening, all of which could be a stimulus for a FA, (ideas, feelings, memories, dreams, ect.)

I've experienced one before (yes, only one :p) and I was INCREDIBLY tired in it, and quickly after I started thinkinh I could be asleep, I woke up.
This was linked to me being tired in real life as well, I believe. I was super tired the night before.

Thanks everyone for replies. I guess RCs on every awakening is something I need to add to my list of LDing exercises. See what happens and evaluate as i go. Good LDing everyone.

I definitely get more FAs when I'm practising LDs. I dunno if it's because it's an expectation, or just because I'm more tuned in to my dreams, so I notice them more...

I agree with the above, it's pretty random. Just another dream, really.

For some reason I get False Awakenings about 30% of the time if I go to bed really early.
I am not sure why, but probably because I am less exhausted when I fall asleep and therefore remain relatively alert while dreaming.

If i get the chance, maybe I'll trying some early to bed business. As a rule, it doesn't happen. Experimentation is always a good thing. thanks

I have had quite a few false awakenings, not that I have detected many, in fact its just the opposite more often I have been in a lucid dream and then woken up and begun to journal or describe my dream only to latter wake up for real, it happened in one of my lucid dreams in the competition that just ended. It was the fourth lucid dream in a series beginning at 2:30 am and it was the last lucid at 7:55 I woke up from the lucid and began to journal, then I woke up for real. In general I don't think I often just begin dreaming that I am in my house, I think that my recall simply goes back to some point that I don't remember before, but I'm fairly certain that about 60-70 percent of the dreams where I recall being at home, were in fact begun with a false awakening. As for their relation to the real world they seem most common when I am waking up after or around my normal waking time when I have gone to sleep at a normal or early time (so when it is time to wake up, the brain is thinking of waking up at home, and so it does just still inside a dream). My first intentional Lucid dream was a result of an RC but I'm sure If I could just remember back to how I got to my yard it took place in it was doubtless a false awakening, and like most false awakenings the details are extremely convincing. In another false awakening in a lucid dream recently, I lost lucidity and woke up on a bus heading home from where the lucid had occurred, later of course I woke up for real. Another recent dream I woke and recalled back through about 5 dream segments then realized I was explaining my lucid dream to DCs and recalled the Lucid dream itself. In another I flew in a Lucid and got stuck, then I was awake and ran to a group of people to tell them of my Lucid, never mind how I got dressed or how I got there, and as if a bunch of people in the street would care (and who the heck were they anyway) then of course I woke up for real. Again and again I lose lucidity to false awakenings :) he he :)

For me, I think external stimulus was a primary cause. I used to live on a noisy street and had FAs very often. The garbage truck every Thursday morning was a reliable FA trigger. I also would often sleep well into the morning and I think sunlight would cause more frequent FAs as well. I have since moved to a quieter location with a more regular sleep schedule and I barely ever get FAs now.

Cooleymd, sounds like quite a ride. Does it sometimes confuse your day life, wondering maybe in the back of your mind if you are really dreaming, having another FA? It sounds as if you need the same habit of doing RCs every time you wake up as I am about to condition myself to. or hope to. As many FAs as you have, you certainly could have a quite a few more adventures. Thanks for the response.

Sisyphus. It's very interesting that external stimulus is causing FAs, stimulus that I would think would wake you up physically. It's as if your subconscious is incorporating the external stimuli into your dream world, but you are close enough to true wakefulness that it incorporates the event into something that you would expect to be happening. Which I'm sure makes it even harder to recognize the event as a FA without doing a RC. Perhaps you should purposely incorporate some noise into your environment every morning to utilize the FAs for something more satisfying, making sure you are also incorporating RCs into your morning as well. thanks

I seem to get them more often when I'm concerned about waking up or focused on something related to waking up. For instance, there was a time in my life many years ago when I would frequently take naps during the day (to catch up on sleep which I was never able to have) but needed to not sleep too late. I was frequently concerned about this; I ended up having FAs on a regular basis (as well as some LDs, as a nice side effect :)).

When I've taken to record notes about dreams on each awakening, I also often have FAs, usually centered around grabbing the recorder and trying to note the dream, only to wake up and have to do it over (if I manage to still remember it). Annoyingly, RCs seem not to show up in many of these even though my habit has been to RC on every awakening for nearly a year now.

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Originally Posted by madmagus

Cooleymd, sounds like quite a ride. Does it sometimes confuse your day life, wondering maybe in the back of your mind if you are really dreaming, having another FA?

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Well when your awake you usually know it, but like when I false awoken on the bus on the way home from the lucid I had been in, I did question, and I became lucid again, unfortunately I chose the jump test for confirmation and got stuck in the air and then woke up for real. (I only counted it as one lucid dream, but I became lucid twice). A better thing to do than worry too much about false awakenings is to learn to stabilize, If I had stabilized I might have lasted more than 15 seconds in each lucid part of that dream :)

Cooleymd, I finally read your tag line, if that's what it's called. Love it. Thanks both for your responses. Perhaps, Travis E., what you are inadvertently doing is a subconscious MILD, using the expectation as an unstated mantra, so to speak, to form an intention. Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by madmagus

Cooleymd, I finally read your tag line, if that's what it's called. Love it.

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yea I have had that 3-eye photo of myself for like 25 years :) and when I joined dream views I had one of my stupidest ways missed becoming lucid. My dreams never seem to have shadows, but they do have reflections and glare. I was riding on the light rail and a very ordinary woman was sitting near by, then suddenly the train turned and there was glare from her glasses not from the two outer lenses but from the central monical covering her third eye. I looked away and her glasses were gone and when she blinked her middle eye all you could see was a slit on her nose and some eye lashes. I was sitting there thinking about asking her if having a fully developed third eye, does she still have a pineal gland and about her endogenous melatonin levels :)

In dreams we are stupid. So once I figured out how to do those signatures I put it on there, it's all FUN and GAMES he he :) till you wake up and smack yourself :)

It's even better, cooleymd, with the back story. Thanks