I feel like the lines between reality and dreams are blurring?

Hi there,

So I'm curious as to whether anyone else has experienced what I've been feeling the last couple of weeks.

I've gotten into lucid dreaming in the past, but I've never stuck with it with any conviction. The last month and a bit however, I've had a lot of motivation and conviction. I have my watch set to buzz every hour and I've been constantly questioning my surroundings. It's worked very well to achieve vivid dreams and even a few lucids (I don't expect magic, as I'm still very new!). However I am starting to feel a bit weird in my day to day life.

My dreams have been very vivid and lifelike when I recall them, almost as though they are actual memories or fragments of memories in my real life. What I'm finding now is that, more and more, I'm starting to feel like during the day, I'm genuinely in a dream, and I find myself doing reality checks not because of habit, but because I cannot tell for certain anymore. Don't get me wrong, I am sure this is good for obtaining lucidity in my dream life because if I feel this in real life, I'll feel it in dreams, but is it... bad?

I feel a little bit like I'm acting crazy. I just got back from walking to the shops and the whole time I was looking around almost convinced I was in a dream. It just didn't feel real. I guess that's what I'm saying; real life sometimes doesn't feel real.

Is this normal behaviour? Haha

I have had similar moments, particularly like you after a patch of vivid recall, but not as a constant thing. I don't know if it is inherently bad or not, but I mean if it bothers you then it is obviously a bit of a problem. My advice would be that it seems to be a good indication that you subconscious is learning to question reality as a habit and should result in you getting more lucid shortly. Well, I hope so at least :).

It's not bad unless it's causing you to freak out. It's important to recognize the differences between dream and waking, but at the same time, they have an inherent sameness that is fine to recognize. If you are genuinely confused about your state, don't do anything dumb (like jump out of a window) and just continue normally with your day. If you need a break from the feeling of dreaminess, just relax your practicing and take a break. Take some deep breaths, do some reality checks, and ground yourself.

Sounds like a good approach to RC. From my experience it never happened to me no matter how vivid dream I had. I can always tell when I ask myself if this is reality or dream. Try to calm down and focus on how you feel in the dream and normally. There are certain differences not only around you but also in your head, in the feeling of living or how to call that.
I actually think it is serious if you cannot distinguish dream and reality. It might be dangerous.
On the other hand I admit that we perceive the world through our senses that are connected to our brain where the picture, sound, smell etc is made and interpreted so basically there is not a big difference between dream and reality in terms of processing the surrounding world (dream or not) inside our head. The brain is not dumb though so it can tell.

From my experience with really vivid dreams - I am sometimes amazed by the level of their detail, and sometimes I have the feeling as if the last day was a couple of hours longer than 24 hours long. It's a weird feeling to describe - like you've experienced more than can be possible for such a short time. But this feeling is in retrospect, and when I (truly) wake up from such dreams I always know that I'm awake, especially if there is a lot to recall. :D

In non lucid dreams, of course I think that what's happening is real. This includes many false awakening; some of them follow very vivid dreams and I can literally spend an entire dream recording the previous one. However, if I have the tinniest bit of awareness in a dream it will usually grow with time, so assuming I'm not about to wake up soon, I'll become lucid and from there the distinction between dream and reality is very clear. Sometimes my focus can drift away and I can lose lucidity too - but if I think something like "is this reality or dream?", I'll usually re-realize it's a dream. I did have several lucids in which the realism was so amazing it was hard to believe it's a dream, but still, because you're lucid you just know that it is a dream even if nothing seems off.

About confusing real life as a dream - I can't think of any instances of that sort, not during the day at least... I think occasionally during real awakenings I can sometimes not be sure if it's a dream or not, but I think it's pretty normal considering this only happens when I'm still sleepy and usually around or after a chain of dreams that many of them are FAs. Imagine waking up for the 10th time, the last 9 being FAs or DEILDs - at that point it's nearly certain that it will be hard at first to decide if it's yet another dream. :tongue: Other than this kind of confusion, I don't think I ever truly thought it's a dream in real life. However, I do try to recall that "dream feeling" during my RC / awareness instances during the day - I think I actually can feel that same feeling by recalling it, but this doesn't mean I suddenly think it's a dream. Essentially, what I mean is - do you just feel that dream feeling during the day (which is normal, at least to me) or do you actually need to stop and think "is this real?" - because these are two different things.

Another similar phenomenon that I experience as a result of vivid dreaming that might be relevant, is the occasional episode of sudden, intense, but short deja vu. By that I mean, for example, when training outside I can suddenly feel like I've been there before and done exactly that (it feels just like a real deja vu), only to then realize that I recall doing that from a dream, not real life. These instances can get very specific for me - like one time I was fixing the electricity at home, and suddenly had a deja vu about being electrocuted while fixing that exact wiring. :panic: After feeling that I quickly remembered that it happened in a dream, not in real life (because some nights before I was thinking that I'll need to fix it eventually, so it ended up as the plot of a dream), I of course relaxed - but it's like a reflex, while it's happening you don't need to think about it. :| To the best of my knowledge, and based on other dreamers, it appears to be a normal side effect of vivid dreams. Plus, there is no real confusion between dream and reality, apart from that momentary involuntary deja vu feeling - but I thought I'd point this out nonetheless since it seems relevant.

After I realize it is a dream, I simply lie down and go to sleep. So even if I think "I'm dreaming" and am wrong, worst case scenario I lay down. No harm, no foul.