Waking Up Crying ... (or screaming)

You see it in movies fairly frequently ... folks waking up from dreams or nightmares screaming or crying. But how often does this happen in "real" life?

This morning, I awoke from a pretty emotional dream, crying.

Briefly, in the dream, I found myself "reunited" with a military troupe that was about to go on another combat mission. [I am not now, nor have I ever been in the military.] In the dream, the combat started ... but somehow, a truce was negotiated amongst the battling groups, and I was wondering around and amongst the various troops, there were women and children amongst both groups of soldiers and I could not tell the difference between the two warring "sides".

As I wandered amongst them all, I started to cry, until, I actually fell to my knees and began bawling my eyes out cuz my heart felt like such lead.

When I woke, I was crying. But no time to dally in the moment ... had to get up and go to work as I was already late - had overslept.

So this got me wondering ... how common is it for folks to wake up from a dream in which they are crying to find themselves actually crying. Or in other cases, to wake up screaming from screaming in the dream.

This happens to me at least a few times each year but is always startling and incredibly moving.

Comments?

SMiles

On two occasions I have woke up crying. Not the scared movie style but a gentle sad about events in the dream crying.

Good Morning,
I've had a recurring dream for at least 20 years now with varying frequency.It's always
the same theme : an unseen but incredibly strong negative/dark/evil? vacuum that
occupies some area of my dreamscape. Usually a room or a closet . No physical
characteristics. It wants to paralyze and eat me like some carnivourous ghost.
It continues to be my scariest dream ever.
This past April while visiting friends overseas I had the dream, was caught and paralyzed, contorted into an impossible pretzel shape an endured a disgusting feeling
of being drained of my will. I knew I was dreaming so I tried yelling to my girlfriend
sleeping next to me to pull my hair to wake me up. She did wake me up because I
was yelling my head off " PULL MY HAIR ! PULL MY HAIR ! ".
I have this dream maybe twice a month. That time was the only time I can remember
shouting though.
I also remember crying from relief after a dream of being sentenced to hanging. It
was years ago and I had no clue it was a dream until after.
Have you ever dreamed of paralysis ?
R.C.

I've had a dream where I was sentenced to death by lethal injection. I kept running but eventually I was caught and everyone seemed to be very upset and no one wanted to go through with it but it had to be done.

When the time came I got injected and woke up and was crying in relief.

I have tried to come out of s.p. by screaming. But I have many times woke up Laughing out loud. I have many dreams that seem halarious at the time. :)

Hi All! Thanks for replying to the thread! Very interesting comments.

I've experienced Sleep Paralysis a couple of times but it seems like my last two girlfriends had it much more frequently. My current and forever love recently had a recurring bought of SP.

Anyway ... well ...

It happened again this morning; I awoke from a dream crying.

In a nut-shell, this dream revolved around two neighboring spaces, one like a walkin freezer at the 7-11 (with big glass doors behind which drinks and foodstuffs might normally be stored and behind those racks one might walk around inside) only the big glass doors were both doors and windows through which I could see a variety of men and women who were clones of other people in the dream.

The other space was equally "sealed off" from the outside but in a much more cage-like fashion with wooden / bamboo beams instead of 'hermeticly sealed' freezer doors.

During the dream, people from inside the freezer space would emerge and walk around acting mostly human and like their "original" doubles (as if they were MIB dopplegangers or something).

At several points during the dream, people would enter either of these two spaces and re-emerge aged or younger than they were when they went in. This caused me to suggest in the dream that these spaces (devices?) were in fact time machines but of a variety I'd not considered before.

At some point the folks inside the non-freezer space seemed to be building something wooden -- an ARK! It took me a little while but I did realize in the dream that this was indeed an Ark they were building.

There was of course much more to this dream but towards the end, I found myself peering into the freezer space and seeing the people (and now animals and foodstuffs) molding inside.

That is when I began to cry in the dream... and awoke with tears in my eyes. :cry:

Really not sure what to make of all this. I can ascribe some meaning to a few of the elements but ... I guess I'm going through more internal emotions than I realize in my waking state.

SMiles

I have clear memories of being a kid and dreaming of the death of eam member of my familly, one by one. I used to wake up with tears streaming down my face after those. :?

I've woken up screaming a few times. Usually it's when something bad happens or scary....

I've never woken up crying, but I have woken up laughing.

I had a dream that I was looking at a picture from my little sister's kindergarten graduation, and then it switched to watching the graduation. (She's 23 now and this dream took place just a few years ago and I have no clue what sparked it). Anyhow, the graduates were all standing on a bleacher during the cermony which was taking place outdoors. The principal started to speak about how the kids were moving onto another phase of their life, about how they will take on more responsibilities and have to start growing up. Well, my sister got a look of panic on her face and just started running as fast as she could away from the ceremony. It was a really funny scene and I woke up laughing. :)