Thread: hypnapompic state

Hmm, seems very interesting.
I have never heard of an occurrence of carrying dream imagery into the waking state but if you are still experiencing the dream...how do you know you've woken up? Perhaps you just feel how your dream slowly fades away and then you really wake up thinking that you've been awake for a short while longer than you really have?

I had a war dream not long ago that took me about 45 min to completely wake up from. The whole time I would be sitting in bed staring around my room but beleiving that the dream was still going and it was ww2 in england somwhere. It was quite strange. Also I would fall back asleep occaisionally which would refresh the dream.

Originally posted by Merlock
Perhaps you just feel how your dream slowly fades away and then you really wake up thinking that you've been awake for a short while longer than you really have?

no, i can actually see my room and everythign in it as it is, only the person i was directly engaged with stays, and i always end up talkign to them, very frustrating, it would make sense though, sleeptalkign and everything, you cant control your actions, you act out your dream in life but your not alseep so you actually move and talk, you just cant stop yuorself even tho your aware your awake, very strange, ive never worked out why this happens, i spose its just the two states being mixed up and that.

I"m not gonna knock something I haven't experienced, but have you considered that you may have had a false awakening? Dreaming that you have "woken up" and are sitting in your room - when in fact you're still dreaming. Just at thought.

I have woken up from dreams with something in my hand to realize that i am still clenching my fist. Another thing that happened was I dreamed my brother was in the room when I was waking up so I tried to punch him. Turns out he wasn't there and I suddenly became wide awake as my fist throbbed from punching the wood on my bed.

Originally posted by Tornado Joe
I\"m not gonna knock something I haven't experienced, but have you considered that you may have had a false awakening? Dreaming that you have \"woken up\" and are sitting in your room - when in fact you're still dreaming. Just at thought.

I agree with Tornado Joe: it seems to me that it's a false awakening (anyway I never experienced it, so it's just my guessing).

eXistenZ

Have experienced similar wake-dream states as you've described most of my life, although it's much rarer now in my 40's. Hynapompics are rarer than hypnagognic hallucinations. I've awoken and seen extremely vivid non-auditory dreams even though the room looked perfectly normal and I was obviously awake. No paralysis either. Stress and lack of sleep increase the incidence of these, but methinks there's something alittle unusual in the brain chemistry or anatomically if you have them very frequently. I have a hereditary condition where small intracranial bleeds exist although they're of a minor nature (usually) and I might not be aware of them. This too could be your problem or... perhaps nothing at all. Be assured, there are folks out there who have these. Some of these hypnapompics are terrifying and are incredibly realistic. Usually they don't last very long, thankfully.