Dream bleeding into reality

I'm curious if anyone has had their dreams bleed into your awake, concious self before.

I had this nightmare when I was about 8:


I was swimming in my pool with all my friends, laughing and splashing and having a great time. I look up at the back patio door and my blue teddy bear is there, standing at least six feet tall. I stare into it's black, empty eyes. It looks sad, forlorn...sorry. I raises on arm and waves slowly, not taking his eyes away from mine.

Then everything went black. I could hear screaming and, things. Just things in the darkness and they were tearing the world apart. It was so dark as if the sun had gone out.


I awoke from this dream, screaming. I could see them, these unseen creatures in my dream. Their dark, slimy and scaley existence. See them crawling on and through my walls. Could see them outside the window, in my closet. They scratched and scraped as they moved. My mom and step dad ran in when they heard me screaming but I was raving. I remember them picking me up and taking me down into the basement. I remember the grotesque figures that awaited me with outstretched arms as I walked down the hallway, could smell their rot. They taunted me, called for me, wanted me to go into the cellar. I knew my mom was there, that she was calming me but they couldn't see and or hear any of it. Then it was just gone one minute and felt normal.


If anyone has seen Wes Craven's 'They' it would be the closest I can come to describing them. It was a similar thing, kids with night terrors who were marked by these black, shadowy creatures only they could see.


It's still about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.

I would have initially said that it was just hypnopompic illusions, but the way that they carried on for so long as you describe puzzles me. :?

here are my ideas.

1. schizophrenia. i doubt it, because you have not any any symptoms since then
2. you just dropped some acid. probably not, because you were 8.
3. it was a false awakening. this is what i would guess. especially when you were that young, a vivid false awakening could have been confused with a memory of reality.

yeah, id say it was a false awakening.

Hm, I've had dream logic and delusions carry over into the real world, but never hallucinations. Like once I was dreaming I was at war with Germany and Japan, and when I woke up, I was very paranoid and thought the Germans were planning to kill me and were hiding weapons in my house. And this all lasted until I went back to sleep :p

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Originally Posted by eppy

yeah, id say it was a false awakening.

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If it wasn't for the fact I have clear memories of what happened after, going to bed and my mom and brother remember it, I'd say it was false awakening.

In fact, what happened after was one of my more pleasant memories with my step dad.

Is it possible it was just a haluousination? Sp?
Maybe the fear from the dream caused an adrenaline rush that was unnecessary... So between a young Childs mind expecting to see these creatures the access adrenaline plus the waking up state of mine was a hallucination formed


thats is only my guess though

I'd accept that if I could've seen them during my dream. The first time I saw them was waking up and I literally woke up screaming at the top of my lungs and freaking out according to me mom and I remember it to. I just shot up from my bed and could see them then.

I'm going to put up this nightmare along with thier other appearance about two years back in my dream journal.

Maybe it's just because I was so young when I experienced it, but I don't remember them being in my dream, but from seeing them with my own two eyes, hearing them with my own ears. Even though I know it was a hallucination there is that part of my subconcious that protests that fact and I suppose I carry a fear of them around with me, though its not an irrational fear.

I guess having not experienced it yourself you couldn't actually understand what it was like.

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Originally Posted by i make it rain

here are my ideas.

1. schizophrenia. i doubt it, because you have not any any symptoms since then
2. you just dropped some acid. probably not, because you were 8.
3. it was a false awakening. this is what i would guess. especially when you were that young, a vivid false awakening could have been confused with a memory of reality.

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I know very little about schizophrenia, but is it possible to go long periods of time with some symptoms being absent?

From what he said it is not a false awakening.

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Originally Posted by Bob Dole

I know very little about schizophrenia, but is it possible to go long periods of time with some symptoms being absent?

From what he said it is not a false awakening.

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yeah, the fact that his parents and brother remember it kills the false awakening idea.

i don't know much about schizophrenia either, but i know just the guy to help us. PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT, IT'S YOUR TIME TO SHINE!!

like you said.. the dream leaked into reality. you have in fact 3 eyes, 2eyes as light receptors and the third eye, the minds eye as your imagination receptor. Your vision, as you might have noticed, is a combination of your 3 eyes, and this effect can very clearly been seen when on drugs. Or when you are dreaming for example, you only see through your third eye.

I know perfectly what you are talking about. Before the age of 14 I had to experience several of encounters.

The first one I had when I was a baby. I couldn't talk or move properly at that time, but I could think coherently and understand people. In that experience I lay on my back in a crib, a mobile hanging above my head. My parents were there, it was during the day. Half-lucent devil-like creatures started dancing in a circle around my crib, grinning at me. They looked exactly like those many depictions of devils and demons I learned much later in books, movies and other media. I wasn't afraid though, I didn't know then that they were a symbol of evil in our culture. That's the oldest memory I still consciously possess.

Another very impressive encounter I had at about 8 to 10 years - I can only guess the age now. I awoke in the middle of night in total darkness - my parents used to completely lower the rolling shutter of my room - and all around the window, strange furry creatures with long teeth and claws and grotesque faces stared at me sneeringly. They emanated an own eerie light. I was paralyzed with fear (not sleep paralysis) but I managed to ask what they wanted. The response was a wave of laughter. Though I was totally terrified, I got out of bed to make it to my parents' room. The creatures watched me still sneering but stayed at the window - the door was on the opposite wall. I slowly got out of the room door and went into my parents' bed where I awoke the next day.

One day I went into my fully lit room late in the evening. Outside it was dark, so I couldn't look throught the window glass. There was no way to reach the room window from the outside. Suddenly a face appeared from behind the window. It was very close to the glass, so the light from the room fell on it and it was perceivable in full detail. It was a vaguely human-like head with tentacles around it's broad mouth. The skin was wrinkled and leathery. It simply gazed at me. Struck with panic my knees gave in and I fell to the floor. Struggling with my limbs I managed to crawl out of the room and make it to the kitchen where my mother sat sewing. I told her what happened. No, you didn't miss it, I did not go to sleep before having that encounter. That kind of appearance happened to me twice. The second time a black-shrouded shape stood right in front of me when I opened a room door but that was many years later at a different domicile.

There are several more encounters I had, like faces coming out of the wall, birds flying in the room, cryptic symbols appearing in front of my eyes, more monsters, etc. but I'll stop here.

I'm not suffering from schizophrenia or any other mental illnesses and the encounters were isolated incidents. They were real, as real as anything you believe in - pun fully intended. Don't try to make up something to explain it, I've heard anything you could tell me and every explanation is as good as any other, so I don't care. But probably you'll have realized yourself that reality is a morphing fluctuation and one should be very careful with defining it.

Speaking of hallucinations, I was smoking a joint in my back shed with a friend and I had a vision...I've been afraid of going in my backyard alone at night since. I remember hearing footsteps on my back deck, walking towards the shed. There was a plank of wood missing from the door and we both looked towards it. Two aliens poked their head in and stared at us. I remember us both freaking out as the door started to open.

But I didn't sleep...I was awake. I was so eerie. A friend of mine with a keen interest in this sort of thing suggested 'maybe it wasn't a hallucination' and I was a little worried.



Sometimes when I'm out for a smoke I hear...things. What sounds like things moving around in my garden when nothing is there. Little knocks on things; cars, fences...and I can't help but think its those shadow creatures.

You were smoking a joint. Inducing mind and mood altering substances into your body is bound to cause you to experience wacky reality changes.

That, and if it IS schitzophrenia, mixing weed with a condition like that is usually a really bad combo, and produces some very warped 'visions' as you put it.

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Originally Posted by Alextanium

You were smoking a joint. Inducing mind and mood altering substances into your body is bound to cause you to experience wacky reality changes.

That, and if it IS schitzophrenia, mixing weed with a condition like that is usually a really bad combo, and produces some very warped 'visions' as you put it.

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Honestly, having open-eyed visual hallucinations after smoking weed is extremely uncommon. Unless your tolerance is extremely low and you were smoking extremely good bud one joint shouldn’t do that to you. Not even on your first time with regs.

Auditory hallucinations are a little more common if you are out of your mind high.

Weed + Schizophrenia, will do that however.

I've had the exact same thing as you when I was younger as well, I saw two of our neighbours dogs in my room after waking up in the middle of the night, i screamed till my mum came. I had woken up and was heading to the bathroom when I turned and saw them, so it continued a little after waking up, as in your case.

I occasionally have dreams carry over into wakening, but this is normally only for a second or three.

Either it was some mental illness or just hypnagogia. I see no reason for the second possibility being imporbable. I can see strong hipnagogia for minutes after waking up. I can see them douring the day if I want, but that's just me.

Whenever people hear something that does not fit into their understanding of the world, it is considered an illness and is to be treated. If important religious persons of the past had lived in modern times, they would have spend their lifes locked up in a mental home or prison. We have become a narrow-minded, fearful people that really needs cure.

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Originally Posted by psy

Whenever people hear something that does not fit into their understanding of the world, it is considered an illness and is to be treated. If important religious persons of the past had lived in modern times, they would have spend their lifes locked up in a mental home or prison. We have become a narrow-minded, fearful people that really needs cure.

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Your assumption rests entirely on the belief that their 'visions' weren't the result of drugs, mental illness or flat out lies. They may have even had a really realistic lucid dream! The irony! If logical and critical reasoning had existed in any measurable form in ancient Palestine, those "important persons" would have been locked up just like they are today.

They got a free ride back then because humans were uneducated and didn't know any better.

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Originally Posted by Alextanium

Your assumption rests entirely on the belief that their 'visions' weren't the result of drugs, mental illness or flat out lies. They may have even had a really realistic lucid dream! The irony! If logical and critical reasoning had existed in any measurable form in ancient Palestine, those "important persons" would have been locked up just like they are today.

They got a free ride back then because humans were uneducated and didn't know any better.

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That I call an arrogant view.

straying from the main topic and so not worth the effort

This is interesting because I had a dream bleed into reality for me as well.

It was a few months ago, I was driving this van in my dream and suddenly this guy was standing in the road so I had to swerve to miss him. Then he was beside me and he looked like this wigger type kid. Anyways he says look over there and points so I look and he screams in my ear and lights this lighter right in my ear at the same time.

It scared me awake, but when I kept rolling over back to sleep I kept hearing these voices say you're going to die, and laughing at me. So finally I fully got up and walked around a bit.

Finally when I went back to bed there were no more voices, but it was very scary.

Maybe you were still going through sleep paralysis... I don't know if this makes sense or if someone has posted this idea already...

Absolutely. I've been half-awake, half sleeping before. I sleep walked into the hall, and didn't have control, but saw myself walking. You were probably more toward being awake, while I was more toward being asleep.
I also saw the "shadowmen" in another time where I thought I was awake. Though I believe in ghosts, I was definately dreaming. This went on for a minute or so too.

I've always thought of sleeping and awakeness as being a continuum. It's rare to be where we have been, but still it happens. You don't have to be schizophrenic. Why do you think people "swear" that they saw a civil war ghost 1 min after they woke up, or "swear" that they looked out the window and saw a UFO fly away? Your mind says what you see, your eyes just help it do that.

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Originally Posted by Alextanium

You were smoking a joint. Inducing mind and mood altering substances into your body is bound to cause you to experience wacky reality changes.

That, and if it IS schitzophrenia, mixing weed with a condition like that is usually a really bad combo, and produces some very warped 'visions' as you put it.

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I smoke weed all the time. Very good stuff too. I've also taken mushrooms can literally gone insane for a few hours (interesting story for another thread perhaps). I know what insanity feels like and I'm not, nor have I been insane.

I know very well the mental reprucussions smoking weed can have on a mind succeptable to schizophrenia. I once considered checking myself into an insitution years back because I felt crazy but I was really just confused and stressed out.

I won't go as far as to say these shadow creatures don't exist. I saw them with my eyes. Do I think they exist in my concious world? No, they don't. But I can't, without proof, deny that there isn't some other dimension out there.

I'm going to agree with the false awakening theory.

I did experience this once when i was about that age, i had weird smurf-looking things that lived in my house and forced me to be their slave, however when i woke up and walked out of my room they were still there and only i could see them.. From then on things went black and i woke up in my bed again (I think.. it was a while ago now). So yeah, from personal experience i would say FA.

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Originally Posted by Altasi

I'm going to agree with the false awakening theory.

I did experience this once when i was about that age, i had weird smurf-looking things that lived in my house and forced me to be their slave, however when i woke up and walked out of my room they were still there and only i could see them.. From then on things went black and i woke up in my bed again (I think.. it was a while ago now). So yeah, from personal experience i would say FA.

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I disagree... because when I was little I had a bad dream and work up to hippo dressed in tiki clothing dancing around my bed chanting and holding spears in there hands... my mom remembers is I went to the basement to cool down after the dream it's not a FA.. a similar thing happened to my sister with different characters. I remember it as does the rest of the family it's not an FA... they almost always happen after nightmares to do with a rush of adrenaline and a quick awaking…

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Originally Posted by thisismylogin

I disagree... because when I was little I had a bad dream and work up to hippo dressed in tiki clothing dancing around my bed chanting and holding spears in there hands... my mom remembers is I went to the basement to cool down after the dream it's not a FA.. a similar thing happened to my sister with different characters. I remember it as does the rest of the family it's not an FA... they almost always happen after nightmares to do with a rush of adrenaline and a quick awaking…

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how is THAT a bad dream? chanting hippos in tiki clothing? that is the best dream ever. if it was the spears that killed this whole dream, that is a sad loss of awesome dream potential.

i was having a nightmar before hand where i was tied up and going to be killed by the hippos

Mm...can't say I've ever had one of these types of experiences before, though my brother used to complain about stuff like this when he was a little kid.

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Originally Posted by Nyogtha

Mm...can't say I've ever had one of these types of experiences before, though my brother used to complain about stuff like this when he was a little kid.

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It's why I want to sleep with my light on...lol :roll:

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Originally Posted by Bonsay

It's why I want to sleep with my light on...lol :roll:

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That doesn't keep it away, it just makes it more strange.

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Originally Posted by Altasi

I'm going to agree with the false awakening theory.

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I should extend what happened. After it faded and I called down my step dad took me out into the backyard, said he thought I should get some air. Then he threw me into the pool with my clothes still on and I swam for a good half hour before going back to bed.

False awakening = false theory in my particular case.

I've never been able to explain nor am I able to forget it. It was pretty traumatic.