A few weird questions about my dreams

Sometimes, in fact pretty much every time I have a nightmare, or a boring dream, I realize I'm dreaming, and I force my eyes open. It takes a while to awaken properly because I keep opening my eyes and seeing my room and then slipping back into the dream. I feel a bit dizzy with it all, and then I say to myself 'You're dreaming, Move around, try harder' and eventually I awaken.

Other times I know I have to wake up in an hour or at a certain time, and it's as if I set the alarm in my mind and I say to myself. 'Ok it's time to get up now or you'll miss your appointment, open your eyes'
What exactly do you call this?

Another thing I notice is that around menstruation, I tend to have nightmares and really outrageous dreams. Any explanations?

Thanks if anyone can help!

Sogno! In the Lab I'm doing an experiment that you should check out and maybe you can help me with it.

Anyway, I think that humans have an internal clock that allows us to wake up at certain designated times on occasion. I also think that it only pertains to people with normal sleep schedules whose bodies are accustomed to sleeping at specific times, and when we need to wake up differently we can kind of compensate for that. For me, at school I have no sleep schedule and that's the main reason I rely heavily on my alarm clock. If I didn't have that I'd be dead.

Maybe this is a good question for O'nus, if he feels like it. (prepare yourselves)

-Amé

Sogno...welcome to DV! Next time you have a boring dream/nightmare and wake up as you were saying...try to stick around in the dream and make them more interested. At least you are realizing that you are dreaming, now if you stay in your dream...you will be lucid. There are all kinds of great things you can do while lucid. I suggest you introduce yourself in the Newbie Forum and read around, theres tons of helpful info on this site.

First - Welcome to the forums.

I don't really get if there is a problem here or you are just having a pretty dull lifestyle at the time. Because you have time to drift in and out of sleep during your wake up period, this tells me that you may not be accustom to waking up to an alarm and working the 9-5. That or you have other issue's at the time.. or no hours.. etc.

The drifting in between sleep and wake is due to the lingering wave patterns and amount of chemicals within the brain (or the lingering lack of mono-amine neurotransmitters). This is what creates the groggy "I don't want to get out of bed" feeling. Because you may have a day in which going to the store to buy potato chips is the primary objective of the day, there isn't much to get up for or worry about. This feeling is an asset to dream recall as you do not have as much stress and matters on the mind so that you may focus on your dreams.

However, I may be completely wrong of course. It's a relative problem. It seems that you may also just need help in controlling sleep because it causes frustration throughout the night rather than during the wake period - in this case you are accustom to waking up to ana alarm.

In order to help rectify this problem, you may want to make your body work hard throughout the night in order to keep yourself calm and asleep. A good method I suggest is to use the "snooze foods" technique. You could also simply read a book or listen to music before sleep, but I believe with how you present yourself that these things may only distract and annoy you as you try to sleep. I also suggest this technique because you noted that menstration has an effect on your sleeping which leads me to believe in may be related to your nutritional intake. Here are some foods to eat that will help you feel sleepy:

Dairy products: cottage cheese, cheese, milk
Soy products: soy milk, tofu, soybean nuts
Seafood
Meats
Poultry
Whole grains
Beans
Rice
Hummus
Lentils
Hazelnuts, Peanuts
Eggs
Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds

These products are all high in sleep-inducing amino acids and tryptophan. You may have noticed yourself after eating chicken on those special occasions that you feel tired and sleepy. This is because tryptophan takes a long time to metabolise within your digestive system which creates the slow groggy tired sensation.

I can go on if you wish about the reasons behind these foods, but I will try to keep myself short for now. I look forward to your feedback.

Hope I have been enlightening.