New to this...

[brighterdays]

I woke up this morning around 9:25am (I remember bc I looked at my phone) my boyfriend got out of bed and I went back to sleep... I remember falling asleep but also remember just laying in bed and feeling the room get warmer, we have 2 cats and I heard them both outside making their typical "meow" noises when they play around...I got up and I looked out the window and saw them playing with another cat I've never seen before. When I saw the 3 cats outside my window I felt nervous and a bit panicky (sp?) and from that point all 3 cats ran up along side the wall I got scared seeing that and I laid back down and went to sleep finding myself in a dream where my boyfriend was in the kitchen with his sister and I can hear them talking and I can hear something being delivered... I sit up and by far the weirdest thing ever I feel annoyed and it starts to shake and as the shaking is over I ball my left hand up in a fist and open it quickly and thinking of "Explosion" and the house rattle...I realize that I am dreaming so I lay back down and I wake up... I wake up and turn over and see that my boyfriend has written me a letter and its long one and I take it and rip it rushing out of bed and tossing it as I head towards the door NOW I realize the door is open and I realize again that I guess me "thinking" I really am awake my boyfriend would never leave the door open when I am in the room sleeping...so I go and lay back down and tell myself to wake up and I do and I felt so sick to my stomach and felt jittery and confused... I still feel the same way and its been bothering me... I've looked online and couldn't find anything till I found this site... I took a xanax just realizing that I had a "Dream within a dream" Is this normal... ? I mean more so does this happen a lot if one is not trying to dream within dreaming...? I dream just about every night give or take and very rarely...maybe this being the 4th dream since I dunno... 2005 I've had to where I've literally told my self in my dreams to "WAKE UP" Okee... I hope I put this in the right section if not I do apologize... I am Kristina 29 from New England and I am guessing that my 4 dreams to where I have told my self to wake up after them feeling so REAL are considered Lucid.. Thank you!!

[OpheliaBlue]

Hey brighterdays, welcome to DreamViews first of all! Sounds to me like you had a bunch of False Awakenings (FA's). But, like you said, the fact that you told yourself to wake up, means that in that moment at least, you were lucid. As long as, in any part of the dream, you KNOW you're dreaming, you have achieved lucidity. Of course, learning dream control makes the lucid experience more fun. Have you had any other dreams like this? For example, dreams where you believed you were awake but weren't? Or where you told yourself to wake up? Just curious so I can better answer your questions. ~ophelia

[saltyseedog]

Oh thats cool. Sort of sounds like a false awakening.

[brighterdays]

Oh wow... What are "False Awakenings"? Thank you both for replying... My very first dream to where I told myself to wake up was back in 2005 a dream I will never forget. I remember falling asleep in my living room and waking up quickly soon after falling asleep....The house I grew up in my father bought back in the mid 70's (I was born in 82) so from the time I was born up until 2006 I had spent my whole life in my childhood home.. kk SO after waking up I walked around the house feeling confused I remember going upstairs and hoping to come across someone .... but I never did.... growing up in my house I (being the only girl of 6 boys) was never allowed in the basement AT ALL (teenage man cave) I knew at that moment of walking all throughout the house I wasn't going to find anyone around so something led me down to the basement where I heard music....I swear walking down there for the first time ever I was excited and wicked intrigued! as I got to the last step I felt disappointed and felt like I couldnt breath so I ended up laying on the couch and falling asleep to the music playing. The feeling I felt was very uneasy as I woke up.... I sat up and looked around noticed the ironing board - a radio and the couch I woke up on. I got up and looked out the window down in the basement which was your typical window where if anyone were to stand in front of it all you would see if their feet. I remember turning around and the song that was playing gave me all but a sad feeling and from that moment I turned back around and saw a car pull up and watched a man in a uniform get out walk towards my house and honestly (to me) the most scariest moment to me was when the man in the uniform ended up behind me...put his hand on my shoulder and I felt nothing but more sadness and panic that I just said to myself "wake up wake up wake up" AND I woke up and realized what felt real to me was all a dream.... I'd have to say a few weeks later the song that I heard in my dream was My Chemical Romances' "The Ghost of you" I remembered telling my mom about this and she told me that my father bought the house from a family whose son was in the Marines and died around 1972-73 and one of my brothers had seen a man in a uniform once one early morning. months after my dad bought the house... Ill be very honest with you after having my first dream to where I've told myself to wake up something has just tied me to this first experience to where I think abt it often....

[OpheliaBlue]

Wow, you have some seriously vivid false awakenings. They seem to last a long time too, which is good. Because once you learn to do reality checks, then you can use these false awakenings to become lucid. Here's some stuff I want you to check out: False Awakening Definition Reality Checks Definition Reality Check Tutorial Check those links out and let me know what you think. Then if you want, we can talk about an induction technique to help you become lucid. That way, when the dream becomes scary, you can change it to your liking and stay in it, rather than making yourself wake up. To be honest though, the fact that you were able to wake yourself up is quite an accomplishment. Some people have terrible nightmares and have a hard time learning to do that, so kudos to you!

[brighterdays]

Man this is just by far amazing to me bc now I know 1. There's a name to my dreams feeling real and 2. I'm not alone... One thing that frightens me the most is not being able to wake up....I've had one where I couldnt move yet I could see everything going on around me and yeah I told a relative abt this particular dream and I got laughed at :-/ so that being the 2nd dream to where I told myself to wake up but felt completely unable to move..... Can't wait to get home to read the links you posted for meeeee :-) Thank you!!!!

[OpheliaBlue]

Oh well, there's a name for that too. It's call Sleep Paralysis and it's totally normal. In fact you can use that too to become lucid. They talk about sleep paralysis in a particular type of lucid dream induction technique called WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream). I hope you are able to find all this information useful. If not for any other reason, than to know it's all normal so maybe it will seem less scary in the future. Let me know if you ever have any questions or need any kind of direction.