How to wake up

[jumico]

Most people have trouble staying asleep. When I'm in a dream and I try to wake up I cant. It really stinks when this happens. Ill begin to yell for someone to wake me up (not aloud). It makes me feel constrained and it sucks that I cant wake up. Is there a way to make this easier. One time I kept forcing myself and I kept wanting to fall asleep. I was trying to sit up and it was hard to keep my eyes open. eventually I was fully awake.

[mongreloctopus]

why do you want to wake up?

[Leah Whitehorse]

Hi Are you trying to wake yourself up because you are having a bad dream? There might be different solutions to the problme you're having depending on why you feel the need to wake up. Can you let us know some more information?

[Alex D]

It's hard for some to wake up in a dream, so don't worry about it. I find that a sharp shot of pain (cliche pinch) will do it, or closing my eyes for long enough in your dream. It's odd how by closing your eyes in waking life you risk falling asleep, yet by closing them in a dream you risk waking up. No on staying away, I think thinking logicaly is usually enough to keep me up, try it.

[jumico]

I'm not sure if I would call this a dream. I dont actually see anything in it. It feels like im lying down but I cant open my eyes. I will know that im sleeping but all I feel is my body lying down and It seems almost like I'm awake. I wont be able to move or anything so ill want to wake up.

[Leah Whitehorse]

Hi jumico It sounds like what you are experiencing is sleep paralysis. This is a well known phenomena. Basically what is happening is that your body is still asleep and your mind has woken up. When we are in dream sleep our bodies are naturally paralysed to stop us acting out our dreams and therefore protect us from hurting ourselves (or others). Sometimes this mechanism gets a bit confused and so as we begin to wake up the body is still asleep and we experience the sense of paralysis. Sleep paralysis can be used to explore other phenomena such as out of body experiences and astral projection but this thread isn't the place to discuss that. However, having suffered from sleep paralysis all my life I can totally understand the feeling of wanting to wake up. Sometimes sleep paralysis can be very frightening. The best way I know of is simply to relax. It can be hard to do if you are feeling scared or frustrated but you need to relax to go back into normal sleep and then you'll wake up properly. Trying to force yourself to move is more likely to just make you feel anxious so just let your mind drift, don't worry about it and you'll wake up very soon. Incidentally - some people say that just focusing on wiggling their toes also helps so you could try that. Bright Blessings Leah