Trouble separating from reality

[IcarusJ]

Hey there. I've come to the site a bunch but never the forums before, thought this would be a good place to get an answer to my question. The past three nights I have not been falling asleep but have been having short dreams at the end of each night while still awake as far as I can tell. I experience all of my senses in both the dream and my waking life. For example, last night I could feel myself riding on my roller skates while still feeling myself curled up in bed. I told this to one of my friends with normal sleeping patterns and he said he has experienced the same thing infrequently in the past. Can anyone explain how or why it happens? P.S. Don't worry about my sleeping patterns, though they make it difficult for me to lucid dream, they aren't negatively affecting my health.

[Umbrasquall]

I've had this kind of experience many times before as well, where you feel yourself in bed, but your other senses tell you otherwise. If I have to come to a hypothesis, I would say that being tired, not sleeping comfortably, etc. is a likely cause of this phenomenon.

[IcarusJ]

It's most definitely not being tired. I rarely am able to stay comfortable with one position for very long though, so comfortability is an option.

[Mes Tarrant]

I think that happens if you are not in a deep sleep. In fact, I'm pretty positive that's what it is. You will never have this in, say, the REM stage. Unless you are about to wake up I guess.

[Volcon]

Yea, i think you were on the brink of waking up, or uncomfortable

[IcarusJ]

Ok then. This doesn't sound like anything unnatural then. Maybe if I'm lucky I can use it to my advantage to notice when I'm dreaming and finally get lucid. I don't exactly have very good sleeping patterns for lucid dreaming, but I'm trying.

[Vex Kitten]

Hello and welcome to Dream Views. I've experienced this a few times too and it was slightly disturbing the first couple of times. This next part may sound stupid but it's the only way I can describe it. It's like being stuck in sleep paralysis without the paralysis part. Bear with me. When I used to get SP alot, if I got over the inital fear of being paralysed I would then be in this state where i was aware I was in bed yet could still experience my dream. It was at that point that I could choose to either slip back into the current dream or create a new one. I usually opted to continue the current dream and I'd slip back into it fully aware. I rarely experience SP anymore and now I occasionally wake up yet can still see my dream without the paralysis. It's not common but it does happen. I think this is what you're getting. If you can, next time try to immerse yourself fully back into the dream and you should step right into it and be completely lucid.... in theory at least...

[IcarusJ]

I'm not really so terrified of SP. I welcome it because it's a cue that I'm falling asleep, something I don't usually catch. I usually take 30 minutes to 2 hours to fall asleep and I can never see it coming. There was one time though when I was woken up by my roommate getting ready for an early class, and I started falling back to sleep starting with the SP, and I thought, "Now's my chance to perform a WILD. Keep calm and just let it ride." And then my roommate woke me up to ask if I had an umbrella, and I couldn't fall back asleep. Very dissappointing. Thanks a lot though. I'll definitely be paying attention to these experiences in the future.