Dreams that continue after you awake

For as long as I can recall I have had very vivid and bizarre dreams that wake me up, yet the dream continues for a short time after I am awake. While my eyes are open and I am aware that I am awake, I still see vividly what I was(am) dreaming. I still feel asleep and often for these types of dreams, I cannot move. I saw a program on TV sometime ago that was very similar if not identical to what I experience. I am curious and fascinated with this and would like to know more about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You were on brink of coming out of the dream, but something kept you there. It happens every once in a while, I've had dreams last a minute or two after I woke up, nothing to worry about.

This is called Sleep paralysis (abbreviated as SP on DreamViews)
I'm not an expert on the subject, but this is what I know:
When you dream, your body is paralyzed spare your eyes (and the parts you can't control normally.) This is to prevent you from acting out your dreams.
Hallucinations are common during this time, as dreams themselves are hallucinations. These can be visual, auditory, or touch.
If you experience SP in the night, as well as after you wake up, then you might be able to easily perform a WILD (http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ad.php?t=66238)
That's about all I know. Hope it helps :)

Yeah I get the same thing every once in a while. The dream is always a bed-related experience. I guess because since I know I'm awake, or almost awake, I don';t really go anywhere, I'm just in bed. Not totally paralysed, but yeah.. usually I'm making out with a guy hehe. And while I know I'm in my bed, and I know I'm conscious, almost awake, just past lucidity, it feel fucking REAL. I just usually know it's NOT real because it's like some hot celebrity or something lol.

Don't know much more about it than that, just know that i like it. And it was those dreams that made me first search for lucid dreams (or at the time, 'controlling dreams' because at the time, I had never heard the term 'lucid').

http://www.dreamviews.com/community/...ead.php?t=6124

Theres techniques you can use to use the said images to go back into that dream, have a look around. :)

I had this happen a few days ago. In my dream, my arm had been cut off somehow and reattached (for the most part). It was creepy. But I wasn't creeped out at the time, and it was pretty cool otherwise.

There must still be some DMT left over from your sleep.
It happens to the best of us.

Thanks to everyone for their replies, didn't think there would be any this quick. My experiences with SP is bizarre and sometimes frightening to a degree but never so much I feel threatened. Contrary to some articles I have since read on SP, I would estimate my episodes of SP have increased rather than decrease over the years. I have come to actually look forward to them, however, as it is a nice break from the ordinary and mundane, which fits my personality. Just recently I became fixated with them and it drove me crazy not knowing what it was.

Again thanks to all for the insightful posts.

This isn't sleep paralysis, this sounds like mere hypnopompia.

Since it seems Shift left us without a decent explanation, I will explain hypnopompia the best I can. During sleep, your body goes into a stage known as Sleep paralysis, which we touched on. During this stage, you get what are called Hypnopompic images and Hypnopompic audio (usually abbreviated simply to HI). Anyways, you will see and hear things that aren't there. This is something often attributed to Sleep Paralysis, because you will get it most of the time, but there are cases when you can have it shortly after waking up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by oniman7

Since it seems Shift left us without a decent explanation, I will explain hypnopompia the best I can. During sleep, your body goes into a stage known as Sleep paralysis, which we touched on. During this stage, you get what are called Hypnopompic images and Hypnopompic audio (usually abbreviated simply to HI). Anyways, you will see and hear things that aren't there. This is something often attributed to Sleep Paralysis, because you will get it most of the time, but there are cases when you can have it shortly after waking up.

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I assumed you would just google, but it seems I was wrong. I was also wrong saying it wasn't SP, because I didn't see the bit where the OP said he couldn't move. However, your answer is fairly incorrect.

During REM stages of sleep, your body goes into rem atonia.
During the transition from wakefulness to sleep, and back, your body can sometimes be in sleep paralysis.

The period of waking up from sleep, hypnopompia, can occur with hallucinations and muddled thoughts. You'll generally read this described as "Dream logic/thoughts persisting into the waking state and interpreting the waking state" or things of that nature.

If sleep paralysis were to occur, with hallucinations, at this point, then yes you'd have SP along with hypnopompic hallucinations. Even without SP though, you can experience hypnopompic hallucinations. The OP's description of the dreams continuing seem more in line with the pure hallucinations and dreamlike thinking of hypnopompia, than the hallucinations that usually accompany SP.

Tim, do they vary depending on whether or not you are paralyzed?

Shift...vary how?

They seem to be very similar dreams and I cannot recall any of these occurring while I was not paralyzed. From now on, I will keep pen and paper at bedside and attempt to document as much fact I can as close to the episode as possible.

One thing that seems to trigger SP is when I sleep at a different time than what I am used to. Also, if I am coming off a night with very little sleep this seems to trigger them. What I find odd is the quality of my sleep seems to be much better when I have an SP episode, even though it wakes me up. This makes very little sense to me, other than the fact that I am obviously in a deep rem state when this occurs.