False Awakening Dreams

There's not much else freakier than a false awakening dream.

Here you thought you had truly woken up, when 'lo and behold--you were FOOLED by your own mind!

These can be very frightening, because the dreamer is totally fooled into thinking they are awake, and when frightening things happen in the dream, it feels like it is TRULY happening!

Remedy:

(1) Learn how to interpret your dreams, and find out what this dream means ESPECIALLY if it is a recurring dream.

(2) Study up on lucid dreaming and learn helpful techniques to realize you are dreaming, and how to wake up or transform the dream. Lucid dreaming is your best defense against these types of nightmares. You'll learn how to change the dream into something less threatening, and how to identify a dream v.s. reality.

DREAM THEMES and TRIGGERS

Dream Themes and Dream Triggers are basically the same thing; they are just UTILIZED differently.

A dream theme is an identified recurring image in one's dreams, such as dreaming often about a school, while a dream trigger is both realizing that image is recurring, and USING it to trigger lucid dreaming.

So, if you experience frequent dream themes, you have the capability of progressing into lucid dreaming more easily than someone who doesn't.

The way it's done is like this: you are having yet another dream about schools, for example.

You think to yourself, "Here's that school again! Wait a minute...I've been out of school for years now, so I MUST BE DREAMING!" and poof--you're lucid! .

. Once you face whatever issue the dream theme is representing in your life, and "heal" it or conquer it, that particular theme will either evolve or disappear from your dreams altogether.

Sleepwalking and Sleeptalking

On November 23, 1998, Fox 13 news in Tampa FL aired a news segment about an elderly man who sleepwalked in the middle of the night, only to wake up and find himself in a pond near his backyard...surrounded by alligators.

His calls for help woke up a little neighbor girl who was only 6 1/2 years old at the time, and she alerted her family to his calls for help and luckily he was rescued before any harm came to him.

Now, that's what I call a rude awakening! (I know--but it was begging to be said)

Sleepwalking and Sleeptalking most often occur in children before they reach puberty. There are adults who have this disorder, also. It can be difficult to wake up the person who is sleeping during this phase of sleep which tends to occur in the first third of the night, during stage 3 or 4 of the sleep cycle.

The frequency of occurences vary much the same as with people who experience night terrors, It can be VERY DANGEROUS and if any injuries have already occured or the likelihood of injuries is high, this person is STRONGLY urged to seek medical assistance from a sleep clinic.

People can and do open doors, unlock doors, and navigate around furniture and other obstacles, but are not actually awake.

They are acting out a dream, and the brain has a way of inserting or converting real objects (like a sofa) into a dream object/image that needs to be avoided, so they walk around it.

BUT if their dream turns menacing and they perceive a burglar/monster/etc, they can & do attack or think they are defending themselves, and they are quite strong because by this time they have that adrenaline surge activated, also.

In other words, they can unintentionally hurt someone else, or themselves. By all means, if you or someone you are close to has reached this point, CONTACT a sleep specialist PRONTO.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreams are actually "beyond dreaming." What happens is, you'll be having a dream when suddenly your conscious mind takes notice of an anomoly, or something "not quite right," and you think, "Hey-this can't be real, so

"I MUST BE DREAMING!"

That's when the magic happens, and the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. Anything can happen, then. You can fly like a bird, you can talk to a long-lost loved one, you can tell your boss to take this job and shove it, you can travel to beautiful lands in the blink of an eye, you can make elephants appear...the possiblities are endless.

Lucid Dreams are very vivid...it is impossible to fully explain how powerful and REAL lucid dreams seem, until you actually experience one. Then it is a dream you will never likely forget! The colors are brilliant, you can feel, touch, taste, and make things happen at will. There will still be some suprises, such as what happened to a friend of mine who tried to manifest a boat on the ocean, but instead manifested a roller coaster.

Another way to describe the experience of having a lucid dream is this: the next time you are in a movie theater and get wrapped up in the story that is unfolding on the screen in front of you, imagine suddenly realizing that you were not just a spectator, but a *part* of this movie! Suddenly, the movie/dream is going on all around you, and everything is vivid and up-close. You can smell, taste, touch, see, and hear everything that is going on, and it amazes you that this "movie" you thought was just a story told via actors and props is actually really transpiring. Suddenly you are chatting up Luke Skywalker, or screaming at Rose to make room for Jack on that board in the ocean, or flying through the air like Peter Pan. Anything that you imagine becomes part of the script, and you have a blast! That is close to the concept of what having a lucid dream feels like. Sound like fun? You bet it is!

There is a fear factor to overcome, also. Once, in one of my lucid dreams, I remember apprehensively watching a nurse who was washing her hands at a sink, with her back turned towards me. I thought, "I just know when she turns around, I'll see something horrifying!" She turned around, and lo' and behold, there was just a kindly-faced woman. I thought, "But I just *knew* she would turn into something scary!?" and as if to give me what I wanted, the woman's face suddenly had an expression of, "Well, ok!" and her face transformed into a horrifying beast that lunged out at me, a la that gruesome werewolf movie. Then, just as quickly, her face returned to a normal woman's face, and she went about her business. It ended up being comical, and I learned an important lesson: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!

I also learned that my fears were only illusions, and I don't have to let my fears rule my life...or dreams.

In lucid dreams, events will keep happening to try to coax you back into the drama, and forget you are aware. It is challenging not to fall into this trap. The trick is STAYING in the lucid dream. There are techniques given such as looking at your hands in your dream, or twirling around in a spin like a ballerina, or doing somersaults with your dream body. Concentrating on doing one of those things will prevent the surge of excitement when your adrenaline kicks in, which would pull you out of the dream and this wonderful moment would be lost while you awaken fully. It is important to learn these techniques if you want to lucid dream effectively for longer periods of time.

Are You Awake or...
Dreaming You're Awake?

One of the most important things you are able to do in a lucid dream is to conquer your fears in a non-threatening state.

Everyone in your dream is really reflecting an aspect of your own Self, so to do harm to that person is to do harm to yourself!

The Golden Rule applies in dreams: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The threatening demon in your dream is an aspect of yourself that you fear, and that great fear can only be overcome with love and understanding, not by violence or anger...or by running away.

There is one movie I have seen that comes closest to representing what a lucid dream experience is like, and that is WHAT DREAMS MAY COME with Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding, Jr.

If you saw this movie, remember how the character of Christy wouldn't let things appear that scared him?

Remember how vivid the colors were in the scenes depicting Christy's heaven, and how dark and horrifiying the scenes of hell were--but they were explained as illusions?

This movie is a wonderful example of the belief that we are closest to our true Spiritual Self in the dream world, similar to the experience of death. Remember how Christy learned he could walk on water and fly? He had to believe it first, before he could perform those feats. Lucid dreams are like that; if one becomes lucid and wants to experience flying, they first have to believe it is possible, then that they are capable of doing it, and then try it. I remember vividly how odd it was to fly through the air in a dream, because there was no wind noise as you would have if you were physically moving...because, of course, it is not your physical body moving in the dream. It was an indescribable feeling.

Anyone can learn to lucid dream, and some people are naturally more prone to lucid dream. People with sleeping disorders or illnesses that disrupt sleep such as Fibromyalgia, C.F.I.D.S./M.E., or Narcolepsy may have a predispostion to remembering more of their dreams, having more nightmares, lucid dreaming, and experiencing a sleeping disorder called "Sleep Paralysis," because their malady or pain prevents a deeper stage of sleep; therefore they are already partially awake.

Here is an example of what it's like:

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The great Taoist master Chuang Tzu once had a realistic dream that he was a butterfly. He lived the life of a butterfly, gathering nectar and flying in an insect's world. In the dream he had no awareness of his waking life, and individuality as a person. He was only a butterfly. Suddenly, he awoke and found himself laying in his own bed, a person once again. But then he thought to himself, "Was I before a man who dreamt about being a butterfly, or am I now a butterfly who dreams about being a man?"

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How do *YOU* know that you aren't really dreaming, right now?

Your answer to that question shows how enlightened you are...or aren't; so think it through. It can be a fun debate to get into with your friends, especially if they remember enough of their dreams to know how vivid and tricky they can be.

. It's sortof like that old question of whether a tree falling in the forest without anyone around makes a sound or not.

If no one can hear it, then how can it be a sound? I tend to lean towards the side that says there are sound waves created by the event, and animals around hear the sound and if they could they would testify to that fact, but there's always somebody around who will argue the flip side effectively, too. It all boils down to being a moot point about perception and reality. Which came first; the chicken or the egg? I really hate that question! Let's move on...

When we are dreaming, we often take the most bizarre images and characters for granted and don't even show suprise. Somehow, the purple giraffe in our living room just belongs there, and we don't clue in to the fact that we are dreaming. Have you ever had your alarm go off, but incorporate it into your dream as a fire alarm buzzer or something like that?

I finally got to the point in which I had to have a back-up alarm. Our dreaming mind will often take outside noises and incorporate them into dream symbols so we don't wake up, especially if we are abnormally tired and really need the rest. When one wants to start becoming aware within a dream and lucid dream, they have to overcome these tendencies to accept the bizarre as normal waking-life occurences, and see them for the dream images that they really are. It is only then that we can master the lucid dream.

Another way of looking at it is this way: how often have you realized you were dreaming in the middle of a dream, but up until then you were taking it for granted that the dream was actually your reality?

 

 

Helping Children With Their Dreams

Remember Your Childhood Nightmares?

 

Anyway, my point is that we can teach our kids helpful dream interpretation skills early, just like they learn other skills like reading or writing; and if you equip them with a few helpful tips on how to figure out what their dreams mean, it will go a long way in easing the terror of their nightmares as well as set them up great for their future. Once they realize that dreams and especially nightmares are like messages from our mind that are trying to help us figure out solutions to our problems so that we can be happier, then it takes the mystery out of something they can't control and it isn't so scary to go back

to sleep.

For an idea of how helpful this can be, read on

Your child will feel he has more control over his/her fears and the nightmares once he figures out why he may be having the dream, or what it means.

Helping your child interpret their dreams will give you added insight into what their fears are, any trouble they may be having at school or with friends, or at home. Of course, once they get old enough they won't need our help to interpret their dreams, and they will want their privacy.

By learning to interpret their dreams from an early age, children will have a better chance of figuring out what they want from life, and what "life" wants from them. Ever feel like you can't figure out why you make the same mistakes over & over? By learning to tune in to their inner-most thoughts, a child has a better chance of avoiding this trap.