Between dreams and wakefulness

[S.H.A.R.P.]

Have you ever noticed something odd while dreaming. Some kind of knock on your door perhaps. The sound increased and it somehow incorporates itself in your dream, it becomes part of your imagination, until suddenly, you wake up and there is actually somebody knocking in your dream!

I've had this several times, but unfortunately I can only remember one distinct example. I was dreaming that I was participating in a cycling championship. I was on my bike, while in my dream somebody came up to me, and tapped me on the back. I woke up, and found that my dad woke me up by tapping me on the back!

I just love how your sleepy conscience is somehow aware of your surroundings, and accustoms your dream in a specific way to reflect reality. For the example I gave, it would seem that my mind was fully aware of somebody entering my room, coming up close to me, preparing to tap me, and eventually tapping me on my back, since this event seemed to incorporate itself real time in my dreams.

So have you had similar experiences? Would you know an explanation of how your mind is conscious of things happening around you, while your eyes are closed and you are dreaming away?

 

[traceur_]

I get that in the mornings (stop thinking that) when my mum is yelling at me to get up and get ready for school, in my dream I get up and get ready, one time I was walking around in a room full of filing cabinets for some reason. I hear mum yelling a few more times and I think "what the fuck? I'm already ready" then I actually wake up and think "shit I was dreaming"

 

[Kiutu]

All the time. I often fall asleep with the TV on and it almost always forms the bases of my dreams. Also non-TV things have affected it.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I remember near the end of one dream that the sun was beating down uncomfortably on my face. The ending to that is predictable.

<url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/CrashingDreams>Here's more, incidentally.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Yeah, I get that if I fall back asleep after my alarm has woken me up (I have my alarm set to talkback radio) so occasionally whatever they're talking about on the radio will incorporate itself into my dreams.

We recently had some nasty bushfires here in Vic in Aus and they were talking about the devastation at a place called Kinglake on the radio, anyway I fell asleep and my dream involved me being in Kinglake during the fires, but I was safe because I was on the other side of the lake (incidently, Kinglake is not on a lake nor anywhere near a lake).

You're not alone mate.

 

[garjian]

i dunno about that...

but i do have dreams while im sorta half asleep that i can fully control and change and stuff :S
and (i dont know if this is common or not...) i can wake myself up in the middle of dreams aswell...

 

[Erana]

I can't recall this ever happening to me.
I just get up, turn both alarms off, and go back to bed without ever knowing I had been awake.

 

[Noamuth]

I tend to get the whole 'fake waking up' thing. I'll get up, open my bedroom door, fall off a cliff then oh bugger I'm awake again.

It happened about 4 times in a row once. In the same morning. Not cool.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

That used to happen to me. I'd be doing whatever, and then my sister and her boyfriend would barge in, screaming at each other.
Goddamn my house and its hollow-ass walls.

 

[Doug]

Apparently, humans are always 'dreaming' - its just that when we're "awake" (and there are many levels between awake and sleep), we accept data from our eyes and ears. At least, this is the latest scientific thinking based on sleep research, and I find the idea very intriging.

 

[Incompl te]

Always get that...annoying at times..

EDIT: 13 more posts till Gonzo!

 

[S.H.A.R.P.]

I get that in the mornings (stop thinking that) when my mum is yelling at me to get up and get ready for school, in my dream I get up and get ready, one time I was walking around in a room full of filing cabinets for some reason. I hear mum yelling a few more times and I think "what the fuck? I'm already ready" then I actually wake up and think "shit I was dreaming"

Hehe who said I was thinking that! ...
Anyway this is almost what I mean, the difference is that in your dream you actually woke up (though still dreaming). It seemed you were conscious of real life, hearing your mother and thinking to wake up. In my example I wasn't aware that I was sleeping and needed to wake up. Just minding my own dreams and somehow confusing reality with dreams. Still an interesting post though.

All the time. I often fall asleep with the TV on and it almost always forms the bases of my dreams. Also non-TV things have affected it.

Not exactly what I meant, but still an interesting topic on it's own. I have that too plenty of times and it's actually quite funny. I listen to audio books every night before I go to sleep, and sometimes I'm so tired that I enter a sort of semi-consciousness. In this condition I still listen to the story, but I sort off make my own voice over of the story. I don't really dream about it when I stop my book though (as far as I can remember). That would be kind off sweet to be honest.

I remember near the end of one dream that the sun was beating down uncomfortably on my face. The ending to that is predictable.

<url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/CrashingDreams>Here's more, incidentally.

Uncomfortably? This seems a rather enjoyable way of waking up really. Well perhaps not if you still have about 5 hours of planned sleep . And thanks for the link, some great examples there.

Yeah, I get that if I fall back asleep after my alarm has woken me up (I have my alarm set to talkback radio) so occasionally whatever they're talking about on the radio will incorporate itself into my dreams.

We recently had some nasty bushfires here in Vic in Aus and they were talking about the devastation at a place called Kinglake on the radio, anyway I fell asleep and my dream involved me being in Kinglake during the fires, but I was safe because I was on the other side of the lake (incidently, Kinglake is not on a lake nor anywhere near a lake).

You're not alone mate.

As I replied to Kiutu (your reply is similar to his(hers?)), what you described is slightly different then what I mentioned, though of course it is closely related. You are taking external input, where your dream is then build upon (your imagination takes over). What I had, was that I was long into my dream (if I recall correctly, it is imaginable however that the dream was made for the purpose of preparing me that somebody will tap me on my back). My (un-)consciousness then registered someone enter my room, closing in on me, and tapping me on my back, and shaping my dream to accommodate that real life happening.
Do you agree with me there's a slight difference? Perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way.

Quite a funny example though (however terribly horrific those fires were). It's cool to see how dreams are made by those assumptuous (I hereby declare that this is a word, derived from the verb to assume) neural connections ^^.

i dunno about that...

but i do have dreams while im sorta half asleep that i can fully control and change and stuff :S
and (i dont know if this is common or not...) i can wake myself up in the middle of dreams aswell...

I think those dreams are called lucid dreams [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream]. There has been some topics on the Escapist about those, you should look them up since there were some interesting discussions there.

I can't recall this ever happening to me.
I just get up, turn both alarms off, and go back to bed without ever knowing I had been awake.

Oh dear the times that happened to me, though I only have one alarm. Suddenly it's half way the afternoon, and you are amazed that your alarm clock isn't still ringing. Sabotage I tell you, SABOTAGE!!!

Yeah it happens to me.
Usually I think that an alrms going off and I have to catch a burglar. Then I wake up and tumble into the shower.

Haha nice! So are you confusing the alarm clock with some sort of siren? And do you actually sleep walk to the shower?

I tend to get the whole 'fake waking up' thing. I'll get up, open my bedroom door, fall off a cliff then oh bugger I'm awake again.

It happened about 4 times in a row once. In the same morning. Not cool.

I never had that I think, or at least don't remember. Do you wake up after 'falling from the cliff'? After a shock like that it would seem rather likely.

That used to happen to me. I'd be doing whatever, and then my sister and her boyfriend would barge in, screaming at each other.
Goddamn my house and its hollow-ass walls.

Hmm you'd be doing what? Dreaming you mean? Could you please explain how this involves mixing up dreams with reality?

Apparently, humans are always 'dreaming' - its just that when we're "awake" (and there are many levels between awake and sleep), we accept data from our eyes and ears. At least, this is the latest scientific thinking based on sleep research, and I find the idea very intriging.

Interesting point of view I have to say. But it still would not totally explain me (and others in similar situations) dreaming about somebody touching my back, when at the exact same time that happens in real life, I mean I don't think I was sleeping with my eyes open.

Always get that...annoying at times..

EDIT: 13 more posts till Gonzo!

Could you give us an example? I have had some difficulty explaining exactly what I meant, so I would like to know what you mean specifically. And a pre-emptive congrats with you Going Gonzo!

 

[Ancalagon]

I seem to lack a firm division between dreams and reality. This manifests itself in various ways. First of all, I tend to lucid dream, as described in an earlier post. I also sleepwalk, always with my eyes open, but talking nonsense or performing ridiculous actions. I've got a lock on my bedroom door in an attempt to keep me from embarassment and causing damage, but I'll often unlock it.

Also, when I'm falling asleep, I go through this transition from being awake to asleep: first of all, I'll be thinking normal, rational thoughts. As I become sleepy, I continue thinking, but my thoughts sort of 'fall apart', becoming steadily less rational and grounded in reality. Then I stop thinking more-or-less completely, and I start to see images through my closed eyes, of any number of things, and they'll move about and interact with one another, sort of like a really trippy dream, but I'm still at least partially conscious, and the slightest noise or movement can jolt me back awake. Assuming I'm not awakened, I guess the next stage is sleep, since I can't remember anything beyond that point. But in the later stages of my sleep transition I feel incredibly relaxed, and often elated.

How normal all that is I don't know, as when I tell people, some react by saying that they have somewhat similar experiences, while others look at me like I'm crazy. As for the specific thing you're talking about, I think everyone gets that. Any noises or other stimuli that are sufficently large for your sleeping senses to notice, but not sufficent to wake you up, will generally end up incorporated in to your dream, if you're dreaming at that point.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

That used to happen to me. I'd be doing whatever, and then my sister and her boyfriend would barge in, screaming at each other.
Goddamn my house and its hollow-ass walls.

Hmm you'd be doing what? Dreaming you mean? Could you please explain how this involves mixing up dreams with reality?

Sorry, it seemed clear to me at the time.
What I meant to say was, in my dreams, my sister and her boyfriend would appear out of nowhere, shouting at each other, and then I'd wake up to them having an argument in the next room.

EDIT: Though I think I may have misunderstood the topic.

 

[ae86gamer]

This happens to me a lot. Especially when someone is knocking at my door it somehow becomes part of my dream. Which often times leads people to knock harder.

 

[Selvalros]

I don't remember my dreams : \.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I remember near the end of one dream that the sun was beating down uncomfortably on my face. The ending to that is predictable.

<url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/CrashingDreams>Here's more, incidentally.

Uncomfortably? This seems a rather enjoyable way of waking up really. Well perhaps not if you still have about 5 hours of planned sleep . And thanks for the link, some great examples there.

Not particularly comfortable when it's summer and you wake up around noon. Direct sunlight right to the face gets uncomfortably hot...

 

[Lullabye]

okay this thread is awesome if only because i've had so many in between experiences. Once when i was little(6-7) i ws dreaming a dream in which i got chased around. In the end i fell off a cliff. about 1 sec b4 i hit the ground i woke up and caught myself with my hands just as i fell off my bed. it freaked the shit outta me cause of the speed of my reflexs

 

[sky14kemea]

i get that
once i was dreaming, and there was an alarm going off, but it sounded really distant...
then i woke up and i was 15 mins late my alarm had been going off for over an hour and i didnt wake up because i thought it was in my dream

my new alarm scares me...

but yeah that happens a lot

 

[Incompl te]

I get that in the mornings (stop thinking that) when my mum is yelling at me to get up and get ready for school, in my dream I get up and get ready, one time I was walking around in a room full of filing cabinets for some reason. I hear mum yelling a few more times and I think "what the fuck? I'm already ready" then I actually wake up and think "shit I was dreaming"

Hehe who said I was thinking that! ...
Anyway this is almost what I mean, the difference is that in your dream you actually woke up (though still dreaming). It seemed you were conscious of real life, hearing your mother and thinking to wake up. In my example I wasn't aware that I was sleeping and needed to wake up. Just minding my own dreams and somehow confusing reality with dreams. Still an interesting post though.

All the time. I often fall asleep with the TV on and it almost always forms the bases of my dreams. Also non-TV things have affected it.

Not exactly what I meant, but still an interesting topic on it's own. I have that too plenty of times and it's actually quite funny. I listen to audio books every night before I go to sleep, and sometimes I'm so tired that I enter a sort of semi-consciousness. In this condition I still listen to the story, but I sort off make my own voice over of the story. I don't really dream about it when I stop my book though (as far as I can remember). That would be kind off sweet to be honest.

I remember near the end of one dream that the sun was beating down uncomfortably on my face. The ending to that is predictable.

<url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TroperTales/CrashingDreams>Here's more, incidentally.

Uncomfortably? This seems a rather enjoyable way of waking up really. Well perhaps not if you still have about 5 hours of planned sleep . And thanks for the link, some great examples there.

Yeah, I get that if I fall back asleep after my alarm has woken me up (I have my alarm set to talkback radio) so occasionally whatever they're talking about on the radio will incorporate itself into my dreams.

We recently had some nasty bushfires here in Vic in Aus and they were talking about the devastation at a place called Kinglake on the radio, anyway I fell asleep and my dream involved me being in Kinglake during the fires, but I was safe because I was on the other side of the lake (incidently, Kinglake is not on a lake nor anywhere near a lake).

You're not alone mate.

As I replied to Kiutu (your reply is similar to his(hers?)), what you described is slightly different then what I mentioned, though of course it is closely related. You are taking external input, where your dream is then build upon (your imagination takes over). What I had, was that I was long into my dream (if I recall correctly, it is imaginable however that the dream was made for the purpose of preparing me that somebody will tap me on my back). My (un-)consciousness then registered someone enter my room, closing in on me, and tapping me on my back, and shaping my dream to accommodate that real life happening.
Do you agree with me there's a slight difference? Perhaps I'm looking at this the wrong way.

Quite a funny example though (however terribly horrific those fires were). It's cool to see how dreams are made by those assumptuous (I hereby declare that this is a word, derived from the verb to assume) neural connections ^^.

i dunno about that...

but i do have dreams while im sorta half asleep that i can fully control and change and stuff :S
and (i dont know if this is common or not...) i can wake myself up in the middle of dreams aswell...

I think those dreams are called lucid dreams [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dream]. There has been some topics on the Escapist about those, you should look them up since there were some interesting discussions there.

I can't recall this ever happening to me.
I just get up, turn both alarms off, and go back to bed without ever knowing I had been awake.

Oh dear the times that happened to me, though I only have one alarm. Suddenly it's half way the afternoon, and you are amazed that your alarm clock isn't still ringing. Sabotage I tell you, SABOTAGE!!!

Yeah it happens to me.
Usually I think that an alrms going off and I have to catch a burglar. Then I wake up and tumble into the shower.

Haha nice! So are you confusing the alarm clock with some sort of siren? And do you actually sleep walk to the shower?

I tend to get the whole 'fake waking up' thing. I'll get up, open my bedroom door, fall off a cliff then oh bugger I'm awake again.

It happened about 4 times in a row once. In the same morning. Not cool.

I never had that I think, or at least don't remember. Do you wake up after 'falling from the cliff'? After a shock like that it would seem rather likely.

That used to happen to me. I'd be doing whatever, and then my sister and her boyfriend would barge in, screaming at each other.
Goddamn my house and its hollow-ass walls.

Hmm you'd be doing what? Dreaming you mean? Could you please explain how this involves mixing up dreams with reality?

Apparently, humans are always 'dreaming' - its just that when we're "awake" (and there are many levels between awake and sleep), we accept data from our eyes and ears. At least, this is the latest scientific thinking based on sleep research, and I find the idea very intriging.

Interesting point of view I have to say. But it still would not totally explain me (and others in similar situations) dreaming about somebody touching my back, when at the exact same time that happens in real life, I mean I don't think I was sleeping with my eyes open.

Always get that...annoying at times..

EDIT: 13 more posts till Gonzo!

Could you give us an example? I have had some difficulty explaining exactly what I meant, so I would like to know what you mean specifically. And a pre-emptive congrats with you Going Gonzo!

Usually just being half awake and half sleep. Where you get up and walk to your kitchen for example, then you properly wake up. Or still being in a dream but feeling your eyes are closed and having the inability to move as you know your in your bed