Simple Tips for Dealing with Multiple False Awakenings
For a very long time, I have been troubled by multiple false awakenings but, eventually I figured out a few ways to deal with them and I am going share it with you here.
I am well familiar with that dreadful feeling when you can’t find a way to escape from the chain of annoying dreams that tells you that you have woke up but then again you find that you are still dreaming.
Mostly when I experienced false awakenings it was when I slept during day time but, people experience it in the usual hours of night sleep as well.
About 4-5 years ago, when I was too interested in lucid dreaming, false awakenings and sleep paralysis became usual for me.
In dreams, I used to get up in the same room where I slept so it was often too difficult to detect that if I was still dreaming or not but, what troubled me the most was helplessness of not being able to wake up despite of knowing that it is a dream.
More than 5 false awakenings(I have had 14+) one after another could be very frustrating that you might start to hate your sleep hours but fortunately there are ways using which you can regain your peaceful sleeps.
What Causes False Awakenings?
When a person gets interested in their dreams, their mind starts to become more aware during sleep states as a result they start to get real life like dreams which gives a false illusion of waking up until the person realizes it.
This could also happen when you are over-thinking about something which you have to do after waking up. For example- Once I was traveling to a place by train and I set my alarm clock 15 minutes prior to the time when the train will reach to my destination before I fell asleep, that day I had about 7 false awakenings that the train has already arrived or I forgot to get down etc.
Repeated False Awakenings
You experience more than one false awakening when you are more conscious in dream states than normal.
Every false awakening becomes a lucid dream when you know that you are still sleeping but if you are not an experienced lucid dreamer then the dream will most probably collapse and you will have another false awakening.
If you are experienced in lucid dreaming then you can turn a false awakening into a lucid dream but if you are not then you will have to make your mind more aware using few techniques that I am going to enlist below these will allow you to detect a dream, in other words they will help you to become conscious inside your dreams (which is lucid dreaming). Hence, you will be able to escape the false awakening loop by detecting the dreams one after other till you are actually awake.
1- Reality Checks
If you have been having regular false awakenings then follow ritual of performing reality checks every time you wake up. It could be pinching yourself to know if you can sense it, trying to push through walls, trying to move things using your will etc. to detect if you are still dreaming.
Be sure to perform this with a genuine curiosity, don’t make a mistake of being so sure about reality because such dreams are often very much real like.
2- Look at Symbols
In dreams, it is difficult to read properly because you won’t be able to see symbols in proper form so, once you have done reality checks after waking up look for objects that has something written on it.
I prefer to use clock or calendar for this purpose.
3- Mirror
Usually in dreams you will not be able to get your proper reflection in the mirror so, your next step would be go in front of a mirror and check if you can see your actual reflection there.
4- Calculation
Dreams are handled by your subconscious mind and due to that all the logical mind operations are difficult to be performed in dreams, using this to your advantage you can choose to do a little bit calculation to know if you are able to do it correctly.
5- Sleeping at Right Times
Changing your sleep timings or not getting proper sleep may cause your mind to be more active than usual which can lead to various dream related problems like sleep paralysis or false awakenings. So, make sure to fix proper timings for sleeping.
6- Friend in Need
You will be able to know with experience about the time when you get trapped in this terrifying false awakening loop so you can take help of someone who will wake you up at that time.
Despite of having learned a lot about lucid dreaming, I used to get more than 7 back to back false awakenings accompanied by sleep paralysis a year ago whenever I slept at noon after having lunch.
Yes, multiple false awakenings with sleep paralysis which means I used to wake up in the room where I slept where I can see but can’t even move my eyeballs to look anywhere else…I knew it was a dream every time but it used happen consistently.
I tried everything else but my friend’s help is what saved me, I just told him to wake me up before the clock hits 4 PM and I was rescued almost every time, sometimes he pulled me out of that state and I still remember how relieved I used feel during those times.
If you are trying to find ways to learn lucid dreaming then check out my post where I have shared the technique that I consider best for inducing lucid dreams.
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