One day early morning, It was already time to get up. Even the alarm had ringed. I stopped the alarm. Got up from the bed, headed to the kitchen to put tea. I could hear familiar voices and thought family members are also about to get up. Aroma of tea filled the surroundings.

The next moment, my darling husband with a tray with teacups in his hand woke me up.

I got up confused, I was the one making tea. How come I am still sleeping?

After freaking out for a few seconds, I composed my self to realise it was a dream, I slept after switching off the alarm, this is known as False awakening.

False Awakening, Sleep Paralysis, Lucid Dreams are all part of Dream within Dream. Which I fondly named as nested dreams.

Where the main dream is that you are awake, yes you heard me right. The main dream is that you are awake and within that dream you are doing things, without realizing that it’s a dream. Little confusing right? Let’s go slow.

What is False awakening?

Instead of waking up in a dream you dream of the awakening!

In your dream you woke up and did all the routine tasks unless you were physically woken up.

It sounds and feels bizarre however there is nothing to worry as this is a common phenomenon.

Why we have them?

In my case, The moment I switched off the alarm, my mind started perpetrating and planning of chores. The anxiety levels went up whereas the body didn’t really get up from the dream or sleep state.

Mostly false awakening is caused due to high level of stress and anxiety. Mostly if you have higher goals to achieve. Maybe you have a big presentation or client meeting today. It can also be possible that you are worried to finish all your household work and maintain your timelines.

Sleep paralysis:

Sleep paralysis means you are actually awake and still you cannot move any of your body parts. Its also due to the REM and chemicals in your nervous system, that leaves you paralysed for a few moments after waking up.

Sleep paralysis is a full-blown sleep disorder. It needs medical attention. So, if you face anything like this, see a psychologist.

The difference between sleep paralysis and false awakening is that in the later one you can move your body parts like fingers, feet and legs.

Lucid dreams

Lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously control or observe your dreams. 

You know you are dreaming, and you are manipulating your own dreams or at least consciously following which way it goes. In normal dreams neither do we know that we are dreaming, nor we can control them. In Lucid dreams you are self-aware, and the conscious brain is up and running.

When I was researching and studying these Nested Dream, I came across a beautiful poem by none other than Edgar Allan Poe. He is a well-known writer of short stories and poems. One of his most acclaimed poems is ‘A dream within a dream’ apart from Alone and The Raven.

This poem is not about sleeping dreams rather it is about our internal conflict. We want to hold on to things we like and how it slips away like a grain of sand. How we miss to live in the moment and wait for a perfect one while everything slips away as if it was a dream. Hope you like reading this one.

As for the Flick suggestion, manipulating or interrogating dreams has not been experimented in any other movie than ‘The Inception’. I am sure you have heard about it if not seen. It is a film by Christopher Nolan, released in 2010.

Here the protagonist intrudes dreams of his targets and steals information from their dreams. Its intrigue, isn’t it?

IMDb has given a rating of 8.8 out of 10, and the movie has won many awards. Hope this movie takes you deeper in the world of dreams.

See you tomorrow with dreams that have ‘Only Audio!!’.