False awakening
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A false awakening is an event in which someone dreams they have awakened from sleep. This illusion of having awakened is very convincing to the person. After a false awakening, people will usually dream of performing daily morning rituals, believing they have truly awakened. A dream in which a false awakening takes place is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "double dream".
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[edit] Relations to lucidity
A false awakening may occur either following an ordinary dream or following a lucid dream (one in which the dreamer has been aware that he or she is dreaming). Particularly if the false awakening follows a lucid dream, the false awakening may turn into a ‘pre-lucid dream'(Green, 1968), that is, one in which the dreamer may start to wonder if he or she is really awake and may or may not come to the correct conclusion. More commonly, dreamers will believe they have awakened and then "fall back asleep" in the dream.
[edit] Realism and unrealism
Certain aspects of life may be dramatized, or out of place in false awakenings. Things may seem wrong: details, like the painting on a wall, not being able to talk or difficulty reading (purportedly reading in dreams is difficult or impossible). In some experiences, the human senses are heightened, or changed. For instance, one may be able to see things in greater detail, or lesser detail, or one may feel an intense burst of fear and anxiety, or possibly pleasure.
[edit] Repetition
Because the dreamer is still dreaming after a false awakening, it is possible for there to be more than one false awakening in a single dream. Often, dreamers will seem to have awakened, begin eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc and then find themselves back in bed, begin daily morning rituals, believe that they have awakened, and so forth. The French psychologist Yves Delage (1919) reported an experience of his own of this kind, in which he experienced four successive false awakenings. The philosopher Bertrand Russell even claimed to have experienced ‘about a hundred’ false awakenings in succession while coming round from a general anaesthetic (Russell, 1948, p.186).
[edit] Types of false awakenings
Celia Green (1968) suggested a distinction should be made between two types of false awakening:
[edit] Type 1
Type 1 may be thought of as the ‘common-or-garden’ sort, in which the dreamer seems to wake up, but not necessarily in realistic surroundings, that is, not necessarily in his or her own bedroom. A pre-lucid dream may ensue. More commonly, dreamers will believe they have awakened and then ‘fall back asleep’ in the dream.
[edit] Type 2
The Type 2 false awakening seems to be considerably less common. Green (1968) characterised it as follows: ‘[…]the subject appears to wake up in a realistic manner, but to an atmosphere of suspense[…]His surroundings may at first appear normal, and he may gradually become aware of something uncanny in the atmosphere, and perhaps of unwonted sounds and movements. Or he may “awake” immediately to a “stressed” and “stormy” atmosphere. In either case, the end result would appear to be characterized by feelings of suspense, excitement or apprehension.’ (Green, 1968, p.121)
Charles McCreery (1997) drew attention to the similarity between this description and the description by the German psychopathologist Karl Jaspers (1923) of the so-called ‘primary delusionary experience’ (a general feeling which precedes any more specific delusory belief). Jaspers wrote: ‘Patients feel uncanny and that there is something suspicious afoot. Everything gets a new meaning. The environment is somehow different – not to a gross degree – perception is unaltered in itself but there is some change which envelops everything with a subtle, pervasive and strangely uncertain light[…]Something seems in the air which the patient cannot account for, a distrustful, uncomfortable, uncanny tension invades him[…].’ (Jaspers, 1923, p.98)
McCreery suggests that this phenomenological similarity is not accidental, and results from the fact that both phenomena, the Type 2 false awakening and the primary delusionary experience, are phenomena of sleep. He suggests that the primary delusionary experience, like other phenomena of psychosis such as hallucinations and secondary or specific delusions, represents an intrusion into waking consciousness of processes associated with Stage 1 sleep. It is suggested that the reason for these intrusions is that the psychotic subject is in a state of hyper-arousal, a state which can lead to what Ian Oswald (1962) called ‘micro-sleeps’ in waking life.
[edit] References
- Delage, Y. (1919). Le Rêve. Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France.
- Green, C. (1968). Lucid Dreams. London: Hamish Hamilton.
- Jaspers, K. (1923). General Psychopathology (translated by J. Hoenig and M.W. Hamilton). Manchester: Manchester University Press. (First published in Germany, 1923, as Algemeine pathologie.)
- McCreery, C. (1997).‘Hallucinations and arousability: pointers to a theory of psychosis’. In Claridge, G. (ed.): Schizotypy, Implications for Illness and Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Oswald, I. (1962). Sleeping and Waking: physiology and psychology. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
- Russell, B. (1948). Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. London: Allen and Unwin.
[edit] Popular culture
- In a sunday strip of Calvin and Hobbes Calvin wakes up, gets dressed, eats breakfast, he hears his mom calling him, then awakes again saying "My dreams are getting way too literal."
- Also in an other event, Calvin wakes up, performs his morning routine, then as walking out the door, falls down from the sky (as if the house were on a cliff), he then false awakes, does the same routine, then falls again. He wakes up terrified, with his mom calling him.
- Lisa Simpson of The Simpsons has a false awakening in "Lisa's Rival". She passes out and when she comes to, her teacher tells her she has lost to her rival in a competition. Lisa screams but then wakes up again. She says it was all a dream, but then the exact same things happen as in her dream, followed by her teacher saying "and believe me, this is not a dream!"
- In the Futurama episode, "The Sting", Leela has several false awakenings whilst in a coma.
- Mild Spoiler: In the film An American Werewolf in London, whilst being treated in hospital, the lead character has a nightmare in which an entire family is brutally killed by mutants. He wakes up in the hospital and is greeted by his nurse who goes to open the curtains, only to be killed herself by the same mutants coming in through the window. The character then awakes for a second time from this "dream within a dream".
- In an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, Mrs. Puff has repeating false awakenings during a driving exam. The episode ended with the viewers not knowing if it is still a dream or not.
- In episode 12 of Chobits, Motosuwa Hideki false awakens several times from a nightmare about the rumour he was told by Minoru off the net about a room 104 (that does not exist), and a murder that took place in the room.
- In an episode of The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Cody has several false awakenings about a girl who likes him.
- In the directors cut of the film "Aliens" Lt. Ripley has a false awakening in which she is revived from her stasis coma, only to have an alien burst from her chest. After which she awakens to find herself at home in bed.
- In Rocko's Modern Life, Heffer had two false awakenings after choking a piece of fried chicken.
- Spoiler: In one of the season finales of House MD, the entire episode (Minus the opening) centers around Gregory House thinking he has awoken after being shot (Though in reality it has only been a few minutes). During the episode, there are several false awakening inside the false awakening.
