How can I tell if Iâm awake or dreaming?
I did a post earlier about waking up extremely dissociated from a nightmare and being unable to tell if I was awake or not, it got a lot of notes so I figure I make a small list of things that help me tell if Iâm awake or not.Â
So a little context - at one point I had tried lucid dreaming (big mistake) because I would wake up from one dream, and be in another dream. Full blown inception mode, waking up several times into a different dream and being unable to tell what was real. Eventually it went away on itâs own, but it didnât make it any less scary.Â
Look at your hands and feet. When I used to lucid dream, I would do reality checks. These reality checks can be applied even if you arenât lucid dreaming - things like your fingers (the number of your fingers), your palms (the details of your palm prints / finger prints), your nails (size of your nails, condition), they donât translate over when youâre in a dream. Itâs why another reality check is looking at a clock, because the hands of the clock and the ticking are another set of details that wonât add up in a dream. You might not be able to see your hands in a dream, or the time on the clock wonât be visible.Â
Temperature. Just like breaking yourself out of a dissociative episode, feeling a change in temperature can indicate whether or not youâre awake or not.  Make yourself a cup of hot water, or a cup of hot coffee - now set it on the counter and go watch a video, let yourself get absorbed in that video. All done? Now go back to the drink. If the video you watched was all of 4mins long, but your coffee/water is ice cold, it could indicate youâre dreaming. Things like temperature change during dreams in an illogical manner, or sometimes arenât evident at all in the world.Â
Taste test. Carbonated drinks, vinegar, mint, things with a strong taste can help your body wake up in a sense - you might be feeling numb so a blast of flavor might be able to get your gears rolling and help you realize youâre awake. Activating your five senses is also a good idea - smell those old socks, feel the pages of that book, trace the outlines of grass in the yard with your finger.Â
Story Focus. In dreams the focus of the story tends to move and shift around a lot, you know, youâre in the store one second but the next thing you know youâre at school failing a math test. If youâve got your phone or a watch on you, itâs time to set a fifteen minute alarm. In fifteen minutes if your viewpoint, the things happening around you, havenât had an unexplained shift in environment/story, youâre awake. The alarm will go off, and you can keep resetting that alarm.Â
Social Media. Go watch the news, like I said before, fine details have a hard time translating in dreams, and sometimes seeing current day events where the date / time / weather is repeated by the spokesperson can help reaffirm that youâre awake.Â
In all, just remember to remain calm - in a dream, you are safe. In the event that you arenât safe in your dream, thatâs okay! Because it means youâll wake up. If youâre awake and you canât tell if youâre awake, youâre still safe. Because you wouldnât do anything to put yourself in harms way. Asking yourself is this logical can also be reassuring - logical things donât always happen in a dream, and itâs up to you to be able to notice them. These things can take practice, but rest assured itâs better to be doing something then not doing anything at all :)Â
areudirty
izzy806
dededos
blakekathryn
origamiaround
2087
jacobvanloon
jbbartram-illu
