4 ms·

This reminds me of nested dreams, where you wake up from a dream in your bed, only to slowly realize you’re still dreaming and wake again in the same bed.

rolisz 3y ago
Heh, I think my record is three level deeps (dream inside of a dream inside of a dream). Inception ftw.
- waltbosz 3y ago
  Sometimes I have them at seemingly infinite levels of depth. Also the time dilation feels enormous. It feels like I've been dreaming for days.
  - jessekv 3y ago
    Can you elaborate more about the time dilation? I've had dreams about waking up in succession, but have not experienced a time dilation. Do you dream you are falling asleep, having an inner dream, and waking up again to the outer dream, to discover less time has passed than expected?
    - waltbosz 3y ago
      It just feels like the span of time of the dream is longer than I have been sleeping. I could sleep for an hour and dream for a day. But it's not really that I go through a day long dream, it's just that it feels like a day has passed. My theory is that the memory of a dream is actually formed instantaneously in the brain, not over whatever span of time you feel like has passed in the dream. Have you ever dreamed that you've spent an hour trying to turn off your alarm clock, but in real life you wake up and it's 1-minute past the alarm time? How can you have had this long complicated dream involving an alarm clock that won't turn off, but you've only really slept 1-minute through the alarm? My answer is, as I said, the dreams happen instantly but your brain just thinks time is passing in them because it's a false memory.
      - jessekv 3y ago
        That's a good point. I've definitely had that alarm experience before, but not in the context of dreams within dreams. I think the idea of each inner dream happening faster than the outer one is probably just an Inception thing. Fast dreams might not need to be an "instant" false memory. It seams possible that a dream could actually happen much, much faster than your "normal" sense of time, it's entirely synthetic so there is no sensory bottleneck. But it would take more energy to experience it this way. I'm basing this theory off of the time I had several long, detailed dreams in the 9 minutes between pressing snooze and the second alarm. I woke up bewildered and worn out, as though I had been up all day. Worst "snooze" ever.
  - maxcoder4 3y ago
    This honestly sounds concerning. I would get mad if I regularly experienced seemingly days long sleep interspersed with fake awakenings.
    - waltbosz 3y ago
      They're not regular. Just whenever I do experience a dream-in-a-dream loop, it's never just one loop and it feels like it's taking forever to actually wake up. During the dream, I do experience the emotion of impatience and annoyance. Sometimes there is also a feeling of urgency and fear because the in dream I am trying to escape some danger and I know that I can escape it by waking up ... but when I do wake up, I'm still in a dream. I've on a few very rare occasions been awake/conscious in real life, but also still dreaming. That's really weird when that happens. To explain: once I was awoken by my wife getting ready for work, I said some words to her, while in the back of my mind the dream was still happening. I then went back to sleep and returned to the same dream in progress. It wasn't like I was talking to her in my sleep and didn't remember it. I was fully awake and making new memories, while still dreaming. The best analogy that I can make that you might be able to understand is. I have multiple streams of consciousness. One level I use to think about what I'm going to say when speaking to someone, but at the same time I could be counting in my other stream of consciousness. I assume that's how most people's brains work. I think when the dreaming-awake thing happened, the dream was in one stream and the awareness was in the other.
      - fydorm 3y ago
        I've had this as well. When I'm really tired, I can wake up then fall asleep and resume my dream.
      - tacocataco 3y ago
        Maybe you are lucid dreaming but you don't know how to control it yet.
        waltbosz 3y ago
        I've done lucid dreaming a couple of times. My trick to test if I'm in a dream is to stick my dream finger through my hand, or phase through a wall. It's a strange feeling to be aware that you're in a dream. I've never really managed to get complete control of the dream.
jessekv 3y ago
The worst is when this happens when you need to use the toilet. After walking to the toilet for the nth time, how do you know for sure you won't wet the bed?

rolisz 3y ago

Heh, I think my record is three level deeps (dream inside of a dream inside of a dream). Inception ftw.

waltbosz 3y ago
Sometimes I have them at seemingly infinite levels of depth. Also the time dilation feels enormous. It feels like I've been dreaming for days.
- jessekv 3y ago
  Can you elaborate more about the time dilation? I've had dreams about waking up in succession, but have not experienced a time dilation. Do you dream you are falling asleep, having an inner dream, and waking up again to the outer dream, to discover less time has passed than expected?
  - waltbosz 3y ago
    It just feels like the span of time of the dream is longer than I have been sleeping. I could sleep for an hour and dream for a day. But it's not really that I go through a day long dream, it's just that it feels like a day has passed. My theory is that the memory of a dream is actually formed instantaneously in the brain, not over whatever span of time you feel like has passed in the dream. Have you ever dreamed that you've spent an hour trying to turn off your alarm clock, but in real life you wake up and it's 1-minute past the alarm time? How can you have had this long complicated dream involving an alarm clock that won't turn off, but you've only really slept 1-minute through the alarm? My answer is, as I said, the dreams happen instantly but your brain just thinks time is passing in them because it's a false memory.
    - jessekv 3y ago
      That's a good point. I've definitely had that alarm experience before, but not in the context of dreams within dreams. I think the idea of each inner dream happening faster than the outer one is probably just an Inception thing. Fast dreams might not need to be an "instant" false memory. It seams possible that a dream could actually happen much, much faster than your "normal" sense of time, it's entirely synthetic so there is no sensory bottleneck. But it would take more energy to experience it this way. I'm basing this theory off of the time I had several long, detailed dreams in the 9 minutes between pressing snooze and the second alarm. I woke up bewildered and worn out, as though I had been up all day. Worst "snooze" ever.
- maxcoder4 3y ago
  This honestly sounds concerning. I would get mad if I regularly experienced seemingly days long sleep interspersed with fake awakenings.
  - waltbosz 3y ago
    They're not regular. Just whenever I do experience a dream-in-a-dream loop, it's never just one loop and it feels like it's taking forever to actually wake up. During the dream, I do experience the emotion of impatience and annoyance. Sometimes there is also a feeling of urgency and fear because the in dream I am trying to escape some danger and I know that I can escape it by waking up ... but when I do wake up, I'm still in a dream. I've on a few very rare occasions been awake/conscious in real life, but also still dreaming. That's really weird when that happens. To explain: once I was awoken by my wife getting ready for work, I said some words to her, while in the back of my mind the dream was still happening. I then went back to sleep and returned to the same dream in progress. It wasn't like I was talking to her in my sleep and didn't remember it. I was fully awake and making new memories, while still dreaming. The best analogy that I can make that you might be able to understand is. I have multiple streams of consciousness. One level I use to think about what I'm going to say when speaking to someone, but at the same time I could be counting in my other stream of consciousness. I assume that's how most people's brains work. I think when the dreaming-awake thing happened, the dream was in one stream and the awareness was in the other.
    - fydorm 3y ago
      I've had this as well. When I'm really tired, I can wake up then fall asleep and resume my dream.
    - tacocataco 3y ago
      Maybe you are lucid dreaming but you don't know how to control it yet.
      - waltbosz 3y ago
        I've done lucid dreaming a couple of times. My trick to test if I'm in a dream is to stick my dream finger through my hand, or phase through a wall. It's a strange feeling to be aware that you're in a dream. I've never really managed to get complete control of the dream.

jessekv 3y ago

The worst is when this happens when you need to use the toilet. After walking to the toilet for the nth time, how do you know for sure you won't wet the bed?