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What are false awakenings?

By Randy Salars

Short Answer

False awakenings are dreams in which you believe you’ve woken up—often doing ordinary routines—while you’re still asleep. They commonly occur around REM sleep and can repeat in layered “wake-up” sequences.

Why This Matters

False awakenings matter because they show how convincingly the brain can simulate reality when external input is muted. That realism can lead to confusion, anxiety, and disrupted sleep if you keep trying to “wake up” inside the dream. Recognizing the pattern can help you stay calm, and for some people it even becomes a doorway into lucid dreaming.

Where This Changes

They’re more likely during fragmented sleep, stress, and irregular schedules, when REM periods and awakenings cluster. False awakenings can overlap with sleep paralysis, but paralysis includes being awake and unable to move, not just dreaming of waking.

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