i cant differentiate dream and reality
Posted , 2 users are following.
for a few weeks i am having these vivid dreams and i sleep continously even when i dont work at all,i.e.,i sleep at 11 at night till 9 in morning and still sleep at 12 in morning till 5 even 6 sometimes in the evening.and i have dreams which seem very real ,like i had to wake up and bath and get ready for college, and i thought i got up and bathed and went to clg only to realize that i havent when i woke up by a disturbance,i was dreaming all those, that i bathed and that i am in clg .
it all seemed so real but it wasnt.I cant seem to wake up from a dream because i didnt realise that it was a dream.like this a lot has happened for around 7 times and i am scared and tired
can anyone help me?i want a good nights sleep
0 likes, 3 replies
lily65668 jane10112
Posted
Hi Jane,
Nothing to be scared about. This is called a "false awakening" and about 5% of the population has it. It normally starts in your teens or early 20s. It tends to run in families too. It's actually part of a wider-ranging sleep disorder, but not everyone gets all of the symptoms.
I've had this (and all the other symptoms of the disorder) for at least 50 years, and my father and half his family had it too. It's very frustrating, isn't it? I had it only this morning. I had to get up early to go to a meeting, and I too got up and "got ready" two or three times - only to find I was still lying in bed, just like you!
It's completely harmless, just a slight variation from the norm. It can be treated by antidepressants but these won't cure the condition, only control it. This means you'd have to take medication, with all its side-effects, for the rest of your life to stop it coming back, and who wants to do that? It's not a mental illness by the way, and not a sign of depression. It's just a spin-off of certain antidepressant drugs that they suppress the REM (or dreaming) phase of sleep from which this arises.
Apart from the "chemical cosh" of unnecessary medications there's not a lot you can do about it. However, once you understand what's going on and stop being scared it's really not a problem. I can usually see the funny side... well, afterwards anyway! On the bright side, it happens less often the older you get. It's always at its worst at the outset.
This won't be what's making you tired though. A lot of people your age (I'm assuming you're late teens if you're going to college) get very tired and need a lot of sleep. It's just part of growing up. You're also at the age when you're very susceptible to all kinds of virus infections which leave you feeling tired for months but without producing any other symptoms. Infectious mononucleosis is one example. (Sometimes called glandular fever in the UK or "the kissing disease" in the US.) It might be a good idea to get a check-up with your GP (PCP if you're in the US) and maybe a blood test too, just to make sure everything is in order.
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to post them here or send me a private message via this site. Just click on the little envelope icon under my avatar. Private messages don't expose the email address of either party and don't carry viruses.
jane10112 lily65668
Posted
lily65668 jane10112
Posted
Yes. Go on antidepressants for life, with all their disabling side-effects. Alternatively, go on them for a year, and then stop. Most people find that if they do that, they then suffer years of insomnia. And if you don't sleep you don't dream!
I'm sorry to sound so flippant and unhelpful about this, but as well as having a sleep disorder myself I'm a former neuro nurse. This means I understand the problem from both ends.
Dreamless sleep isn't normal sleep. Everyone dreams - except for those on antidepressants of course. It's just that most people don't remember their dreams. If you put people who swear they don't dream in a sleep lab and wake them at the end of a phase of REM (dreaming) sleep they'll be able to tell you all about the dream they just had.
I've always had very good dream recall and exceptionally vivid dreams, like my father and most people on his side of the family. Although I often found my dreams disturbing when I was young, I gradually came to appreciate them, or at least coexist with them. They often serve a useful purpose with me. An example would be replaying a conversation that had taken place in waking life a day or so earlier, then noticing an expression on the other person's face that I hadn't noticed during the real event, but that indicated that I'd offended them by something I'd innocently said. This actual situation has happened to me quite often, and the dream has given me the opportunity to realise what I'd done while there was still time to "mend fences" with the other person.
I've also had the occasional transcendent dream throughout life. That's the kind of dream which is suffused with an incredible sense of peace and beauty. That's the kind you really don't want to wake up from!
Don't try to suppress your dreams with chemicals. The kind of sleep you get from taking medication isn't restful either, and will harm your health in the long term. You're too young to start down that road. Get a general medical check-up to make sure your health is OK and you're not suffering the effects of a virus, then work your way through this period of feeling tired, which will pass.
Oh, and I forgot to mention - paradoxically, too much sleep can make you feel tired and groggy during the day! This was very much the case for me when I was your age, and I'm starting to notice it again now that I'm retired so don't have to get up early in the morning. I'm also more likely to have multiple false awakenings on days when I'm letting myself have a lie-in. The other thing is that both alcohol and cannabis can provoke vivid dreams in people who are susceptible. I've never smoked cannabis but if I drink a bit too much wine in the evening I'll inevitably wake up remembering a whole lot of disturbing dreams.