Can You Confuse Lucid Dreams with Reality?
If everything you see, hear and feel in lucid dreams is the same as when you're awake, how do you know you're dreaming? Can you confuse lucid dreams with reality? What is the objective difference?
Rebecca says: Great question. This is a common misapprehension about lucid dreaming and I'm more than happy to set the record straight.
In my experience (and, I'm sure, the experience of many lucid dreamers) it is not possible to confuse lucid dreams with reality. With the power of conscious thought behind you, knowing you're dreaming is as intuitive as knowing you're awake.
Any deviation from that truth would be an indication of psychosis, and I see no evidence whatsoever to tar lucid dreamers with that brush!
In fact, this myth of confusing dreams with reality stems from a common misunderstanding that lucid dreams can "feel" exactly like waking life. People think that if this is so, then the two states must be indistinguishable.
While conscious dreams can FEEL real, there are other factors, such as memory and logical thought processes, which clearly distinguish these states.
To illustrate this I have mapped out three separate states of awareness - waking reality, lucid dreams and normal dreams - as I experience them:
So while lucid dreaming is a conscious experience, it's a completely different state from being consciously awake, and it is easy to distinguish so.
How Do I Know This Isn't Real?
Philosophical arguments aside (what if reality is a dream itself?) here's a more specific example from last night's lucid dream and why I couldn't possibly confuse it with reality. There's nothing special about this example and I believe you could apply all the same rules of logic to any other lucid dream.
In my dream, I was standing on a mountain over a forest. The desire to fly made me realize I was dreaming. I became lucid and the scenery shot into focus - suddenly I could see thousands of pine trees as vividly as real life. I got a sense of how high up I was, and now, when I looked into the distance, I could see the shiny silvery sea. If it looked so real, how could I be sure I wasn't awake?
- I was standing on a mountain
- I was talking to an odd looking character I'd never seen before
- I had no memory of how I arrived on the mountain
- Moments earlier the scene was dream-like
- I said out loud "my body is asleep in bed right now"
- I had a memory of my real "normal" life
- I could fly and there was little sense of gravity
- I could fill the atmosphere with invisible waves to fly higher
- ...and so on...
But, you might argue, this scene was too fantastical to confuse with reality. So what if I dreamed lucidly of a very boring and lifelike scenario...?
Lucid Dream vs Reality
My experience of being in my living room in a lucid dream is not the same as my experience of being in my living room in reality.
The lucid dream version is self-contained. I can only hear things in the immediate vicinity or whatever my consciousness is focused on.
I don't necessarily know what day it is, nor what time of day.
The world beyond the living room doesn't exist yet until I go there. As a result, I tend to perceive only my localized bubble of awareness and there can be little room for separate lines of thought that don't directly manipulate my dream reality.
While awake, I might sit in my living room and daydream about being on a beach, while simultaneously being aware of both locales. In a lucid dream, daydreaming of a beach would most likely result in me appearing there, and the living room scene being left behind. In this thought-driven reality, thoughts drive the behavior of the "physical" dream world.
And of course, the big giveaway is, in a lucid dream I can do impossible things like push my own fingers through my hand (see: reality check). However, this is typically used to distinguish a dream from reality, and not the other way around.
Indeed, 95% of the population goes to sleep every night and fully accepts their dreams as reality. It's only when they wake up they realize it wasn't real.
In this sense, you can confuse normal dreams with reality, can you not?
But there is no concern for a sane mind to become locked in the belief that they are lucid dreaming, when in fact they are awake.
The Memory Exception Have you ever recalled a memory of something trivial then realized it wasn't a real memory - but a recollection of a dream? For a moment you were fooled. Why?
Memories are tricky. They are blurry and subjective and emotionally rooted. You can't critically analyze them in hindsight and so it's easy to confuse snippets of dreams with real life memories.
By the way, we're talking about mundane memories here - a snippet of conversation perhaps - not jumping off the Empire State Building!
False Awakenings
A final word on false awakenings - aka dreaming of waking up.
These can be exceptionally realistic dreams, like the most vivid kind of lucid dream, and yet you still don't know you're dreaming. Because you dreamed of waking up, you naturally assume you are now awake. Confusing, much?
A false awakening has all the characteristics of a lucid dream (vivid, intense, self-awareness) without realizing you're dreaming or taking conscious control. It is a good example of a scenario where you can confuse a dream with reality based on it's tangible and realistic nature.
The worst case scenario in a false awakening is you get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, head out the door for work... only to wake up, back in bed again. This next awakening can be a false awakening, too. And so it can be a frustrating cycle.
The answer is to perform a reality check when you wake up. Often this transforms a false awakening into a lucid dream!
And while for some people the experience may frustrating as it plays out, I don't believe there is really any doubt of reality when you finally do wake up for real. Objective thought will reveal whether you are dreaming or not... and the only reason a false awakening persists in the first place is because dreams lack objective thought.
This is the key to distinguishing your reality for what it is - and it's automatically provided by a healthy human consciousness.
About the author
Rebecca Turner is a science writer, illustrator, explorer of consciousness - and founder of World of Lucid Dreaming. She is currently studying for a biology degree in Auckland and blogging at her site Science Me.
The Anatomy of a Dreaming Supplement
A lot has happened in the last 5 months. But how did we go from business as usual to changing the face of the entire lucid dreaming supplements industry? It’s a story that I think will interest you – and you might even learn a thing or two in the process. When I was first taken on-board as Chief Lucidity Officer in 2016, one of the first things I was tasked with was taking a good look at our operations and giving things a bit of an overhaul.
How a Lucid Dreaming Community Was Born
Gather round. I’ve a story to tell. It’s a story of tragedy, re-birth and fresh beginnings... But fear not, it has a happy ending! Our forum had some pretty impressive stats at its peak: 60,171 posts, 134 people online at once and over 10,000 registered users.
How to remember your dreams
To lucid dream, I recommend being able to remember at least one vivid dream per night. That will boost your self awareness in dreams (making lucidity more likely) and also means you can actually remember your lucid dreams. Which is nice. Here are four detailed tips on how to remember your dreams more frequently. And if you don't think you dream at all - trust me, you almost certainly do. It takes an extraordinarily rare sleep disorder to deprive someone of dream sleep.
What Do Lucid Dreams Feel Like?
Years ago, before I had my first lucid dream, I had a very specific idea about what a lucid dream would feel like. I thought it would be intense and magical and a little bit spooky. This turned out to be a pretty accurate representation. Becoming aware in the dreamstate is like entering another world. One where physical laws can be manipulated (there is no spoon, Neo) and your fantasies can come true in an instant. There's definitely something magical about that - and it's as if the lucid dream world is a living, breathing organism that can react to your very thoughts.
How to have amazing lucid dreams
Experts agree that everyone is capable of having lucid dreams. Dreaming itself is a normal function of the mind. We all dream every night, even if we don't remember. And we all achieve conscious awareness while awake every single day. So what does it mean to combine these states? Why, the amazing ability to have conscious - or lucid - dreams. Sounds simple, doesn't it? So why do I keep hearing from people who say they can't achieve their first lucid dream?
Mugwort: Dream Sage of the Chumash Indians
It is estimated that these wise and wily Indians have been using mugwort in their healing and ritual practices for 13,000 years, where it is known as the ‘dream sage’. They use the herb to promote good dreams, which they consider an essential aspect of normal human functioning! But that’s not all...
