# Dream within a dream **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 23, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948 "2008-06-23T18:06:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/1 "2008-06-23T18:06:58Z")
Last night I had a particularly active dreaming session. I can recall at least three distinct dreams (exploring a Gothic castle, panty raid at my old summer camp, and fighting giant robots led by evil angels in a dystopian future). Most interesting of all was that during the summer camp episode, I went to sleep and had a dream within that dream. I dreamt I was an aspiring musician pitching my album to a record label. I even woke up from the dream back in my summer camp bed and my bunkmates told me they heard me singing in my sleep. I don’t think I’ve ever dreamt I was dreaming before. Very weird. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/2 "2008-06-23T18:55:09Z")
I’ve never dreamed that I was having a dream, precisely, but I have dreamed of someone else having a dream, and being inside _his_ dream. It was a very odd dream about a boy in a room in a big, Victorian-style house. My viewpoint was that of a passive observer, and the boy was catatonic (or otherwise non-responsive) when he was awake. When he slept, I was drawn into his dreams, in which he was locked in the room and another boy was running through the house, looking for a way to free him. I recall posting a full description of the dream (or dreams, rather, as I had a series of them), but I can’t find it now. I suspect the thread was lost to the hamsters. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/3 "2008-06-23T18:58:22Z")
Not only have I dreamed that I was dreaming, but I’ve alse dreamed that I had insomnia. THAT will really mess with your head when you wake up. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/4 "2008-06-23T19:13:52Z")
I suffer from chronic insomnia, and often dream that I am in my bedroom, trying to fall asleep. I also have dreams within dreams a lot. One recent dream scared the shit out of me. I dreamed I was on my mat trying to fall asleep, looked up and saw my Boss and her two Yorkies in my room. Then I dreamed I woke up and they were still in my room. Then I woke up for real, absolutely terrified. It took me over an hour to calm down and fall back asleep. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/5 "2008-06-23T19:59:59Z")
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas] I suffer from chronic insomnia, and often dream that I am in my bedroom, trying to fall asleep. I also have dreams within dreams a lot. One recent dream scared the shit out of me. I dreamed I was on my mat trying to fall asleep, looked up and saw my Boss and her two Yorkies in my room. Then I dreamed I woke up and they were still in my room. Then I woke up for real, absolutely terrified. It took me over an hour to calm down and fall back asleep. [/QUOTE] 😃 Now that was funny. (Two Yorkies!!!) ---
**Author:** ![Garula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Garula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garula)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/6 "2008-06-23T20:27:17Z")
False awakenings count, right? Back in college, I would often study in the small library/event room for my language department. One day I was busy studying for a test of some sort there and was rather exhausted so I decided to take a brief nap on the couch there. About 15 minutes later I got back up, walked around a bit and sat down to resume my studying. A very ho hum standard wake up kind of thing, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That’s when I realized I was still in a dream. Crap, oh well, time to wake up for real, I thought, so I tried to force myself awake again. Once more, I walked around a bit then got back to studying. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then I realized that, still, I hadn’t actually woken up. This whole process repeated itself another few times, each time just as mundane as the previous, until I finally woke up for real. You can be assured that I pinched my arm and did as many of those “am I dreaming?” tests as I could think of. I had been very tired that day so my conclusion was that my brain was trying to get me to sleep by whatever means possible, including outright trickery. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2008, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dream-within-a-dream/453948/7 "2008-06-23T21:53:13Z")
I’ve done that. Once, when I was living in a tiny studio apartment, I dreamt that I found an entrance to another room in the back of the closet; in the dream I thought I had somehow forgotten this other room existed. I went through the door in the back of the closet, only to find myself on the street outside, wandered about a little, and then woke up–in the dream. Still dreaming, I got out of bed and did the same thing twice more. When I finally did wake up in reality, I stayed away from that closet for the rest of the day. So not just a dream in a dream, but a RECURSIVE dream in a dream, involving space warps.