# Have you ever gotten stuck in your dream?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [January 1, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295 "2010-01-01T15:51:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2010, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/21 "2010-01-08T09:05:50Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#):
>
> Is sleep paralysis the actual technical term for it? I didn’t know there was a term!
Yeah, that’s the term for being mentally awake but not being able to control your body. It’s a problem to do with the changeover between the systems that keep you going when you’re asleep and the ones that work when you’re awake. Being stuck in a dream while having sleep paralysis is an _extra_ annoyance, though, not part of sleep paralysis per se.
Naps do make it worse, because your body’s confused about when it should be on the sleep system and when it should be on the awake system. Having a regular sleep pattern and regular sleeping habits (like sleeping in the same place) help a lot.
I get it at least once a week, but then I do have pretty severe sleep and consciousness problems.
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### Author:  [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/22 "2010-01-08T11:33:02Z")
I get sleep paralysis quite often. One thing I’ve noticed, is that it frequently happens to me when I’m “super tired”. If I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, then there’s a good chance I’m going to get sleep paralysis (which wakes me up, so I remember the experience).
It also goes with hallucinations in my experience. e.g. I’m in bed, aware I’m having a sleep paralysis experience. But then I hear someone slam my bedroom door…this is alarming since I live alone! I struggle and get control of my body back, and quickly sit up: the door’s just as I left it. I (obviously) imagined the door slam.
Luckily the level of consciousness in paralysis dreams is quite high, so generally I take these hallucinations for what they are now.
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### Author:  [@Taenia\_spp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taenia_spp)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/23 "2010-01-08T19:22:30Z")
What a timely topic… I was just thinking about my experiences with sleep paralysis after a sleep study questionnaire asked if I had experienced anything like this.
It’s happened only a couple times for me. My memory of these episodes are rooted in this semi-awake state so though I’m pretty sure it’s happened, this lingering feeling of ‘it-was-only-a-dream’ persists. I can remember waking up, but not being able to move at all. Somehow I had this urgent and panic-inducing feeling that if I didn’t roll over onto my stomach NOW, I would cause irreparable harm to my body. I try and try and try and still cannot muster up the effort to heave myself onto my stomach. This exaggerates the panic and terror that I feel. Finally, after what seems like a long time, but in reality is only a couple minutes, I let out this subconscious roar and mobilize every muscle in my body and flop over like a fish out of water.
I **never** want to experience sleep paralysis ever again, and there’s this unease I associate with sleep sometimes.
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/24 "2010-01-08T19:51:16Z")
> [@FallenAngel](#):
>
> I had a nightmare just last night in which I was being incredibly violent. I knew it was a dream, and I tried to wake myself up (since I don’t ENJOY being incredibly violent), but somehow that wove itself into the dream and I had to get to a particular room in the building before I could wake up.
Oh, I’ve had a dream like that. I got all choppy with a meat cleaver. I could not wake myself up at all. So eventually, in the dream I think I yelled “That’s enough! I’m done with this shit!” and I crossed my arms and refused to participate anymore in the dream. I stood there until I woke up.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/25 "2010-01-12T23:04:10Z")
When I was young I used to speak Serbo-Croatian, but I haven’t spoken it in 40 years, so I no longer can speak it or understand it.
But every once in awhile I’ll have a dream with my mum or dad or another person, speaking it to me and I do fine answering back, then I get stuck, 'cause I’m like, “Wait a minute I can’t speak that anymore,” and then I’ll lose track of the dream and wake up.
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### Author:  [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/26 "2010-01-13T03:20:55Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> One thing I’ve discovered is that certain drugs greatly affect dreaming. Guaifenesin (an expectorant) will always create a looping dream that I will fall back into.
Huh. I got badly stuck in a dream the other day, and I’m on Mucinex at the moment. Lots and lots of guaifenesin.
This doesn’t happen to me very often but it does happen from time to time. And I go on Mucinex from time to time as well. Hmmm…
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/27 "2010-01-13T23:53:45Z")
> [@Markxxx](#):
>
> When I was young I used to speak Serbo-Croatian, but I haven’t spoken it in 40 years, so I no longer can speak it or understand it.
>
> But every once in awhile I’ll have a dream with my mum or dad or another person, speaking it to me and I do fine answering back, then I get stuck, 'cause I’m like, “Wait a minute I can’t speak that anymore,” and then I’ll lose track of the dream and wake up.
1. Since I’m bilingual, I sometimes dream of being with my German friends and dream I’m speaking German with them.
2. I can also feel pain in my dreams and I hate it when my cat claws my balls.:eek:
(and my cat is de-clawed, though not by us - I just feel I have to say that every time)
3. And I also cry. I hate when that happens!😉
Thanks
Q
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### Author:  [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/28 "2010-01-14T00:33:08Z")
> [@MoodIndigo1](#):
>
> Once I had the experience of being stuck in a dream and it was quite frightening.
>
> I was asleep, I woke up, walked to my living room and looked outside, then realized I couldn’t be awake because it was summer outdoors-- and I was aware that we were in January. So then I willed myself to awaken, and I did: then I walked to the study and looked outside, but it wasn’t my street, so I started to be a bit nervous. I willed myself to wake up out of this dream again, and I did. But when I left my bedroom, the house was different… and I woke myself up again. I don’t remember what I saw next, but I screamed as loud as I could in order to wake myself up. I woke up then, drenched in sweat.
My “stuck in a dream” experiences are like this – a dream within a dream. Sometimes I have the opposite, though. I dream that I’m in a situation where I’m so sleepy I can’t keep my eyes. open.
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### Author:  [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/29 "2010-01-14T01:03:22Z")
But not as much as having my balls clawed. That shit _hurts_! 😉
Q
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/30 "2010-01-14T15:11:42Z")
> [@freckafree](#):
>
> My “stuck in a dream” experiences are like this – a dream within a dream. Sometimes I have the opposite, though. I dream that I’m in a situation where I’m so sleepy I can’t keep my eyes. open.
Oh, sweet Jeebus! I HATE dreams like that. I had a terrible dream once that I was exhausted and trying desperately to find a place to sleep. I was so tired. So very, very tired. I remember one part of the dream I crawled under an SUV hoping they would be parked just long enough for me to gt even just ten minutes of sleep, but of course they drove off.
I was in such a pissy mood for the day after I woke up for real.
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### Author:  [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/31 "2010-01-17T04:09:26Z")
Yes, being stuck is the most common theme in my (rare) unpleasant dreams.
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### Author:  [@Defero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defero)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/32 "2010-01-17T16:50:45Z")
I have definitely experienced that several times, though not in years. It was terrifying each time except for the second last time, which was the time I learned how to get out of it. The first four or five times I too did the attempted thrash/scream thing because I really started to think that I must be having some sort of medical emergency and should try to attract help, though I succeeded in making no sound or movement.
I heard an almost jet-engine like roar in my ears every time this happened, and my visual field was also overloaded or redirected too…I could only see vaguely symbol-like blotches of color (black, orange/ocher, and some white) regardless of whether my eyes were “opened or closed” (i.e. I don’t know if my eyelids were really responding, it felt like they were…). Very freaky. They tended to last an eternal 15-45 seconds or more, it seemed to me. I was very motivated to learn how to counteract these terrifying events even though they were very rare! I associate these some of the time with waking up within a dream. That was the terrifying part, as I though I was awake and then something impossible would occur or something from the dream would appear and leap at me or whatever…not fucking pleasant!
Each time it happened I learned a bit more. Each event, I noticed, was preceded by telltale signs and stages. First something impossible or threatening would happen in the dream (and in the dream I would often THINK that I was already awake so it really would get my attention!). Second I would have the knee-jerk escape/wake reaction, instantly becoming aware that I was dreaming and wanting it to stop (NOW!). So, third, I would “back away from” or try to “back out of” the dream, and as I was mentally jerking myself backward, fleeing, retreating, or what have you, and I would be almost instantly totally trounced by the effect instead… the locomotive of sensation would slam me, my hearing would roar, my visual field would blot out with colors and patterns and it would be very very unpleasant as it was like being tossed around by a force that is thousands of times more powerful than one’s self…like a tornado basically.
The way I learned to beat it was to NOT back away or attempt to back out of the dream. It was the revulsion or horror that seemed to be causing the neural jam up. The sixth or so time it happened to me I was fully expecting it to because the scary event had happened and the resulting fear and wanting to wake up and escape was setting in. So BEFORE my panic really gripped hard and caused me to automatically “back away” or “run for it” as it were, I instead somersaulted forward on a whim. As soon as I did this, the dream just became one of floating around peacefully, nothing sinister, and I could wake up at will or choose to stay asleep knowing the event wouldn’t happen. I’ve since had it “try” to happen a few times and done the somersault again with the same effect. On one occasion I forgot to and backed away and got slammed, but it was only a few seconds long and not too scary because I knew exactly what was happening and what I had done wrong.
I’m very curious to know if other heard a roaring jets noise and saw overriding color patterns like I did.
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### Author:  [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/33 "2010-01-17T22:10:29Z")
I don’t experience those. With me it’s like I’m laying there awake with my eyelids closed. I cannot move a single muscle, except maybe my eyes, but since my eyelids are closed I’m not sure. It’s like I’m completely paralyzed. My main focus is to try to figure out if I’m still breathing or not.
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### Author:  [@oxNeonGenesisxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oxNeonGenesisxo)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2016, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/34 "2016-05-10T04:33:28Z")
I’ve been experiencing small nightmares all night, I’d say I had 5-6 vivid nightmares each ending with 2-3 minutes of sleep paralysis, I hadn’t slept for 3 days so after the 4th one I read some stuff on the Internet and put it down to sleep deprivation, fair enough
The one I just had was different
I thought I’d just woken myself up in bed and I went to the living room where there was a barrier like I was trapped in a certain zone, someone appeared and explained to me that I was trapped in the dream world and wouldn’t be able to escape. I did my usual eye opening thing that usual works and voila I was back in bed. I thought it was over but anytime I tried to do anything normal I would just reset in bed thinking I’d finally done it… This happened around 70 times before the birds started tweeting and I knew I was finally safe \>\<
Sorry that was long but I came to the Internet for answers and to see if anyone else had experienced this; glad I am not alone ^^
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### Author:  [@CarrieClown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarrieClown)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/35 "2016-08-18T00:07:54Z")
> [@FallenAngel](#):
>
> I had a nightmare just last night in which I was being incredibly violent. I knew it was a dream, and I tried to wake myself up (since I don’t ENJOY being incredibly violent), but somehow that wove itself into the dream and I had to get to a particular room in the building before I could wake up.
>
> Even after getting to that room, the dream continued until I killed the last person.
>
> I woke up exhausted and in a really foul mood. Luckily the dogs got me back to myself in no time. Relentless sweetness will do that.
I had a nightmare… i was trapped in a different version of my home i knew that i was sleeping but i couldnt wake myself up. Everytime i thought i was gonna wake up the scene changed into another version of my home and the people living in it. That continued for i think an hour untill i finally woke up. It hasn’t happened since. ( this was in 2015 )
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### Author:  [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/36 "2016-08-18T02:52:20Z")
> [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](#):
>
> This is inspired by the interesting dream thread, but I didn’t want to hijack it so I created my own.
>
> I sometimes get stuck in my dreams, particularly if I’m taking a nap. What I mean by this is that I realize that I’m dreaming and try to wake myself up, but I can’t. I will try to physically force my eyelids open and cannot. I will often end up screaming in the dream in hopes that it will alert someone in real life that I’m stuck and need help, but that doesn’t work. It’s probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced, to be stuck inside my own subconscious mind.
>
> I’m just wondering if any other Dopers ever experience this phenomena. Like I said, it happens most often when I’m taking a nap, and I’m a light sleeper, so it may have something to do with that as well. Anybody know what’s happening or why it happens?
What are you seeing? And how long does this last a minute? Two or three minute?
Do other people in house know this is happening to you?
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### Author:  [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/37 "2016-08-18T02:55:11Z")
> [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](#):
>
> This just happened to me for the first time about a month ago. It was a bit scary because I usually just snap out of dreams once things get too weird and I realize that it’s just a dream. This time I couldn’t. I knew it was a dream, but I was stuck. So I assumed that I was dead, and then I woke up.
I some times get into semi awake state. Going in and out of sleep. Part of my body is still dreaming. And I’m trying to awake from a semi awake state.
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### Author:  [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/38 "2016-08-18T04:22:25Z")
A few years ago, I had the craziest dream, ever. I was stuck in the dream, then I would wake up, then I would fall back into the dream again. The dream was semi-lucid, meaning I was aware that it was a dream, but couldn’t control my actions.
There were all kinds of epic things happening in this dream, including my impending death. Like, I was dying in this dream and I knew it was a dream, but I was very much dying in a way that felt real.
I woke up four or five times, but I couldn’t escape the dream. I tried, because it was a terrifying mixture of dreams and reality. Every time I woke up, I was terrified and questioning reality. I knew it was a dream at first, but then I started questioning if the dream was reality or me in a bed in my apartment was reality.
I was dying and people I hadn’t seen in decades were there, and I was impossibly regretful and apologizing to people for dying, then I would wake up and try to stay out of the dream, but I couldn’t. It was horrible and fascinating after the fact. I’ve had lucid and semi-lucid dreams before, but this one was singular.
So, yes. I’ve been stuck in a dream before. It wasn’t fun, but it was a notable experience.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/39 "2016-08-18T12:20:21Z")
> [@sweat209](#):
>
> I some times get into semi awake state. Going in and out of sleep. Part of my body is still dreaming. And I’m trying to awake from a semi awake state.
[Hypnagogia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia) and [hypnnopompia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic) (going into and coming out of the sleep state) are great times to experience weird hallucinations. Being sleep deprived seems to increase the likelihood of things occurring.
Last week I was woken by one of our dogs poking at me, like she will if she needs to go out. I got out of bed to let her out, but our bedroom door was closed (window air conditioner) and the dog _wasn’t in the room_. I searched everywhere for the dog, eventually turning the lights on, waking my gf.
I finally came to terms with it being hyper-realistic dream/hallucination thing, climbed back into bed, and the alarm went off.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2016, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-gotten-stuck-in-your-dream/523295/40 "2016-08-18T12:24:07Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> One thing I’ve discovered is that certain drugs greatly affect dreaming. Guaifenesin (an expectorant) will always create a looping dream that I will fall back into.
Aleve (naproxen sodium) gives me long, intense dreams with looping.
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