# Have you ever had a dream within a dream? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 9, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916 "2003-02-09T17:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/1 "2003-02-09T17:58:02Z")
Like you found out that you were dreaming, woke up, and found out you were actually dreamning about waking up from a dream. Something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/2 "2003-02-09T18:17:39Z")
I’ve had the opposite - waking up within a dream. I wake up, brush my teeth, shower, make and eat breakfast . . . then my alarm clock goes off and I realize I wasn’t really going through my morning routine; I was just dreaming about it. Which is a pain in the ass, since that means I have to do it all over again :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/3 "2003-02-09T18:28:28Z")
I had a dream about a month or so where I had a dream where I was in a teen movie, woke up, went to computer to search for information about the movie (It’s name was “Homeownership II”, for some reason), noted I was late for bus, ran to bathroom, and then woke up for real. That was weird. ---
**Author:** ![MadScientistMatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@MadScientistMatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadScientistMatt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/4 "2003-02-09T18:48:54Z")
I once had a dream sort of like that - I dreamed something was happening, then I dreamed I had woken up from that dream… but I didn’t wake up to find myself in a realistic dream. The world I had “woken up” was one where I met and talked to cartoon characters like Donald Duck. I don’t remember what I had dreamed I was dreaming abouth, though. Sorry if this is a duplicate reply, my connection’s been on the fritz. ---
**Author:** ![AntaresJB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AntaresJB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AntaresJB)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/5 "2003-02-09T20:55:18Z")
Just a few weeks ago I had a dream in which I made out with my female best friend, which was in itself very strange, and then I woke up in the dream and had a conversation with the friend about how I had a dream in which I made out with her. And then I _really_ woke up, and was honestly not sure if I had told her about the dream or not. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/6 "2003-02-09T21:02:41Z")
I also had a dream few days ago where, at one part, Ben Zyskowicz (Finnish politician who looks like Groucho Marx) was showing off his muscles. That wasn’t a dream-within-a-dream, that was just weird. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/7 "2003-02-09T21:20:36Z")
I once dreamt that I was back home in my old bedroom then I woke up and found I was in my college dorm. Then I **really** woke up in my apartment and it was actually several years after I got out of college. Very disorienting that. Not much related but sometimes I dream that I’m trying to fall asleep and can’t. Then I wake up tired the next day. This doesn’t seem fair somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/8 "2003-02-09T22:16:50Z")
Happens rather frequently for me actually…last week I had a dream I was telling a friend of mine I’d had a dream about him in a dream. If that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/9 "2003-02-09T22:59:42Z")
Just a couple of weeks ago. The dream was getting bizarre and so I realized I was dreaming and woke up. As I lay there contemplating it, I got woken up by The One Who Hates My Snoring. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/10 "2003-02-09T23:01:42Z")
I’ve done the multiple “wake up” but you’re really in another dream bit a number of times. The worst was three in a row. What really freaked me was having a ‘mental vision’ of something completely different _within a Lucid dream!_ But hey, it lasted long enough to get to that point. Usually, once I realize that I am dreaming, I get so impressed with the **detail, clarity and beauty** of it all that I freeze in awe and almost immediately wake up. I wish I had anywhere near that kind of visualization ability when I was awake! I’d never leave my brain! ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/11 "2003-02-09T23:27:18Z")
Yes, once for sure, maybe twice. I can’t recall what went on, but when I did finally wake up _for real_, I thought, “Wow! Just like in a cheesy movie!” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/12 "2003-02-09T23:28:01Z")
I’ve not had drteams within dreams, but I’ve had two varieties of something similar. Variety 1: Dream refers back to something that happened in a dream some time ago and although there _is_ realisation that the previous dream _was just a dream that I woke up from once_, it doesn’t seem to matter; if I dreamed I had a jetpack last week, then woke up in the morning and realised how stupid that was, I may still have a jetpack in tonight’s dream, fully realising that I acquired it only in a previous dream… Variety 2: As above, but refers back to a memory of a previous dream that, upon waking, I am convinced never actually took place. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/13 "2003-02-09T23:33:26Z")
Yep… worse yet, it was a _cliche_! Seriously… I was having a nightmare, and “woke up” from the nightmare only to find out I Was _still_ having a nightmare, which I promptly woke up from. Cheap device in a movie, terrifying prospect when it actually happens. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2003, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/14 "2003-02-09T23:35:43Z")
I feel the sadistic urge to cross-reference this thread with [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=161647) thread in the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/15 "2003-02-10T00:12:13Z")
I have dreams within dreams regularly, along the lines of once every 1-2 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![ThreeLeggedBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThreeLeggedBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThreeLeggedBob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/16 "2003-02-10T00:21:05Z")
When I was living with my parents, I once had a dream in which my mother walked into my room and said “I have a new way of making you wake up.” At which point, I woke up. The strange part of this is that I hadn’t set my alarm, and had overslept by about five minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/17 "2003-02-10T01:33:18Z")
I had a dream where I decided to camp out on my staircase for some reason. Then in the dream I dreamt that I had to exterminate aliens that were in a house. They had dart guns where if they hit you, you turned into one of them. So I was sneaking around the house, but eventually one of them got me, and I felt myself slowly becoming an alien. Then I woke up on the staircase and decided to get up and go get something to eat. Then I _really_ woke up. ---
**Author:** ![crinklebat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@crinklebat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crinklebat)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/18 "2003-02-10T07:21:29Z")
I had this amazing dream once where I was a character in a Douglas Adams novel that he was writing from beyond the grave. At the same time as my character was being written, a movie was being filmed that told the same stary as the one that I was in, so occasionally my dream would cut to the movie set and I’d see big stars playing me instead of me playing myself. And at the same time I was dreaming that I was reading the novel. Yeah, I woke up completely confused. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/19 "2003-02-10T07:55:31Z")
Wow, neat. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916/20 "2003-02-10T08:10:55Z")
I can’t say that it was a dream within a dream. But I dreamed once that I got up and went to school. Woke up just before lunch and had to do it all again. It really felt like I was there for half a day. Also, once I had a dream pause for a commercial. It was a commercial touting the book _Falling Woman_. Then the dream started right back up. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-a-dream-within-a-dream/153916.md?page=2)