Since early adolescence, I’ve experienced episodes of “sleep paralysis” just before waking a few times per month. The experience is different for each individual, but most people dream/hallucinate waking up, but being unable to move at least one part of their body. It can be very disturbing, especially if you can see all the normal things associated with waking up (like your alarm clock on the nightstand, your spouse next to you/talking to you, etc.).
When it first started happening to me regularly, each occurrence really freaked me out. I’d hallucinate waking up to storm winds breaking out my windows, but being unable to move, or being awake and trying to get up, but having my vision frozen in one spot. I would wake up sweating, breathing heavily, and very disturbed.
After several years, I’ve developed a sort of dream rationality, in which I “wake up” and experience some sort of paralysis (a lot of times I dream that my neck is forced into some terrible position), and then consider how likely the scenario is to being not-real before I get upset. I recall recently “waking up” to a burglar going through my closet, and I being unable to move anything but my eyelids. I started to get a little excited, but then I considered “How likely is it that a burglar silently defeated my deadbolt AND I spontaneously became paralyzed?” I considered this conjunction to be exceedingly improbable, so I sat back and let the scene play out, and a minute (probably not really) or so later I woke up for real.
If only I could apply this type of reasoning to dreams about sitting in high school classrooms with unfinished homework.
I recall recently “waking up” to a burglar going through my closet, and I being unable to move anything but my eyelids. I started to get a little excited, but then I considered “How likely is it that a burglar silently defeated my deadbolt AND I spontaneously became paralyzed?”
Similarly enough, a few years back I was “woken up” in the same manner to the sound of breaking glass outside of my window. In the half awake state, I worked through the probability that someone was actually breaking into my car outside of my window and decided that if indeed this was the case and I wasn’t just dreaming I would hear further evidence (door closing, car starting etc...) and then take action. I did not and so I went back to sleep.
My prior probability was low that my car would get broken into. The evidence should have updated it, however I erred on the side of the prior and came to the conclusion that I was just dreaming.
Wrong. Sure enough the next morning my car had a broken window and my CD player and CD’s were gone (Car thieves like Tchaikovsky and Art of Noise apparently). I am a much lighter sleeper now.
Wow, bummer. I had my car broken into (but nothing stolen) and my bike nabbed the same week last month. I suspect that these two events were not independent, though, and their conjunction not so improbable...
I recently used similar reasoning during an episode of sleep paralysis about a week ago. My sleep paralysis episodes are always very similar: I hear someone calling out to me from the next room, but I can’t respond because I’m paralyzed. I have them often enough that I usually realize what’s going on. In this one, I heard my brother (who had been visiting earlier in the day, but who doesn’t live with me) calling out to me from the other room. I knew I was experiencing sleep paralysis, but at first, I tried desperately to wake myself up to go answer him anyway. Then I remembered that he probably wasn’t there and that hearing people call out to me that aren’t there often happens when I have sleep paralysis. I ended up converting the experience into the longest lucid dream I’ve ever had, which I’d highly recommend if you can pull it off.
Amusingly enough, the experience almost came full circle, since near the end of my lucid dream I actually encountered my brother and my first thought was that I needed to let him know that it was just a dream so that he could be lucid too. It took me a good minute or two to realize the problem with that line of thought, and as it was I told him anyway.
As far as applying that reasoning to dreams about sitting in high school classrooms with unfinished homework, I think with enough practice it’s entirely possible! I haven’t fully mastered the art of doing so, but most of the lucid dreams I had as a kid, I had because really awful things were happening, and I’d trained myself to realize that it’s pretty rare for real life to be as bad.
I’d trained myself to realize that it’s pretty rare for real life to be as bad.
That reminds me of one of those “You gotta see this!” type of shows where a motorcycle racer crashed at about 110mph and did a few flips in the air before coming down. In the interview, he said “I just remember thinking ‘I hate these kind of dreams’”.
I had a personal experience that was very scary during which I was questioning whether it was really happening or if I was just dreaming.
I kept on doing what needed to be done (and never really believed it wasn’t happening), and the guy on (err.. off, I guess) the motorcycle didn’t really have a chance to do anything, but it seems worth mentioning that you need to be pretty darn sure that you’re dreaming before you decide to do something else.
This was during sleep paralysis, not during dreaming. Perhaps the prior-evaluating inhibition is absent during sleep-paralysis but not dreaming?
They are obviously related states, but from personal experience I have had a much easier time realizing what’s going on when sleep-paralyzed (including recognizing that the voices and people I hear in the room with me almost certainly aren’t actually there because they weren’t every other time this happened)
Rationality in dreams, fun topic...
Since early adolescence, I’ve experienced episodes of “sleep paralysis” just before waking a few times per month. The experience is different for each individual, but most people dream/hallucinate waking up, but being unable to move at least one part of their body. It can be very disturbing, especially if you can see all the normal things associated with waking up (like your alarm clock on the nightstand, your spouse next to you/talking to you, etc.).
When it first started happening to me regularly, each occurrence really freaked me out. I’d hallucinate waking up to storm winds breaking out my windows, but being unable to move, or being awake and trying to get up, but having my vision frozen in one spot. I would wake up sweating, breathing heavily, and very disturbed.
After several years, I’ve developed a sort of dream rationality, in which I “wake up” and experience some sort of paralysis (a lot of times I dream that my neck is forced into some terrible position), and then consider how likely the scenario is to being not-real before I get upset. I recall recently “waking up” to a burglar going through my closet, and I being unable to move anything but my eyelids. I started to get a little excited, but then I considered “How likely is it that a burglar silently defeated my deadbolt AND I spontaneously became paralyzed?” I considered this conjunction to be exceedingly improbable, so I sat back and let the scene play out, and a minute (probably not really) or so later I woke up for real.
If only I could apply this type of reasoning to dreams about sitting in high school classrooms with unfinished homework.
Similarly enough, a few years back I was “woken up” in the same manner to the sound of breaking glass outside of my window. In the half awake state, I worked through the probability that someone was actually breaking into my car outside of my window and decided that if indeed this was the case and I wasn’t just dreaming I would hear further evidence (door closing, car starting etc...) and then take action. I did not and so I went back to sleep.
My prior probability was low that my car would get broken into. The evidence should have updated it, however I erred on the side of the prior and came to the conclusion that I was just dreaming.
Wrong. Sure enough the next morning my car had a broken window and my CD player and CD’s were gone (Car thieves like Tchaikovsky and Art of Noise apparently). I am a much lighter sleeper now.
Wow, bummer. I had my car broken into (but nothing stolen) and my bike nabbed the same week last month. I suspect that these two events were not independent, though, and their conjunction not so improbable...
I recently used similar reasoning during an episode of sleep paralysis about a week ago. My sleep paralysis episodes are always very similar: I hear someone calling out to me from the next room, but I can’t respond because I’m paralyzed. I have them often enough that I usually realize what’s going on. In this one, I heard my brother (who had been visiting earlier in the day, but who doesn’t live with me) calling out to me from the other room. I knew I was experiencing sleep paralysis, but at first, I tried desperately to wake myself up to go answer him anyway. Then I remembered that he probably wasn’t there and that hearing people call out to me that aren’t there often happens when I have sleep paralysis. I ended up converting the experience into the longest lucid dream I’ve ever had, which I’d highly recommend if you can pull it off.
Amusingly enough, the experience almost came full circle, since near the end of my lucid dream I actually encountered my brother and my first thought was that I needed to let him know that it was just a dream so that he could be lucid too. It took me a good minute or two to realize the problem with that line of thought, and as it was I told him anyway.
As far as applying that reasoning to dreams about sitting in high school classrooms with unfinished homework, I think with enough practice it’s entirely possible! I haven’t fully mastered the art of doing so, but most of the lucid dreams I had as a kid, I had because really awful things were happening, and I’d trained myself to realize that it’s pretty rare for real life to be as bad.
That reminds me of one of those “You gotta see this!” type of shows where a motorcycle racer crashed at about 110mph and did a few flips in the air before coming down. In the interview, he said “I just remember thinking ‘I hate these kind of dreams’”.
I had a personal experience that was very scary during which I was questioning whether it was really happening or if I was just dreaming.
I kept on doing what needed to be done (and never really believed it wasn’t happening), and the guy on (err.. off, I guess) the motorcycle didn’t really have a chance to do anything, but it seems worth mentioning that you need to be pretty darn sure that you’re dreaming before you decide to do something else.
Interesting! So you’re explicitly evaluating priors in your dreams, then? That makes it more likely that it is indeed a matter of habit.
This was during sleep paralysis, not during dreaming. Perhaps the prior-evaluating inhibition is absent during sleep-paralysis but not dreaming?
They are obviously related states, but from personal experience I have had a much easier time realizing what’s going on when sleep-paralyzed (including recognizing that the voices and people I hear in the room with me almost certainly aren’t actually there because they weren’t every other time this happened)
I don’t know how relevant it is here, but for those interested Mind Hacks had a recent post on sleep paralysis.