So Weird: I had a dream within a dream last night

It's really freaky when you realize you're dreaming, wake up from that level and still be in a dream and then realize it and then wake up from that dream and then the dog farts and, well, that brings a halt to everything.

Four levels deep, wow! I've been taking Benadryll lately which has been giving me intense dreams. Maybe I can achieve multiple levels yet. It was rather fascinating. all in all.

It's all over when the fat lady sings and the dog farts.

I take the clear capsules, easier on the weird dreams.

But I'll try the capsules and see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the tip!

I had really weird dreams with the pink capsules.

It was so bizarre. I was dreaming and AWARE I was dreaming, and then woke up from that dream into another dream where I was no longer aware I was dreaming.

You would think I'd be in the same state of mind, but no. I completely lost my lucidity, and even though I was aware of what was happening in the first dream couldn't be real, the exact same surreality of the next dream was lost on me.

Dreams are fucked up.

Now, lucid dreams I've had many times, and I can even bring them on. If I don't fall asleep immediately, I imagine myself in a scene that looks interesting and try for full immersion. I'll try to 'hear' the sounds of the city, to 'smell' the grass, and to 'feel' the bricks in the wall I'm touching. Then I sort of 'release' the picture and things start happening that I didn't script which eventually turns into a lucid dream where I can affect what's happening. I'm particularly fond of historical scenarios, like ancient Rome.

Life's more interesting when I dream. Whether dreams means anything or not, I have no idea, but I often refer to going to bed as 'boarding the dreamland express'..

And, for whatever reason, I can't often control anything when I lucid dream. Which is frustrating. I'm going along, doing my thing, then I realize something's wrong, then I try to fly or something. And I can't.

The other night was just strange in that I was fully aware I was in a dream, and then I wasn't, because I thought I had awoken from it.

If I could bring on lucid dreams where I could control the action, I'd fly like Superman and have a hell of a lot of sex. Maybe both at the same time.

for lucid dreaming. I used to have them fairly regularly when I was paying more attention to dreaming (2-4 times a week). I'll have to try your method as it sounds like more fun than waiting for a random lucid dream to happen or for one of my dream signals to alert me that I'm having a lucid dream. When I do have them, I experience all the senses more acutely. The only one I don't remember as strongly is smell, so I'll have to pay more attention to that one next time.

dreams in the morning.

Sometimes as I'm writing, the meaning comes to me.

That is soooo scary.

And what's the Freudian meaning of that woman in a robe in the corner?

I don't know what the woman signified. She didn't look like anyone I know, but she looked really angry when I said that about smelling cigarette smoke...

i don't think this is freud, i think it's structural

everybody reporting that dream in this thread practices lucid dreaming...

It usually happens when I am having frequently interrupted sleep.
I now usually get out of.
bed, get some water, and talk to my husband if he is up. I feel the need to take enough time to make sure I am back in reality because I feel crazy if I'm not sure.

Now that's interesting. I did in fact wake up several times. I often do when I need to get up earlier than usual, and I check the alarm each time so as to catch it before it goes off. I suspect it's because I grew up with one of those old-fashioned wind-up alarm clocks that went off like a fire alarm and caused me to jump 6 feet in the air when it went off.

I wonder just exactly how much reality and dream I was blending, especially because of the two different times on the alarm clock. Still, my wife confirmed I had only the one nightmare and said that to me just once.

Once I dreamed that I was in a dream. So I said to myself, "Wake up, buddy, you're only dreaming." And so I woke up.
But I was still dreaming.

-- Mal

At least you dream.

I have had dreams with "theme music," watched dreams from a 3rd person perspective, had subtitles, in foreign languages (at one point in my life I spoke 6 languages fluently (can't spell in any of them very well)), lucid dreams, black and white dreams, sepia dreams, and, like you, dreams within dreams. What I have found, in various readings and personal research, is that 'dreams with dreams' are usually nightmarish. Some psychologists (?) think this may be an expression of the supra-subconscious and therefore, takes the dreamer's most fearful situations and creates various scenarios. The most common version being the death of a loved one. These can be so intense the body physically reacts, and some find themselves been awakened by their own sobbing. This has happened to me a few times. Another version is it can be something which one has buried deeply or is hiding from others. Before I came out, I used to have horrific nightmares about someone/something trying to kill me. It always came from the closet, and ended up in the bed or under it. Once I came out to my mother and my immediate family, I never had that dream again.

There are a number of "theories" on dreams, their meanings, their purpose, and the like. I have read a number of things ranging from mytho-religious interpretations, to cultural interpretations, to classics such as Freud, Jung, and the like.

i have meta dreams all the time

and the cigarette smoking woman, that's interesting, she's visited me too exactly as you described

it makes you wonder about the architecture of the brain, because the universe is infinite, yet we have these shared images

on edit-- now that i've read the other replies, it's interesting to see this particular dream happens to LUCID dreamers because i've practiced lucid dreaming since the single digit ages! wow! we are totally onto some key clue about the brain if we only knew what it was

I see, hear, and have even used physical motions related to the dream (according to my wife) such as typing, sweeping something out of the way, running (think dog dreams here), and even having wild monkey sex, but I never recall smelling anything.

A friend was driving and we hit head on a semi-truck. I felt myself being thrust forward very hard and then thrust back very hard followed by a very brief but intense feeling of heat. All became black and I couldn't hear, feel, or see anything. I thought I was dead. But then I could hear a faint sound and I concentrated on it until I realized it was my heartbeat. I woke up feeling quite relieved that I was still alive.

freshly dug earth.

and when I do wake up, I'm confused for a bit as the place I thought I was where I knew I was having a nightmare is not the place I actually was.

I used to teach marine biology labs and it took a huge chunk out of my schedule as a grad student. One semester I had a schedule where I taught the 2 late labs lasting from 3:00 to almost 9PM and the early lab the next morning at 8AM. About 4 or 5 times that semester, I taught the two labs, went home, went to bed, dreamed about teaching the lab, got up, and taught the lab. It felt like I'd never left the room. Awful.

On edit: In most of my nightmares, I'm able to recognize that it's a nightmare and wake up to get away from it. Unpleasant, but better than continuing the nightmare - and it's always a dreamless sleep afterwards.

Isn't that sort of a night terror? Where you think you are awake but you are not and trying to wake-up? Either that or you went from a nightmare to a night terror, where you knew you had a nightmare, thought you woke up, then realized it was still a bad dream/nightmare and then forced yourself to wake up?