The Difference Between The Dream World And The Real World
March 28th, 2008
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Image from The Matrix (1999).
“Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?”
- Morpheus, The Matrix
For the last few months, I’ve been getting by on much less sleep than I used to. A nap in the early evening makes all the difference. However, I’m finding that I need at least 3 hours of sleep at night, or bad things happen. Bad things like barely being able to function in the morning, or oversleeping by 4 hours.
This morning was a new experience though. After getting 2 hours of sleep the night before, I lay down yesterday at 6:40 PM to take a 20 minute power nap. When I woke up, the clock said 5:30 AM. I was drawing a blank on what the heck was going on.
After a minute I remembered that I was supposed to wake up at 7 PM, so either I slept waaaaaaaaaay too long, or the clock was wrong. As I moved closer to check the clock, I noticed something very strange. When I moved my head, the clock of course stayed in place, but the numbers on the clock moved with me. They actually came off the clock! That’s when I thought that maybe this was my first lucid dream.
Ideally I would have written about lucid dreaming before, as there’s a lot to say about it. But for now, a short explanation will suffice. A lucid dream is a dream in which you’re aware that you’re dreaming. While technically asleep, you’re fully conscious, you have more or less complete control over your dream, and everything seems as real as it does when you’re awake. And don’t bother being skeptical, because scientific experiments have verified lucid dreaming.
I’ve heard that a good way to have a lucid dream is simply to intend to have one, or even to think about it. And since we had just been discussing lucid dreaming on Catherine Lawson’s blog, I thought maybe that had done it.
The numbers on my clock didn’t look right, but maybe that was just because I was groggy. I needed a bigger sign, so I got up and started looking for a “glitch in the matrix,” an imperfection in this fantastic simulation that would prove it was just a dream. But if you can’t wake from your dream, how would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?
- Pinching yourself doesn’t work, because you can feel pain in dreams.
- First I tried to fly (not by jumping out the window, just from where I was). It didn’t work. If I could fly, then I’d know it was a dream. But not being able to fly doesn’t prove anything.
- Then I tried turning on the lights. Light switches rarely work in dreams. If they’re on, they stay on, and if they’re off, they stay off. The lights were off, and I flipped the switch. Nothing. But that didn’t mean anything, because I was just flipping the wall switch, and maybe the lamp itself was off. I tried another switch and a light came on. But that didn’t necessarily mean I wasn’t dreaming.
- Mirrors are my favorite reality check. Reflections in dreams often don’t look like they’re supposed to, and I often check mirrors when awake to make sure everything’s OK. But it looked right in this case. I was becoming more convinced that I was awake.
- Next, I tried reading things, looking away, and then reading them again. Very often, text will change in dreams. But it didn’t here. Darn. I was going to have to go to work in a couple of hours.
- Finally, I turned on my computer and starting checking email. Surely my subconscious mind wasn’t capable of emailing me or leaving comments on my blog, so I must have been awake.
All this just to find out that I had simply overslept and waken up disoriented. It was a bit disappointing, but also good practice for next time. In the meantime, I’ll have to start getting more sleep.
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March 28th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Hi Hunter,
Good thing you didn’t try jumping out the window.
I’ve read about lucid dreaming on Steve Pavlina’s blog. I never did understand it, but apparently it works.
I like my sleep too much to try and get by on just a few hours. They call it “beauty sleep” and I’ll take all I can get.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..If One Is Good, Two Is Better
March 28th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Great story, Hunter.
It reminds me of an episode of a Batman Adventures cartoon. The Dark Knight finds himself in a dream world from which he cannot wake up, thanks to being captured and drugged by the Scarecrow. He was finally able to escape once he could prove that he was in a dream — when he tried reading books in a library, all he could see were random garbled words. His mind could not make up what it didn’t know. Something like that.
It was pretty fascinating. My wife has lucid dreams, and I mentioned the idea to her some time ago. I should ask her about it again.
Anyway, get some sleep, mister! You’re running up a high sleep “debt”, which obviously you had just repaid.
But I love sleep. That’s when the body heals.
Nez’s last blog post..Dial ?M? for Blogger
March 28th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hunter,
Please feel free to delete this comment. I’m a huge Matrix fan. And I used the Matrix in a message to prospective clients who had given me permission to stay in touch.
But first, lucid dreaming. Are you saying you slept for 10 hours 50 minutes? (6:40PM until 5:30AM?). Your reality checks seemed sound to me.
Lucid dreaming can be replicated in real-life – and why not? Why not believe you can achieve what you want and make it a waking reality?
Anyway, I live in Liverpool in the United Kingdom. Our local dish is called scouse. It’s a cheap and cheerful dish anyone can make which involves the scraps from your plate the night before or an original dish comprising a stewed combination of some meat (lamb, steak, mince or no-meat – AKA veggie scouse), potatoes, carrots etc. Chucked into a pot over a stove for an hour or two.
Paul McCartney, John Lennon etc were “scousers”. They were brought up on this culinary delight.
I can only take on clients within a 20 minute drive of our office, so please enjoy this (or not, no offence taken) as a non-salesy sharing of a Matrix-esque thing:
Hi Kerrin,
There is actually a scouse version of Keanu Reeves’ classic trilogy of films, the Matrix.
Sue, the Liverpool-based small business manager stars in the scouse version. For those who don’t know, the Matrix is a virtual world. Nearly all of Humankind is physically imprisoned in a coma. Their minds live in this virtual world. In the film, Neo (played by Keanu), is offered a red pill by Morpheus which can shake him out of his coma and join the fight against the machines.
You see computers and machines have taken over. They use mankind as biological batteries in an ironic role reversal – producing power, and necessarily comatose. To stop them waking up they create the matrix for them to live in. Their first version of the matrix is a perfect world devoid of disease, poverty and any kind of disaster
…The Scouse Version….
Sue manages a small business in Liverpool. Her nightmarish, every day existence is one of long hours. She’s so busy doing what she’s doing that she just needs everything else to be right. She wants the bank to leave her alone. Her accountant to make sure all of the tax returns are done. And her computer support company to fix problems whenever they arise.
But it doesn’t quite work out like that. She has to query the ridiculous charges she gets from his bank. Her accountant charges a small fortune and still has her filling in dozens of forms. Her computer support company takes ages to turn up and fix problems, they don’t seem to care, and do little or nothing to prevent things going wrong in the first place.
She meets Morpheus. When Sue consumes a magical bowl of scouse, she will awake in small business heaven. She devours it. Her bank waives all charges. Her accountant fills in her forms and just asks for a signature. Her IT support company fixes all problems within 2 hours, cares deeply about her business, and does their utmost to prevent problems happening in the first place.
Fancy a bowl of scouse?
[549 word sales pitch deleted, even though very few of us are within 20 minutes of Ian's office - Hunter]
Ian Denny’s last blog post..You Are The Best – So Why Don’t New Clients Beat Down Your Door?
March 29th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
@ Barbara, I first read about it on Steve Pavlina’s blog too, and I also read a book about it. I think you probably have to experience it to really understand it.
@ Nez, I wish I could see that Batman episode! But maybe it was just a fake library, like on a movie set–they kept their budget low by using fake books!
I guess that if you suspect it’s a dream, you’ll be able to prove it within a shadow of a doubt if you really make an effort. Our minds are good, but they’re not good enough to replicate everything perfectly. But I heard of someone who realized he was dreaming, and said this to the dream characters, but they tried to convince him he wasn’t dreaming!
@ Ian, wow that was a long comment! Yes, I slept for 10 hours 50 minutes, a bit longer than the 20 minutes I had intended. I enjoyed your Matrix story, but I had to delete the part at the end, as it got too off topic. But I hope you’ll continue to use the Matrix to win new clients!
March 30th, 2008 at 1:49 am
No problem with the deletion – I wasn’t pitching – just couldn’t resist the timing – you’d wrote about the matrix, and I had the same day…
Ian Denny’s last blog post..You Are The Best – So Why Don’t New Clients Beat Down Your Door?
July 20th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Your reality check sounds more like a bad dream itself . . . “I did oversleep? Really? I have to go to work in a few hours?”
There is nothing wrong about lucid dreaming, I guess, but I still don’t get why anyone wants to do it — except just to amuse oneself
Don’t we have enough entertainment?
Further, there are some souls whose dreams are not about themselves. . . they do volunteer work, so to say, for others during their sleep while they are in the astrals. So analyzing their dreams do little for themselves. Just to let you know.
Akemi – Yes to Mes last blog post..Gratitude Friday, Week 6, Gratitude And 10 Things That Make Me Happy
July 20th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
@ Akemi, I think for a lot of people, a lucid dream is their first sure connection to something beyond the ordinary. Someone who wants to be a skeptic can doubt psychics and so forth, but lucid dreaming has been accepted by scientists, so they don’t have any reason to doubt it no matter how skeptical they are in general. And since they can experience it while fully conscious, they can be completely convinced of it, as opposed to thinking that they might have just imagined it. Maybe it loses its novelty after a while, but I’m sure the first time is such a rush!
That’s interesting about the “volunteer work” aspect of dreams. That must make dream analysis very difficult, if you’re not sure who you’re dreaming for!
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:57 am
i stummbled across your site in search of another that im with.
lucid dreams, what are they. dreams are said to be answers to questions that we dont know how to answer yet.
is it possible that the lucid dreams are a gateway, portal into a reality that we cant explain. a reality in are minds. “what would happen if you were unable to wake from the dream. how would you know the difference between the real world and dream world.
is it possible that by doing these extra ordinary things within are dreams, flying, die’n, even waking from a dream into another dream is our mind trying to wake up sort of speaking….trying to awaken from something,
is it the powers of the lucid dream that is the key to realse. only time will tell.