Realising that you are dreaming
What does it feel like to realise you are dreaming?
A recognition rather than a change. Nothing in the dream alters, and the dreamer simply knows.
The trigger is nearly always an inconsistency, and it is nearly always the same handful: a light switch that does nothing, hands with too many fingers, text that will not hold still, a second moon, a building whose layout cannot be made to work, somebody present who has died.
Those are the reality checks, and they work because they are what dreams render worst. Every one of them appears elsewhere in this database as a distressing dream in its own right. The unreadable page and the wrong hand are the same phenomenon met without the recognition.
This is also the one thing in this database demonstrated in a laboratory rather than inferred from reports. Sleepers have signalled from inside a dream with prearranged eye movements, on cue, while verifiably asleep.
Where this reads well
The gateway to everything else in this record, and dreamers describe the first one for years afterwards.
Where it is harder
Almost none. A small number report the recognition itself as unnerving, particularly where the dream was unpleasant.
Worth asking yourself
What tipped me off? Had I noticed that thing before without acting on it? What did I do next?
Dream interpretation is subjective. Nothing here is a diagnosis, a prediction, or medical advice.
Sources and reviewed references
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