Have you ever had a dream within a dream? What exactly is a dream within a dream?

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Have you ever had a dream within a dream?

I woke up and went to work as usual, but halfway through, I suddenly realized that I was dreaming! This kind of dream that you wake up from and believe is real is called a "dream within a dream". Academically, it is also called a false awakening or double or multiple dream.

Human sleep can be divided into five stages: falling asleep, light sleep, deep sleep, deep sleep and rapid eye movement. Dreams within dreams only occur during the rapid eye movement period. Experts speculate that dreams within dreams may be caused by abnormal neural activity in a specific brain area that produces a "quasi-awake state" during sleep. Such neural activity can cause the sleep process to mistakenly produce cognition that one thinks one is awake. When dreaming within a dream, the dorsolateral prefrontal lobe of the brain will produce more gamma waves (40hz oscillations) brain activation patterns. This area (dorsolateral prefrontal lobe) is closely related to people's rapid eye movement sleep and working memory. At the same time, when dreaming within a dream, emotion-related areas such as the amygdala and parahippocampal gyrus, and areas responsible for vision will show a weakening trend.

The difference between dreams within dreams and ordinary dreams lies in these different brain activity patterns. Although both occur during REM sleep, the sudden activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for logical reasoning, can make the brain mistakenly think that it has entered a waking state.

After a false awakening, the dreamer is likely to enter a pre-lucid dream, in which they begin to question whether they are dreaming or have woken up.

Experts say that dreams within dreams are actually a type of "sleep paralysis." If you don't have a disease but often fall into sleep paralysis, you should pay attention to your work and rest habits. First, you can adjust your sleeping position. Studies have found that sleeping face up is more likely to cause sleep paralysis than sleeping on your side. Although the reason cannot be explained for the time being, more than 50% of sleep paralysis occurs when lying flat. Secondly, irregular work and rest, lack of sleep and other conditions will increase the probability of sleep paralysis. High pressure, excessive anxiety and other conditions may also cause sleep paralysis.

Author: Tang Yicheng

Source: WeChat official account of China Science and Technology Press