Am I Dreaming? Here are 5 Ways To Tell If You’re Asleep
Ever have that creeping feeling you’re in a dream, but can’t prove it?
As crazy as it sounds, sometimes it’s hard to tell if we are awake or if we are asleep. We’ve all had those moments where we want to stop and pinch ourselves (read on, fam, this will come in handy!) because we simply aren’t sure if we could possibly be experiencing this moment. It can be especially discombobulating because entering your dream can feel similar to waking up in real life: there’s no distinct moment right before your awakening where you’ve made the decision to enter this new state. You don’t remember what was going on moments before, but you are here now. In both cases, it can be a bit jarring while also being acceptable and peaceful.
It feels disorienting to not be sure if you are having a dream, or to have a moment so vivid or unbelievable in your waking life that you could swear you have been asleep all along. Being able to understand that you are dreaming is wonderful because not only are you more likely to wake yourself up before a nightmare gets underway, but you can also use these tips to unlock the wonders of lucid dreaming. While “Inception” tells us to carry around a secret totem to check our consciousness, I’ve pulled together a quick and easy list of five ways to discover if you are in a dream.
- Let There Be Light
Your dreaming brain generally doesn’t have the capacity to process and execute the concept of electricity. Though you may see a light on in your dream or see and use functioning electronic items, odds are that flipping a light switch on and off isn’t going to yield any results. If you’re in a house, any kind of building or whatever abstract place you’re in that has a light switch on the wall, walk over to it and attempt to turn a light on and off. Even if by chance you do get it to work, if you break your gaze and then look back, the light will be reverted to its original state. This additional technique is called LaB (Look Away and Back), and it will be sprinkle-dee-dinkled into much of what you read in this article.
2. Read The Room
Your mind may create readable items while you are dreaming, but upon further inspection the text on those items will distort, blur, disappear, rearrange, or otherwise alter. This could be anything from books to signs, documents to clocks, and beyond. Clocks may be the easiest way to tell if you are asleep, so if you feel as if you’re in a dream steal a peek at your phone clock or one of them old-fangled wall clocks to gauge the time or lack thereof. Be sure to try and crack open a nearby book to also find out once and for all if you’re dreaming. If all else fails, LaB it!
3. In A Pinch
We’ve all had a graphic nightmare where something painful happened to us, and you swear up and down you could feel the pain. If you happen to have a moment of consciousness in your dream, whether you are getting attacked by an army of unicorn horns, or if you are simply standing around, pinch the skin hard on the top of your arm. If you do not feel the sensation of this pinching pain, congratulations on discovering you’re dreaming! This is a tip that I encourage people to practice during your waking life by occasionally (gently) pinching your arm to understand and remember what the sensation feels like so that dream-you can make an informed comparison.
4. Mirror, Mirror On The Wall
Who is the blurriest one of all? If in a dream, you are! Another quick and easy way to check for consciousness is to look in a mirror and investigate yourself. Odds are your body and face will be blurred or distorted in some way, which does wonders for self esteem, lemme tell you. Sometimes you will feel a baby toe passing through the veil of dreams into lucidity, and when you get that feeling, be sure to LaB at the mirror to see if you stretch, warp, or distort in any capacity. Or, give yourself a swanky new hair-do. Either way.
5. Say That To My Face
Honestly, the easiest trick in the book is out loud saying “Am I dreaming?” if you’re uncertain of your consciousness. In my nightmares, when I’ve asked this question, whatever freaky ghoul is hunting me down will assure me that I’m wide awake and life is terrible, which slowly lead me to realize I was actually asleep. Contrary to this, while having neutral or good dreams, I would ask whoever was running around in my sleeping world with me if I was dreaming, and they would assure me that I was. This tactic and its results will differ from person to person, but if you are nearly lucid you will begin seeing patterns in the way that people in your dreams respond to that question.
