How to Tell if You're Dreaming

Co-authored by Jennifer McVey, Cht

Last Updated: December 16, 2022 References

Knowing that you're dreaming can be important, especially in the grip of an intense dream. You might want to check your dream state when seeking to lucid dream, or you might want to know if you're awake or dreaming after receiving a shock, or having been in an accident. Sometimes our dreams can feel more real than our life when we’re awake -- but you can learn to determine when you’re asleep and when you’re awake.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Checking Appearances

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Check whether you're dreaming when you're awake. Although this may seem counterintuitive, lucid dream advocates suggest that it is important to test during the day whether or not you're dreaming. The reason for doing this is that if you get into a habit of checking in waking life, this checking habit will cross over into your dream life.
- By deliberately checking during waking hours, you can create a particular habit for your mind to try out one or more of the following reality checks: reading a piece of paper when wondering if you're dreaming, trying to move objects, or checking a clock. When the habit is tried out in a dream, and fails to perform "normally", then its failure lets you know that you're dreaming.
- If you are really awake, then you might want to consider why you're worried about whether or not you're dreaming. For example, have you taken drugs or have you been poisoned? Are you an accident victim? Are you hallucinating? Might you be suffering from concussion or some other injury? If you are injured or out of your depth mentally or emotionally, either call for medical assistance or signal to somebody to help you as best you can.
If you are dreaming, things won't be as they seem normally. Reality checks form a regular part of lucid dreaming and are a means by which you can be actively more involved in your lucid dreaming. Some lucid dreamers like to perform reality checks during the waking hours because it increases the opportunities for lucid dreaming.^{[1]
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Appearances can be very deceiving in the dream world, where distortions are common and even the norm. If the dream is set in your home or another place where you spend time, look at common objects. Does anything look different than how you last remember seeing it? For example, is there a window where a painting is supposed to be? These are clear signs of dreaming. See if everything works as it should. For instance, if you can't seem to turn off the lights due to some inexplicable reason, you might be dreaming.
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Consider the other people around you. If you're talking to people who have been dead for years, then that's a sure sign that you're dreaming. Why you're talking to them is a whole other area for dream interpretation, but the fact that they're there, casual as, means you're dreaming.^{[2]
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- Are you schmoozing up with your enemies like they're your best friends? Definitely you're dreaming!
- Does your grandfather suddenly have extraordinary superpowers or has your mean sibling started being nice to you?
- If you're in familiar surroundings, can you recognize the people around you or are they all complete strangers?
- Are there people present that would be impossible in real life? For example, you have an eight-year-old sister named Fiona while in real life you're an only child? Or you're standing next to a copy of yourself, a talking animal, a fictional character or a mythical creature? Then, you're dreaming.
- Are people acting the way real people likely never would? For example finding everyday objects extremely fascinating, not being surprised when you start to levitate or being scared of something that really isn't scary and yet brushing off an erupting volcano.
- Do people not know things that they really should? For example, is there an individual who claims to be a geography teacher but thinks America doesn't exist?
- Does everybody know your name, even strangers? Related--do they know details that a stranger wouldn't (for example, a random stranger on the street who knows that you've always wanted a dog despite you not indicating it)?
Notice your hands, feet, legs, etc. Are they the usual shape? Do you have the right amount of digits? Is any part of your body disfigured? Does your hair color and length appear like it should, or has it changed length, texture and color? Try to find a mirror. What does your reflection look like in the mirror? In a dream state, you probably won't look like the real you. The reflection will often be blurry or distorted.

Part 2

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Testing Yourself

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Test your strength and abilities. Clearly, if you can fly or lift extremely heavy objects, you're not awake. Keep in mind, however, that a lucid dreaming state can be a good way to practice actual physical actions that can help you in the real world. Some health care professionals use it to help people recovering from injuries envision their bodies recovering. The following abilities, however, are symptomatic of dreams. Test your abilities as follows:^{[3]
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- Try to levitate or float. If you can, you're in a dream state.
- Can you speak normally? If your voice is extremely croaky or not coming from your mouth at all, you're more than likely dreaming (it could also mean laryngitis, but it's probably a dream if your throat doesn't feel sore). Another dream sign is if your voice is way too high or low or is in a different accent.
- Try jumping on the spot. Can you jump over the moon, or maintain a jump for an abnormally long period of time? Or did you jump straight up and then land on Earth with a thud?
- Are you able to shift objects across a room or area without going near them?
- Can you switch appliances and lights on and off with thoughts alone? In addition, note that the level of light will rarely change as a result of flipping a switch in a dream state. Be aware that not every lucid dreaming advocate believes that this is a reliable test - for some dreamers, nothing changes when a light is switched on and off.
- Can you make objects appear before you just by wishing?
- Can you breathe underwater or teleport? If so, then you must be dreaming.
- Do you have superpowers with the 'excuse' being you've always had them but you forgot?
- Do you seem perfectly normal, but weird things happen with location? For example, if you're walking around the streets of Paris, but get lost and end up in New York, then you must be dreaming.
- Have you forgotten how to do normal things? (like suddenly not knowing how to write your name or even speak).
- Are you doing something ridiculous? For example, trying to fix a leaky tap with a spatula, trying to hold up a supermarket for no reason, or peeing in public for no reason. Likewise, if you are doing something ridiculous, does nobody seem surprised?
- Similar to the toilet dream mentioned below, sometimes in dreams, people pee and yet still feel like they have to pee. In real life, this could mean you have a U.T.I, but if you seem fine otherwise, this could be a dream sign.
- Are you younger or older than you should be?
- Are you pregnant even though you haven't had unprotected sex recently if ever or are even a virgin?
A good test of whether or not you're dreaming is if your usual waking habits distort or are inconsistent with what is normally done. For example, if you usually turn the key once to unlock a door but your dream has you turning it three times despite the fact that this would not be possible in waking life, then you have a sign that you're dreaming.
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Do a reading test. Test this while awake. Read the paper, look away, then come back to it again and read it. Hopefully the text has stayed the same! The point of this is to reinforce this as an action for your mind whether or not it is dreaming. In dreams, reading is difficult as the words become distorted. Try looking away from the text and then looking back again; if it's a dream, there is a high likelihood that the text will have morphed into something else.
- Keep something to read next to your bed. If you have just finished a lucid dream, it's possible that you're still dreaming. If not, and you're actually awake, you can read the text next to the bed.
- Look at a digital watch or clock. This is a variant on the text distortion - again, if the digital numbers blur, change, or make no sense, then you're probably dreaming.^{[4]
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- Check complex patterns, another variant of text and clocks.^{[5]
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  Research source} Look at patterns, such as brickwork, floor paving, or soft furnishing designs. Do the patterns remain the same or do they change?

Part 3

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Dreaming vs. Reality

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Know the common dream signs. There are some very typical, shared experience dream signs that indicate you're dreaming rather than sitting wide awake. These dreams often tap into our unconscious fears, and almost all of us have had a version of these dreams at some point in our lives. Scientists have realized, however, that we do have a lot of control over our dreams, and can use techniques to guide ourselves away from dreams we’d rather not have.^{[6]
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- Think of whatever you want to dream about before bed.
- Let an image come into your mind that you associate with whatever it is you want to dream about.
- Hold that image in your mind as you are falling asleep.
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Be aware of common dreams with physical components. The physical sensation dreams are very common and can feel as if you’re actually flying, falling, or running. These dreams also commonly jolt you out of your dream as you startle yourself out of sleeping. Some of the most common of these kinds of dreams are:^{[7]
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- Flying unaided.
- Falling, but never quite reaching an end (although, a sudden jolt in a fall can be enough to awaken you properly).
- Having a monster, dangerous person, or strange creature run after you or attack you.
- Paralysis - something terrible this way comes but you just sit or stand there because you cannot move. Alternatively, you can move but you're moving way too slowly.
- A fuzziness; not being able to see clearly, often accompanied by an inability to completely control your thoughts and actions.
- Missing body parts, with lost teeth being very common in dreams.
- Time doing weird things. For example a "day" that feels like it only takes a few "minutes", or when it's meant to be nine in the morning but it's dark.
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Ask yourself if you’re having a typical nervousness dream. These are often about not having done something, being naked or otherwise unprepared, and sometimes are linked to events in your own life about which you might be nervous. Some of these dreams include:^{[8]
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- Being lost in a familiar place.
- Being naked in public (walking into the city centre, sitting on a bus, sitting in class, etc.).
- Normally reliable mechanical devices failing to work as normal, especially if you need to get away from something.
- Taking a test when you don't know the answers. Taking a test naked when you don't know the answers!
- The toilet dream. This can be a bad one if you're thinking you are awake as you sit on an imaginary toilet and wet the bed in reality. And no, this isn't just for kids! Related is the dream where you're not nervous, you just have to pee and you don't wet the bed but you can't find a bathroom. While needing to pee is common in real life, it might be a dream if something ridiculous is preventing you from peeing, such as the toilet being out on public display.
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Are you watching a TV show or a movie or reading a book? If so, check if it makes sense. While some entertainment (like Spongebob for example) can be a bit screwball, it still has to make sense given the entertainment's tendencies. Some fanfics are just a bunch of random nonsense, but if it's an official work and it makes no sense whatsoever, it's probably a dream.
- Does the plot make sense or is it just a random bunch of happenstances?
- Are the characters wildly out-of-character and it's unexplained? For this to be a proper dream sign, it has to be more than just "the writers were having an off day". For example, if Spock has one emotional-seeming moment, that's not really a dream sign, but if he's having crazy mood swings, everybody thinks that's normal, and neither he nor the others are under mind-control, then it's probably a dream.
- Is it some bizarre crossover? (like Rugrats/Star Wars, Arthur/The X-Files or Star Trek/My Little Pony). Bizarre crossovers do happen, but they could be a dream sign.
- Is it a story you're familiar with, but things happen differently? (for example, you're watching Finding Nemo and there's a scene where Marlin tries to have an intellectual conversation with the barracuda).
- Does it just not make sense given the canon? For example, if Hermione Granger had a wizard for a dad, you could be dreaming, since in Harry Potter, her parents are muggles (not magical).
- Does it not gel with the work's tone? For example, talking animals are normal in Animaniacs, but if there's one in Bones, you're probably dreaming.
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Consider the place you're at. Sometimes, in dreams, where we are makes no sense.
- Do you remember how you got there? If you don't, and you don't have any mental problems, you're probably dreaming. Even if you know how you got to that particular place, you might be dreaming if you don't remember getting ready to travel there or if you don't remember waking up in the morning. Even if you're lost, can you remember how you ended up lost?
- Is it a hybrid of locations? For example, if you can describe it as "sort of New York but sort of Chicago", you're probably dreaming.
- Are you in a place that doesn't exist? (like Hogwarts or Narnia).
- Does the place have things which are highly unlikely or impossible? (for example, if the grass is purple or something.)
- Can you access other places from the place you're at that would be impossible in real life? (for example, a building in Australia that has a door which leads to London.)
- Are you working at a place that's not your workplace or at school or university even though it's a holiday/you've graduated/you don't attend that particular school or university? And if you are at a school or some other place for learning, are they teaching you something crazy like how to levitate?