INRALD - I'm Not Really Awake Lucid Dream What is an INRALD?INRALD stands for "I'm Not Really Awake Lucid Dream." It's very similar to a false awakening, in the sense that you usually find your self in the place you were sleeping last and you will swear that you are awake. The difference between INRALDs and FAs is whether you "woke up" from a dream or not. With an INRALD, you won't usually remember dreaming.
The History of the INRALDA while back, pj made an insightful discovery. While he was waiting to experience some tell-tale signs of entering the dream state, he had unknowingly completed a WILD transition. He discovered, upon reality-checking, that he was already asleep and only dreaming he was laying there sleepless! It was then that the term INRALD was coined.
When can INRALDs occur?Insomnia? Or dreaming about insomnia? The slightly less common form of an INRALD seems to be a sleepless night. You find yourself unable to sleep, and are tossing and turning - but you may actually be dreaming that you are unable to sleep and are tossing and turning. I've experienced many of these nights, but have come to notice a difference between an INRALD night and a normal insomnia night. The INRALD night actually seems shorter. I'll check my watch, and it could read 3:30. It feels like maybe 5 minutes goes past, and I check my watch again, but now it's almost 5am. Confused, I think that it honestly didn't feel like over an hour went past, but it must have.
This could be caused by two things; either it's not really almost 5am and I'm dreaming, or else I dreamed that I had been lying awake, and woke up at 5am to check the time.
So, how do you catch an INRALD of this nature? One solution might be to reality check every time you check your watch. You might also want to try reality-checking every time you turn over. You might feel yourself experiencing vibrations or "swirly," or even almost tugged into a dream, but for whatever reason the transition doesn't complete. You should most definitely perform a reality check at this time.
The WILD INRALD You're about to attempt a WILD. You're all relaxed in bed, on the couch, or wherever you happen to attempt WILDs from. You've done your relaxation technique and are wondering why the next phase isn't happening. How long have you been lying there now? Defeated, you decide this isn't happening tonight and you cut off your attempt. You either roll over and go back to sleep, or you get up and go back to bed.
Or do you?
Many WILD'ers agree it's good practice to reality check every time you think you've failed a WILD! You may find yourself pleasantly surprised When a WILD INRALD occurs, it is not necessarily accompanied by transitional WILD sensations. As a matter of fact, my own personal experience with WILD INRALDs are just that - I don't experience the transition at all. I suddenly just find myself lying in the same position I fell asleep in, dreaming that I'm lying there awake.
Catching these can be slightly trickier, as you may not want to perform a RC that requires a lot of movement just in case you are mid-WILD. One non-movement RC you could try is to "hear" sound. This could be a person talking, or perhaps music in the background, or a radio. Just try to imagine something is there. If you are dreaming, then your brain is usually more than happy to accommodate you. You could also try imagining a scene at this point, and attempt to have it manifest around you. If you're really uncertain, one idea to try is utilizing the counting relaxation technique. Often, as one is falling asleep, the count will be lost. Once you realize you've lost count, try one of the aforementioned non-movement reality checks. If you can't induce anything, resume counting until it happens again.
Sometimes you may actually be dreaming the transitional effects of a WILD. Play around with this. If you experience SP vibrations, try rolling out of them or interrupting them in some way. If you are hearing audio hallucinations, do a reality check during them.
And always, always remember to do a reality check if you decide to give up on the WILD!
Why do INRALDs happen?As INRALDing is a new idea around the dreaming community, it's still under discussion as to what they are and why they occur. So far, it would seem that the reason we dream about being awake is because it is an incubated dream. While you are tossing and turning during a sleepless night, you're often becoming frustrated at the inability to sleep. You may be unconsciously incubating this idea. Additionally, during a WILD you may be unconsciously incubating the idea that you are lying on the couch trying to attempt a WILD, but you've fallen asleep before you even realize that you have done so.
If the concept of INRALDs interests you, or you think you may have experienced them already, hop on over to the discussion thread, and tell us your thoughts and experiences!
(c) 2010 Mortal Mist. Document released under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license.
Yay! An ARTICLE!!!!
Quotebut you may actually be dreaming that you are unable to sleep and are tossing and turning Wow, thanks... Something just clicked for me. This made me remember something unusual that has happened a couple of times, but I've brushed off as unimportant.
I am a snorer -- some nights are better than others. If it gets bad, my wife will wake me. On a couple of occasions, I've laid there waiting for sleep, thinking through my day or whatever, and she's suddenly said "you're snoring!" My response being "No honey, I wasn't even asleep."
I'm starting to think that she is right when this happens. (Sorry, honey... you're not as crazy as I thought you were!)
Thanks for the awesome read, and for being the first to publish an article.
skysaw, this is EXACTLY what I hoped to accomplish with this article (not proving your wife isn't as crazy as you thought... rather, shedding light on this interesting phenomena!). INRALD's have become a bit of an obsession of mine since I learned about them, hehe
It is curious... The other day (like two days before this article being published) that happened to me
I was revolving in my bed, trying to get asleep, and when I notice, I awake. I didn't feel rested, and my first thought was that I had been deceived... by myself.
By the way, is this one of MM's exclusive techniques/ findings?
Not exclusive, but yes - we are the ones who stumbled on it first. I was there.
Brilliant article, Serenity
This has happened to me two or three times now and I can now say pj, you were right... that time I swore black and blue I was awake and seeing HI, I now realise I must have been asleep. INRALD is unbelievably deceptive. Much more so than FAs.
I've had a similar experience to skysaw's. My hubby and I often lie down for an afternoon nap and he'll drift off to sleep. I know he's asleep because of his breathing. He'll wake up ten minutes later and when I tell him he has been asleep for ten minutes he's really surprised and dubious.
I remember many years ago reading about the stages of sleep and how stage one sleep is so light that if someone is awoken from it and asked if they were just asleep or awake most of the time they will mistakenly say they were awake.
This is a great article! Very informative, I think this happened to me the other night actually. I remembered tossing and turning most of the night and it didnt feel like I had slept much at all, but when I checked my phone, alot of time had passed. For me at least, this seems like it would be extremely hard to catch-but at least now I know what to look for! Thanks!
I'm just loving the reality check reminder and being told this thread is positively ancient. Nonetheless, I have to respond because the concept of INRALD is a revelation to me and it now occurs to me that there have been many occasions where I have been deceived this way. J
ust a couple of days ago I was awakened by my husband's snoring and attempted a WILD. I thought I hadn't returned to sleep but morning came too soon and I got out of bed because I was hearing a radio that didn't exist.
Now I know. Ha!
Quote from: Alice on April 30, 2011, 05:36:30 AMJust a couple of days ago I was awakened by my husband's snoring and attempted a WILD. I thought I hadn't returned to sleep but morning came too soon and I got out of bed because I was hearing a radio that didn't exist.
Next time, tell yourself that whenever you're in bed and you wake in the middle of the night, that you will listen for the radio. That locks the idea in your mind and will help you incubate the scene.
I expect to get miscellaneous radio sounds in my INRALDs. Low and behold, that is what I get.
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Quote from: Mr TechnicalNext time, tell yourself that whenever you're in bed and you wake in the middle of the night, that you will listen for the radio. That locks the idea in your mind and will help you incubate the scene. I'll give it a try and I'll also look for other dream specific events like Moonbeam's uncertainty about where she is.
I read this article and caught an INRALD within two days! thanks for posting this Seren!
Perfect.
From our experience, strong enough that you get a headache when you stay away from caffeine for a long enough period. For me that is about 10 - 12 hours. The headache does seem to be essential when using this method.
Thank you so much. You help me alot.
Quote from: mouni on March 27, 2013, 07:12:35 PMThank you so much. You help me alot.
I'm glad we were able to help. Sometimes, all it takes is the awareness that these things are possible, and suddenly, you'll start recognizing them! I have caught a few INRALDs, once I knew they were a thing that happened.
Documentary Film about Lucid dreaming on German and French Television:
Germany: 2.01.2014; 21:45 h on arte (again on 5.0.1.2014; 11:45 h) France: 2.01.2014; 22:30 h on arte (again on 5.0.1.2014; 11:45 h)
The film will also be available online on arte+7 (http://videos.arte.tv/de/videos#/tv/coverflow///1/120/). I was informed that there is an English version as well! I hope it will also be available online!
Here are some previews and two texts for the German speaking folks amongst you: http://future.arte.tv/de/des-klartraums
And in French too: http://future.arte.tv/fr/le-reve-lucide
A concise but complete guide for lucid dreaming. I have started out with much less than that.
Well it was a very nice but "intellectual" vision of lucid dreeming. There where some very good lucid dreamers in it like Line and Stefan LeBerge but I would not call it a guide. There was a philosphical question that if the consciousness has submerged out of the unconsciousness to make us survive better, and dreaming is the subconscious talking of the brain to let the brain cool off and recuperate, then what is the function of lucid dreaming? The awnser was a very nice one: to improve on daily challenges like sport.
Line
I actually have a copy of that in my computer, in French, but haven't gotten around to see it yet.
QuoteThe awnser was a very nice one: to improve on daily challenges like sport.It's a pragmatic approach, and I think it is a view lucid dreamers should use more often when spreading around the word.
Does anyone know if an English version of this has been released? I really want to check it out
Well, I found the film sans English subtitles, if anyone's interested... ain't gonna do me a lot of good though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqiwVnu5n_I
This is great! I thought i was the only one this happened to. I tend to get INRALD's when i've gone to bed with a headache or i'm just not feeling so good, and the pain accompanies me through the dream, but it's more dulled than when i finally wake up. Maybe the pain has something to do with it?
Quote from: SoloAngel on June 17, 2016, 03:31:04 PMThis is great! I thought i was the only one this happened to. I tend to get INRALD's when i've gone to bed with a headache or i'm just not feeling so good, and the pain accompanies me through the dream, but it's more dulled than when i finally wake up. Maybe the pain has something to do with it? Interesting possibility. Not feeling well might make you more aware than you would be otherwise, which could help you realize you're dreaming. Pain could partially activate parts of the brain that normally are inactive while dreaming.
This happened to me this morning. I was sitting in a chair trying to fall asleep and not even realizing I already dozed off a tiger randomly walks in to the room and startles me more than a little.
I remember once at the cabin when this happened to me. I was sitting in a chair in front of the fireplace in the dark. I was just watching the fire and suddenly a burning log falls out of the fireplace and rolls across the floor. Startled I try to jump out of my chair and stop the log from burning the place down and I wake up and everything is fine. Still just sitting there in the chair, fire going, no burning log rolling across the floor. Of course the protective screen was in place too.
For me it's 24 hours. I usually only get my caffeine dose once every 24 hours. Sometimes it just makes things more difficult because it forces me to wake up to get my fix when I could be sleeping in longer. But I've cut back to a pretty small dose now.
This morning I woke up a couple of hours past the 24 hour point with a headache but I wasn't ready to wake up up yet. I took a caffeine pill tried to go back to sleep which I did. No lucid but pretty vivid recall afterward and woke up and my headache was gone at least.
skysaw, this is EXACTLY what I hoped to accomplish with this article (not proving your wife isn't as crazy as you thought... rather, shedding light on this interesting phenomena!). INRALD's have become a bit of an obsession of mine since I learned about them, hehe :)