#630 The moment after you wake up from a nightmare and suddenly realize it was all just a dream

Neil Pasricha

With a dropped jaw, buggy eyes, and sweaty palms your hot, salty head pops up from your warm pillow in a heart-pounding state of emergency. After a second of massively intense panic where you zoom into brain-rushing, adrenaline-gushing overdrive, it just suddenly just dawns on you …

It was all just a dream.

It was all just a dream.

It was all just a dream.

AWESOME!

(There’s an update in the Book section)

How do you spell relief?

Photo from: here

52 thoughts to “#630 The moment after you wake up from a nightmare and suddenly realize it was all just a dream”

  2. Agreed!

    There is nothing to compare with that moment when you realise you are safe. No monsters, spookys or mother-in-laws.

    Awesome.

  4. I have painfully vivid (and bizarre) dreams, so it’s exhausting to wake up from a ‘busy’ night, and usually a huge relief to realise that it was all in my crazy little head. Thank heavens!

    Meanwhile, that baby is awesome. I want that hair.

    xx Kit

  5. This feels so much better when you have a dream that involves a big test that you do poorly at, then wake up, and discover that such a test does not and will not exist for you that day.

    1. Yeah. After my exam period just finishes I always have nightmares that I’m still in exam week and haven’t studied at all for the imminent exam. Pretty awesome when I wake up and realise that it was all just a dream.

  6. I’ve had to confirm with others that what I dreamed was not real, especially when those dreams consist of missed deadlines, missing dogs, and lack of pants.

    In other news, reasons why today is AWESOME:
    – bought myself Chick-Fil-A breakfast
    – seeing the love of my life
    – Thanksgiving vacation/last day of teaching for a WEEK
    – the return of BHB. I love that kid.

  7. Awesome post coupled with the kid with awesome hair makes this just AWESOME.

    You’re right. Nothing like finding out you’re not actually running down your high school hallway naked, am i right boys? ;) I kid, i kid.

    Not to mention the wicked head rush. The sudden chilled hands, the “super senses”. Friggin amazing.

    Anyway, stay awesome dude. And while you do, ill be riiighttt here to read every one of your posts.

  8. This happens to me all the time! And yes – it is awesome! Waking up feeling so unsettled and then that moment when the relief just washes over you – none of it was real… ahhhhh….

    Also, awesome – later in the day when you think back to your bad dream that morning and can’t even remember what it was about….

  9. I, too, salute the return of Bedhead Baby!

    Seriously, you should do a post on the awesomeness of re-using previously developed content for a second (or third!) project. And BHB can return once again.

    1. For example, my father-in-law totally recycled his “there’s no role for the Father of the Groom” rant in his toast at the wedding of his second son. (A risky move, since half of the guest list already heard it at the first wedding.)

    2. hey, you know you keep a tally of all the posts with toilet references? (btw how many so far?) I reckon BHB deserves a tally all to him-self (im assuming its a boy) :D ehh? good or what?

  10. The picture of the kid just made me completely reconsider having one. Cutest kid EVER. Plus yah, that is an awesome feeling.

  11. omg SO TRUE. this so happened to me the other night when i dreamt i was a nark and ratted out all my friends to clear my record of a “driving without a liscense” conviction. except i couldnt remember if i had actually gotten convicted or not. SO SCARY !

  13. ohmygosh. so awesome!

    I had a terrible dream and I woke up in sheer panic but then I realized it was just a dream (:

    awesome!

    1. You’re so lucky you don’t remember most of your dreams. My nightmares are so scarily vivid. After waking up from one they usually involve rushing to the mirror to check that I still have teeth lol! I constantly have nightmares of my teeth rotting or falling out :(
      AWESOME blog, AWESOME 1000 things!! I must buy the book!

  16. This feels better if you have a room you keep dark to sleep in (not at first, but bear with me). You get over the panic, look at the clock, and throw open the curtains to a bright morning.

    AWESOME!

  18. When I wake up from one of those dreams I let out a sigh of relief, then go, “AWESOME” . . . then “Awww”… . I want to know what’s next, so I try to go back to sleep to see what happens.

  19. Yet another reason to avoid getting H1N1 or any similar strain of the flu this season…

    They will slap you on a drug called Tamiflu.

    One side effect of Tamiflu I was unlucky enough to experience…….lucid nightmares that last as long as your on the drug (almost a week).

    But oh, the sweet relief every single time I woke up that it was all just a dream.

  20. Then again, some of us close our eyes each night knowing that we’ll wake up to realize once again that it’s NOT a nightmare.

  22. fantastic, those moments tamed from living life as a dream so when a nightmare comes along it does not seem any different.

  26. I agree that waking up from a bad dream is awesome. However, there is a scenario in which it is not awesome. Waking up, realizing it was a dream, then falling back asleep, and back into the same dream, where all the dream-people say, “no, it really did happen”.

    For me this usually happens when I dream that relatives have died.
    Dream: Grandma is dead.
    Awake:…No, Grandma’s alive
    Dream: No, she really is dead, believe me.
    Awake:… No…. Wait… What?
    (Rinse and Repeat).

    Still, the final waking up and realizing that Grandma IS alive (and that she’s making Thanksgiving dinner in three days) is totally AWESOME.

  27. I remember having a dream where God sucked out my soul. I woke up, and then I knew it was just a dream.

  28. Pingback: Blog Surfing Leads to Cuteness « e. c. eldridge

  29. You use that baby picture all the time, but I don’t mind because I crack up laughing every time I see it!

  31. This is even better when you wake up, soaked in sweat, scared to freakin’ death…and then realize it’s not only all just a dream, but a dream that isn’t scary at ALL out of context. You get this “What the frak was that all about?” feeling that makes all the stress just melt away…

  32. I had a horrible dream last night. Horrible. Just horrible. I woke up around 1:30 in the morning crying. Thankfully hubby was still up to comfort me.

    1. Oh, I’m sorry to hear you had a horrible dream, Bekah. It’s amazing how much emotional damage a stupid dream can have.

      Honestly, sometimes I wonder what is WRONG with our subconscious! Why would it do such a thing to us! Shouldn’t it be on our side? Shouldn’t it??

      Hope you recover today and put it out of your mind.

  34. I had this one nightmare one day:
    I dreamed i woke up from a nightmare (but i was actually still in it). When things get crazy now, you’re REALLY scared. I woke up again and went to the process one more time. Now i dont know where I’m at. Am I awake or am I asleep? I was definitely scared!

    I wish i could experience this one more time in my life. Cause that nightmare was awesome!

  35. Not so for me. My bad dreams are so bad, even though it WAS just a dream, I have to sit on my bed whimpering for an hour before the crystal-clear image slowly fades away. That moment when I can finally move on with my day is my AWESOME!!!

  36. Exactly! Like my dream where it was raining frogs…oh, darn. It was also raining severed heads with brains coming out of the necks. Yeah…

  38. Just say yes to sweet dreams with psyche on Awesomeland!
    Thanks Neil and everyone!

  41. Then you wait a minute then open your eyes again and Michael Myers is in your window.

    AWESOME!

  42. I once had a dream that I missed the bus. But then I woke up and went, “Phew! I didn’t really miss the bus… Darn it! Now i have to get up and get ready! AGAIN!” LOL

  43. The only problem is when you’re really not sure if something was a dream because it was a relatively everyday thing. Sometimes I have to really rack my brains to work out if I actually told my friends something, or whether I merely dreamed I did.

  45. It’s pretty awesome when something happens and then u realize its not a dream, or when something weird happens in a dream and u can’t remember it the next day, so u aren’t thinking about it the next day.

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