What is the name (medical/psychological term?) for this feeling that "my life been a dream since that one event several years ago"? [more inside]
posted by vidur on May 2, 2012 - 6 answers

How does my brain know that I'm awake? [more inside]
posted by Nathanial Hörnblowér on Dec 1, 2011 - 13 answers

Brainfilter: Why is my ability to visualize so unbounded when I am drifting off to sleep (but not yet dreaming)? Is this a state I can reproduce in waking life? [more inside]
posted by overeducated_alligator on Aug 26, 2010 - 8 answers

I have telescopic dreams once in a while - dreaming something only to realise that I'm dreaming, "wake up" in another dream, then sometimes switching back to the first dream or "waking up" to another dream entirely. They freak me out quite a bit as I'm never quite sure if or when I'm really awake. Why do these dreams happen? Is anything the matter? [more inside]
posted by divabat on Apr 12, 2010 - 18 answers

Can your brain create imaginary people when you dream? [more inside]
posted by jtfowl0 on Jul 28, 2007 - 13 answers

I just took a nap, and was having a really interesting dream--which I can't remember right now, except for the ending, in which someone poked me in the stomach, waking me up.

When I woke up, my cat had just jumped up on me, and was pressing her paw into my stomach. I'm amazed that this was translated into the dream so quickly, but it's happened to me before with other things, like sounds. Does anyone know how the brain can so quickly react to "reality" stimuli and so quickly convert them into dream material? [more inside]
posted by interrobang on Jan 24, 2005 - 34 answers