Floating off and disorientation: What IS this? AP related?

[stargazer]

Hello fellow dreamers,
Just wanted to throw this out there and see if it stuck.

I've had an experience two nights in a row and I can't quite figure out what it was.
Both nights had similar qualities... I took an excedrin for a migraine, which contains caffeine. The caffeine was enough to keep me pretty closely to physically awake while going down through the "first bit of falling asleep" dreaming in the first hour of sleep.

I find myself walking at work. It's evening (I work a night shift), and the lights are very dim. It has a spooky, eerie deserted night RTZ feel to it. Then, someone engages me in conversation.

In the first dream, a coworker approaches me, running up next to me so we could walk in together. I turn to talk to him and find it very difficult to talk, or to think. This reminds me of how it feels to do a weak astral projection where you get a few steps out of body and collapse. You feel fuzzy, weak, disoriented, as if it's very hard to think or function.

Suddenly, this enormous wind sweeps through the empty streets, and I feel suddenly helpless as I'm swept up and away by the wind. The feeling isn't fear per se, but a sort of helpless "Oh drat not AGAIN" As I'm swept off, I jolt wide awake.

In the second dream, I walk out of a building at work, and it's evening, and the lights are very dim. I pass through a group of women, and they're talking and laughing and I feel put out by their vibe as it's very negative. I walk into a nearby restroom and a few of the women follow me in. Same disoriented "It's hard to think" feeling. I start engaging in conversation with one of the women, and then EMBARRASSMENT / "Drat!" I start floating up towards the ceiling of the restroom. As I'm swept off, I jolt awake.

I'm not sure if this is something like a dream/false AP, or an astral wind phenomenon. I've experienced astral wind phenom perhaps 1-2x before, and the thing about it is that it's always INCREDIBLY powerful and inexorable, and rather hard to forget from a lucid/APer standpoint.

I'm thinking that this ties more into sort of a jam in the natural sleepworks... i.e. if we're tired when we fall asleep, and we're just sort of doing that "Rest / regroup" in spaces closer to waking life like the RTZ in the initial stages of sleep, and I think I'm only remembering it because the caffeine in my brain is keeping me close enough to re-awakening and thus I'm remembering the float offs, or they serve as enough of a jolt to wake me up.

But.. any thoughts on poor mental functioning / disorientation / physical weakness within a dream? They've been sort of icky low energy sort of lucid/AP feeling kinds of experiences, vs. an AP in the morning which feels pretty great in comparison, very lucid, clear, more inclined to hang out in lighter more pleasant spaces. It makes me wonder if every night I'm sort of sleep-floating through the streets of the RTZ, getting knocked around like a bit of tumbleweed as I recoup from the day's headaches. :D

[Korpo]

If this is early in the night you would not be rested, so this could be part of feeling low-energy. Maybe the medication is not helpful in that regard, but it could also be the condition you're taking it for.

Both experiences sound astral, with a hint of lower astral. I've read that we pass successively higher (plane-wise) during sleep, but only the bodies we've developed actively will give us recall. The latest stage of sleep is then like returning from above, recharged, and indeed I had many experiences that were either preceded by something I could not recall and/or going downward. Usually mostly astral and some mental plane experiences get recalled if any.

If the medication is messing up your sleep rhythm it might be that you recall the part of the night that is like working yourself up to some rest. I find it interesting that a co-worker joins you. Co-workers are usually guides or helper for me, as I have very positive connotations for most of my co-workers that feature in dreams and experiences.

[stargazer]

Hi Korpo!!!! So nice to see you. Hope you are well, and thanks for the response.

My instinct is definitely falling in line with what you are saying... that we pass into successively higher stages during sleep, and return from those higher levels in later cycles.

I don't believe that the caffeine is much related in anything but memory recall / awakening... I've had experiences with naps or "First hour of sleep" dreams lately without the medication where they've been more lower astral feeling: Dark, lonely, deserted. I wouldn't even necessarily call them nightmares so much as just... vaguely discomfiting experiences. My instinct is that I usually pass through them without remembering them or that they don't elicit much in the way of memories or significance. I'm happy that you've encountered this idea in your reading... the idea of passing up through the levels in early sleep, and coming back down in later sleep. (So to speak, blah blah blah, multiple selves).

It hasn't escaped my notice that along with the coworker figure, that both of those dreams involve me... GOING to "Work." My dreamscape is highly literal with its symbolism... I struggled with reoccurring dreams about being stuck back in college for the longest time before I realized that the dreams had nothing to do with college and everything to do with my feelings about spiritual schooling and my balance / devotion to it with my earth life. Once I resolved / acknowledged this issue, the reoccurring school dreams ceased. So yeah, not lost on the symbolism of... I'm journeying up towards my night "work" - My school. (I work a night shift. Night shift work. Heh.) I'm joined by my guide.

I love, love, love dream work and after reading a book on lucid dreaming have been stepping up my dreamwork. Affirmations/manifestation in lucid dreams is awesome fun and interesting, and so is talking to components of the dream to ask them what they represent / wish to communicate. They are surprisingly willing to communicate once approached in this manner.

Here's a funny for you: When I do manifestation work in lucid dreaming, I found that my interaction with my Higher Self was a bit too obscure for me to connect to... I would announce something out loud, and the dream environment would dynamically respond. Something big like a kundalini affirmation would cause MASSIVE dynamic changes... winds blowing, storm rising. Something minor like insight into a situation or healing would cause subtle changes like sparkling or color changes. So one time in a lucid dream I asked for a more direct way to interact with my Higher Self, and within an instant, this female black and white cat with startling green eyes ran into the room, jumped up on the bed in front of me, and looked attentively up at me. It startled me so badly that I jolted awake, whoops. I really didn't expect that instant of a response, but hey, you get what you ask for.

This cat has now shown up in lucid dreams several times (And in the circular nature of time, PRIOR to this dream in a kundalini affirmation LD.. it showed up with blue snake-like eyes and a forked snake-like tongue and walked up a set of stairs with me)

Now here's the funny part... about two years after the black and white cat showed up in lucid dreams as an aspect of my Higher Self with which I could communicate... My stepdaughter picked up a female cat for us to adopt. It took me awhile to get the connection but now in hindsight I realize that my HS wasn't picking a random cat, it was picking an actual element from my LIFE... that just hadn't entered my life yet. I'm not sure what I find more funny, that my HS is like "Oh hai thar u like cats so imma cat!" or that it chose to resemble my actual current cat, either on purpose for greater significance for me, or WITHOUT purpose given the timeless nature of the greater reality The HS wouldn't necessarily be aware that *I* wasn't aware yet of the particular significance of this female black and white cat. Or maybe it is. You never know, and the fun is definitely in the wondering.

[Korpo]

Nice to see you too. :D

That is indeed funny. :) And amazing.

It's also proof that our reality originates somewhere and exists before we become aware of it consciously on this level.

I also know the feeling of "almost-nightmares." I would find myself in a deserted location with the wind blowing and steady drizzle, desolate, and somehow with a feeling of foreboding underlying it all, but nothing ever happened. I just wandered between white worker houses in what seemed an abandoned settlement till I found one that seemed to have an occupant.