Dream Interpretation about not being able to move?

Question

I often know when im dreaming, so i say out loud, "this is a dream." when i say this my body gets frozen. I end up being back in my bed, unable to wake up, move, or talk. But lately, when this happens I actually move and get up. But its like my spirit, because I see my body sleeping. It cant be a real out-of-body experience, because it is still in the dream, I know this because in my last dream like this my sister was hugging my legs (I was shaking uncontrollably) and then i watched myself, and tried to wake up. I threw objects at my body and screamed out to myself so i can wake up. This didn't work. Then, i heard my dad's voice saying, "It's 5' o clock! wake up!" Then I woke up. My sister wasn't at my legs, so that's how I knew my spirit could not have really gone out of me. It was all a dream. Does any one know what these dreams where I cant move mean?

P.S: When my "spirit" was out of my body it was extremely hard to move also, but i was still able to walk. Also, it wasn't 5:00.

Answer 1

You feel completely out of control - so out of control that you don't even have physcial control over yourself anymore.

You may also feel like your body is in more control of you than your mind. This is why you throw objects at yourself, etc, but you still wouldn't wake up. Screaming at yourself also expresses frustration at yourself. Are you having issues w/ your body or self image lately?

You also could feel like you need a very long break from reality for a while, and maybe you are watching yourself take this break in the dreams. Consciously you know it's not a good idea to just lay down and sleep it all away when you've got a problem to face, but physically & mentally you may just be too exhausted to care - so in the dream your body does what it wants - goes to sleep. This creates inner-drama for your body & mind, resulting in dreams where one or the other has control, but not both.

You could also be in the very beginning stages of Astral Projection. You may be closer to a real out of body experience than you think. This dream might be trying to help you get there, especially if you have been learning about out of body experiences lately.

Answer 2

There is a stage of sleep during REM where you're body is rendered imobile.  This is to keep you from thrashing about and perhaps hurting yourself.