What Causes Dreams You Fall Into?

Dreams you fall into are relatively common. At least 95% of people are said to have had one. They create sudden fear that startles us and wakes us up. What are the causes of these kinds of dreams?

Possible explanations for dreams you fall into

It’s pretty normal. You fall asleep and are just starting to dream when you suddenly fall into an abyss; the ground disappears beneath your feet or you fall off the edge of a cliff and experience that terrifying feeling of falling. Your heart is racing and you wake up with fear in the heart and mind because you are so shocked. You may even think that you have somehow fallen out of bed and in some cases, you actually do.

What is the cause of this phenomenon?

1. It occurs during the first stage of sleep

If you can still remember these dreams, you will realize that they occur within minutes of falling asleep.  This phenomenon was investigated in the Sleep Lab at the Hospital of Madrid in Spain and it was concluded that it is due to a small imbalance between the vestibular system and the kinesthetic system.

The body is not yet adapted to a lying position, which forces us to wake up with a feeling that we are falling. This causes many people to actually fall out of bed.

2. Stress is an important factor

Now try to remember your emotional state when you experience this phenomenon. Dreams you fall into are also associated with stress. We subject our minds to too much activity; cortisol speeds up core functions and brain waves are at maximum activity. When we notice this, our body is relaxed, but the mind remains active, much more than usual.

And then there’s a new imbalance: an overactive brain in a relaxed body. This leads to a feeling of falling, which is translated in your dreams, causing you to startle awake.

3. The phenomenon of sleep paralysis

We talked about sleep paralysis in another article on sleep disorders. This happens when we become aware that we are having a nightmare, but cannot wake up. The feeling is very vivid and intense, sometimes even terrifying, because everything seems very real. When we dream that we are falling, it is an unpleasant experience that wants to wake us up before we hit the ground.

We can conclude that the main cause of this phenomenon is stress. After all, the brain is excited, which leads to a disturbance of the balance between body and mind during the first phases of sleep. The brain then responds to this imbalance by producing fear-filled dreams.

There is also the theory that dreaming of falling is a hereditary instinct of our early hominid ancestors, who slept in the trees and had to wake up suddenly not to fall. Interesting, right?