waking dream
Eyes-open fantasy
A waking dream is a dreamlike experience that occurs while conscious, blurring the line between imagination and reality.
It may describe a vivid daydream, a hallucination, or any surreal experience that feels unreal despite happening while awake.
The term often carries connotations of something fantastical or too good to be true: The whole vacation felt like a waking dream.
It can also suggest a disturbing or disorienting quality, as when reality takes on nightmarish characteristics.
- between worldsExisting in limbo
- lost in thoughtDeeply mentally preoccupied
- phantasmagoriaShifting sequence of illusions
- mirageAtmospheric optical deception
- oneiricRelating to dreams
reverie · mind's eye · entrancement · liminal · vision · illusion · altered state · trance state · meditative state · dissociation · out of body · sleep paralysis · fantasy · hallucination · symbolic imagery · meditation · lucid · floating
- dreamsnightmare, nightmares, dreams, daydreams, lucid dreams
- altered statestrance, altered states, hallucination, altered perception, consciousness expansion
- Hallucinationsvisual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, visual hallucination, auditory hallucination, seeing things
- dream phenomenatime distortion, metamorphosis, shapeshifting, melting clocks, impossible geometry
- illusionsmirage, optical illusion, hallucination, illusion, afterimage
- consciousness statesunconscious, conscious, alert, sleep, stupor
waking dreamdeep sleep
Unconsciousness hard to rouse
dreamless sleep · unconsciousness · REM sleep · slumber · coma
waking dreamharsh reality
Uncomfortable actual circumstances
real life · actuality · hard truth · rude awakening · the here and now
waking dreamsharp focus
Maximum image clarity
clear-headedness · focused attention · hypervigilance · rapt attention · presence of mind
dream, awake, awaken, dreaming, dreamer, waking, daydream, daydreaming, wakeful