Between April and June, 2007 - False Awakening

I woke up and came downstairs into the family room. I sat down by the computer and decided on a whim to do a reality check to see if I was dreaming. I counted my fingers and I only had four! For some reason this really freaked me out, and I fell out of the chair. As I was sprawled on the floor, staring at my hand, I could hear dramatic music in the background (like in corny movies where the violins play the high glissandos during "scary" moments). I turned to the right and saw my dad standing there with his head behind the curtain for some reason. This made me freak out more and I woke up again. I came downstairs and told my parents about the weird dream and my mom said that I take too long to tell stories. My dad thought it was funny. A few minutes later I woke up for real.

Note: A dream within a dream within a dream. This is a classic example of what the lucid dreaming community refers to as a "false awakening". Basically, it happens when you think you have woken up when you are really still dreaming. This can be particularly frustrating if you were in the middle of a lucid dream, then you assume the dream is over when it isn't. Standard practice to avoid such a scenario is to do a reality check every time you wake up. That way, if you have a false awakening, you can simply continue on with the dream, lucidity intact.