This was a dream question sent to me for answer: If you’d like a chance for your dream question to be answered find out more about the The Dream Download™ here. This topic also features in my book Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal.
“What about hearing your name called whilst asleep when no one’s around? I’m sure someone shouted my name.”
This is an interesting phenomenon and I hope firstly to reassure you, you’re not alone; many people have shared their experience of this with me. Hearing your name called out in a dream can feel so real you wake up convinced someone is in the room with you.
Some people will find that external noises in their dreams influence their dream content; so if you dream the ‘phone is ringing you may wake up to find it actually is. (This is similar to dreaming someone’s at the door, to find the doorbell going as you “come to”). So if someone is shouting on the street outside your room, it may well have translated as if someone had shouted your name as you wake up.
But what if that’s not the case and you’re hearing your name and no one’s there? I talk about this in more detail in my book Answers in the Dark. For some people the voice can feel familiar (I explain in the book I’ve had this experience myself, the voice was Irish and I have Irish heritage.) So in some communities, they may translate this as someone from another time and place trying to get your attention. (I also offer some ideas in the book around what you could try, if you think this might be the case). Don’t forget, some cultures around the world consider dreams to be a divine portal that’s offering insight and wisdom – some people consider this to be a ‘side effect’ of astral travelling.
For others, it can be a sense or a presence – similar to that which may be experienced with ‘Old Hag Syndrome’ (what’s now commonly known today as Sleep Paralysis). Or it may accompany a visitation dream.
If you’re disturbed by the experience, you could chat to your doctor about whether stress is playing a part, but you might find that it’s a one-off event. I describe dreams in Answers In The Dark as like a friend trying to give you advice. You don’t always have to take them seriously (just as you might take what some friends say with a pinch of salt!) but if the experience has caught your attention you could try keeping a dream diary if it happens again to see if a pattern is forming. (There’s a template on that in the book too).
Delphi is the author of Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal, out now on Amazon and Hive. The Dreams Maven™ is part of the Helping You Sparkle™ portfolio. You might also like Monday Mojo™.
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The 4 am Mystery: That’s an actual thing by the way. Even before a global health crisis, people found themselves awake in the middle of the night. Answers In The Dark aims to join the dots between sleep, dreams and our mental health, specifically how grief shows up, even if no one has died.
It explores some of the Big Myths of sleep, offers a Sleep Cycle Repair Kit and tips on how to decode your own dreams. Out now on Amazon and Hive.
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Due to the volume of comments received in this thread, it may not be possible to read and reply to all of them.
© Delphi Ellis All rights reserved.
The Dreams Maven™ 
just before i woke up at around 4am
i Heard a female voice calling out my name but it was very comforting made me happy.then i woke up to find my self alone in my room.
could it mean anything?
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Thanks for sharing. Information on this topic has now moved to this page. https://thedreamsmaven.com/2016/05/05/dream-question-why-am-i-hearing-my-name/
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I woke up last night thinking I was in hospital and a doctor was shouting my name to wake up . I was going in and out off sleep in my dream and they kepted saying wake up by name . I woke up and went back to sleep in the morning I asked my husband if he was drying to wake me up he said no .
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Thanks for sharing. Information on this topic has now moved to this page https://thedreamsmaven.com/2016/05/05/dream-question-why-am-i-hearing-my-name/
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Around 4am I woke up to someone calling me by my nickname (only family use this name). . It was like they were trying to wake me up. The first was just normal quickly followed by a more urgent, slightly louder call. I was not dreaming at the time and was in quite a deep sleep, I called out ‘what’ before I even had time to open my eyes. My heart was pounding having woke so suddenly. I then began to realise the time and that at this point I was in the house alone as hubby was working. So convinced that some one had called me I had to check the house. What does this mean.?
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This is the link to the article on this topic, on my website dedicated to Dreams and Sleep. https://thedreamsmaven.com/2016/05/05/dream-question-why-am-i-hearing-my-name/ I’m also writing a further piece which includes insight on this, at the moment. Watch this space!
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Hi, I just now received an e-mail regarding your article and I noticed my comment I made in Dec. 2017 is still awaiting moderation. 🙂 It’s those trigger words ‘God’ and the ‘Bible’ huh?
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Hi Amanda I can’t see any comments awaiting moderation (that doesn’t mean there aren’t, but I receive so many, sadly I don’t have the time to check every day, when people want free advice). Also, sometimes people don’t ask a question, they just leave a comment and don’t ask for / need a reply. The “spam filter” on WordPress called Akismet sometimes clears comments before I see them; not sure what happened but apologies if I missed yours. You’ll see I reply with pretty much the same thing every time to most comments I’m left currently about this topic these days – this article about “Hearing my name” has moved to this page: https://thedreamsmaven.com/2016/05/05/dream-question-why-am-i-hearing-my-name/ If that doesn’t address your comment then look out for other features coming soon! 😊 Thanks for getting in touch!
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