Daniel Gregory: How do you know you're not dreaming?

How do you know you're not dreaming?

Bizarre things happen in dreams: you fly, or conjure an all-you-can-eat buffet out of thin air, or get chased by witches through the halls of your school. But the strange things that happen in dreams don't seem strange at the time. So, how do you know you're not in a dream right now? Is there a way to prove that you're awake? Daniel Gregory digs into the philosophical theories of wakefulness. [Directed by Daniel Stankler, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Zing Audio].

Philosophers have long wrestled with the puzzle of distinguishing dreams from waking life. In dreams, people can fly or eat endless desserts, yet these oddities rarely seem strange until after waking. Even vivid memories and sensory details in daily life cannot conclusively prove true wakefulness, since any supposed test could also occur within a dream. The search for a foolproof way to justify belief in being awake remains unresolved, challenging assumptions about reality.