Rationality in dreams, fun topic...

Since early adolescence, I've experienced episodes of "sleep paralysis" just before waking a few times per month. The experience is different for each individual, but most people dream/hallucinate waking up, but being unable to move at least one part of their body. It can be very disturbing, especially if you can see all the normal things associated with waking up (like your alarm clock on the nightstand, your spouse next to you/talking to you, etc.).

When it first started happening to me regularly, each occurrence really freaked me out. I'd hallucinate waking up to storm winds breaking out my windows, but being unable to move, or being awake and trying to get up, but having my vision frozen in one spot. I would wake up sweating, breathing heavily, and very disturbed.

After several years, I've developed a sort of dream rationality, in which I "wake up" and experience some sort of paralysis (a lot of times I dream that my neck is forced into some terrible position), and then consider how likely the scenario is to being not-real before I get upset. I recall recently "waking up" to a burglar going through my closet, and I being unable to move anything but my eyelids. I started to get a little excited, but then I considered "How likely is it that a burglar silently defeated my deadbolt AND I spontaneously became paralyzed?" I considered this conjunction to be exceedingly improbable, so I sat back and let the scene play out, and a minute (probably not really) or so later I woke up for real.

If only I could apply this type of reasoning to dreams about sitting in high school classrooms with unfinished homework.