False awakenings

False awakenings (FA) are as the name implies. Induced by your mind, it is a dream in which you wake up after a previous dream. A false awakening can happen after a lucid or normal dream.

A false awakening after a lucid dream causes you in almost all cases to lose lucidity and consciousness about the dreaming state, because you no longer know you are dreaming. You always believe at first you have woken up from a normal or lucid dream.

Other reasons for false awakenings are nightmares and physical tiredness of the body.

In extreme cases the dreamer tends to wake up more than one time in a row and can get the feeling that he is not able to wake up anymore. This can be quite stressful, but is also very rare.
A false awakening often makes people "wake up" in their bed so that the awakening seems very real, but usually dream signs occur shortly after the awakening.

Gaining Lucidity Through False Awakenings

You can use false awakenings as a tool to gain or re-gain lucidity. Doing a reality check every time you wake up can be a good way to use the next false awakening, whether it was induced by a nightmare or by the loss of lucidity, as a springboard to lucid dreaming.
In order to let this work you should not be scared by the thought of not being able to wake up. You will definitely wake up some time and nothing can happen to you.

Techniques for preventing the occurrence of false awakenings are introduced in the article about dream control.