system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
how does the body wake itself up during a nightmare?

i used to struggle with chronic nightmares. today, they only happen on occasion. whenever the nightmare seems to reach its “peak”—before death or some kind of attack, etc.—i wake up. how is my body able to wake itself up during these moments?
gpt
There is almost no relationship between perceived elapsed time in dreams and actual elapsed time. Although it may seem that you awake when the nightnare is at it's worst that may be because that peak moment actually represents a culmination of one dream-cycle and the next one doesn't start until significantly later, even though the perception is of continuity.