Maybe the former, though I suppose I could still make the same argument. (So, hmm, it's more like inlining than like tail-call optimization.)
Perhaps it's most accurate to say: our dreams don't simulate enough of the world, well enough, for questions like "is such-and-such within that dream an experience of X happening or a dream that X happens?" to have answers. (Just like there might not be an answer to questions like "Was that thing you dreamed about really an old enemy of yours who had turned into a dragon, or was it a dragon pretending to be your old enemy?" or "What was on the other side of that door that kept moving away every time you turned towards it?".)
But I bet that neurologically the dreams from which you eventually pseudo-wake-up into other dreams are no different from the ones from which you wake up properly, into the real world.
no subject
Perhaps it's most accurate to say: our dreams don't simulate enough of the world, well enough, for questions like "is such-and-such within that dream an experience of X happening or a dream that X happens?" to have answers. (Just like there might not be an answer to questions like "Was that thing you dreamed about really an old enemy of yours who had turned into a dragon, or was it a dragon pretending to be your old enemy?" or "What was on the other side of that door that kept moving away every time you turned towards it?".)
But I bet that neurologically the dreams from which you eventually pseudo-wake-up into other dreams are no different from the ones from which you wake up properly, into the real world.