[Guest]

Now over the last few months or so, I haven't posted alot, especially in this particular forum, but something very strange happened to me last night and I want to see if anyone else has experienced something similar or knows what im talking about.

I was dreaming and in the dream I felt weird so when I woke up in the middle of the night, around 4 am, I felt very strange. Everything seemed weird to me. Things didn't look right, they almost seemed further away or smaller. I got up and went to the bathroom and it got worse. I seriously thought I was going insane and soon I'd start hearing voices or hallucinate etc...... Now this feeling/strangeness has occured before. I recall one time when I was younger & had high fevers that this may happen, and when i stopped taking Lexapro cold turkey, it happened during the night. But why the fuck did it happen out of nowhere last night?? Its a very scary and strange feeling. What exactly is it or what causes it???????

It was so odd cuz for a little while I turned the light on in my room & my shoes seemed smaller & like the digits on my alarm clock looked smaller, and even my hands. I was like WTF? And there was just this awkwardness that is hard to describe. Thankfully it went away, but I hope that it doesn't happen again.

 

[Guest]

hahahaha maybe your growing

 

[Guest]

Mods i strongly urge you to either delete Utah's post or ban him.......

im not even gonna get ignorant right now, but Mods just do me that one favor.

 

[sebastian]

hahahaha maybe your growing

Johnny, i can appreciate that you're joking, but it's best to refrain from doing so in this section, at least in a manner that could be construed or interpretted as rude. I'm not saying you meant to be rude, but it could certainly be interpretted that way.

Just, if you're going to make comments like that, try to limit it to the "That's Life" section. Thanks.

SoulBro: I can't say i've had that specific sensation before, but i have had times where i've awoken from dreams only to see things that were in my dreams right there in front of me, or the same "dream sensation" has persisted into my waking life. It's unnerving. Scared me senseless before, but it's all part of the whole anxiety thing. Sleep does strange things to the brain...and stranger still to the anxious brain.

s.

 

[Scattered]

Sometimes sleeping or being in that state of mind where my body is awake but my mind is almost asleep makes me feel a little psychotic. Sometimes I'll just be tossing and turning in bed trying to get back to sleep at like 3 am and my thoughts are completely incoherent. I know this is different from you're experience but I think it has to do with the half-awake/half-asleep state in addition to the hypervigilance of anxiety. Just a very bad combo.

 

[Guest]

Is it possible that you were actually in a state of sleep paralysis and it didn't happen? I've had experiences in sleep paralysis that I SWORE had happened but later learned they hadn't.

I've also had experiences where I've done things in the night that I had no memory of the next day.

Because this happened to you at night, i think it can be attributed to sleep/ fatigue/ or a semi-awake state.

If it just happened in the middle of the day, it would seem a lot stranger.

 

[gem]

JohnnyUtah, when another member reaches out for support it would be nice of you to respect their feelings. I found nothing funny in your post, it was rude, please give some thought before posting something like this. It can be difficult at times for many members to express how they feel, if they feel they will be laughed at then I undertsand why some people are not posting. Please rethink your post.

gem.

 

[gem]

Soulbrotha, is it possible that you could be sleepwalking? It sounds like this may have alot to do with a problem with your sleep. I can say that I have experienced things looking smaller and that is frightening, dp can cause the visual disturbances. I am not able to answer why the voices. I do also know that lack of sleep can cause many of the symptoms you describe. The brain is overtired and can do many things.

gem.

 

[g-funk]

I've always had strange occurences like this. I can say that I'm 99% sure that it was sleep/consciousness related and not an imminent sign of psychosis. As dp'ers, we are prone to altered states of consciousness and being 'asleep' whilst actually being 'awake' is very scary but it passes. Of course, that isn't the medical term for it, but it's just a confusion of consciousnesses (sp?!). Sometimes, shortly after falling asleep, I can awake suddenly and this happened to me last night (after reading Janine's post on consciousness!) and I can't feel anything. I touch my face and I can't feel my hand or my face. Interestingly also a symptom of dr/dp. Yet I'm in a good place right now, regarding dp symptoms.

As a child I had night terrors and I still get the odd sleep problem but I've learnt to take it in my stride. I can understand how scary it must feel if you haven't had it before, but take it from me, don't stress about it. It's just something that everyone experiences, unfortunately more so for us, and may never happen to you again, and if it does, you know it will just pass. And much quicker than dp!

 

[g-funk]

Drugs, alcohol, stress and illness always seem to make sleep disturbances worse, and 'fever' or flu like you mentioned is a big factor for a lot of people.
And I have had times when my eyes are open and I am walking around but totally still dreaming. Like night terrors, yet I am AWARE and yes, it is HORRIBLE.

 

[Guest]

JohnnyUtah, when another member reaches out for support it would be nice of you to respect their feelings. I found nothing funny in your post, it was rude, please give some thought before posting something like this. It can be difficult at times for many members to express how they feel, if they feel they will be laughed at then I undertsand why some people are not posting. Please rethink your post.

gem.

too many serious people

 

[g-funk]

Sometimes when I write stuff on the board, or even in an email to a friend, I stop and think 'hang on a minute - they're not gonna get this sarcasm'. It is so difficult, without the aid of inflection, facial mannerisms and gesture, to know what the other person is thinking. I have 'caustic' humour as Janine points out to me, but I would only use it with the members of the board who know me well enough to know the context in which I mean it.

I don't know if that's what sometimes happens Johnny because I've noticed that sometimes you actually offer advice and general 'upbeat' comments on how to deal with this illness. I think that's great and I respect your outlook. I really do and think this could be used to yours and other's advantage. However, you will know that if you are suffering a great deal with this 'illness' (I hate that word) it can be the smallest comment that can send your head spinning. I don't know, perhaps your optimistic attitude keeps you from experiencing this, but just remember we all deal differently.

 

[Monkeydust]

Soulbro

At the time you posted this I'd been reading about various sleep-related problems. Everyone knows of things like insomnia and sleep-paralysis; comparatively few, however know about some of the rare ones.

Some completely 100% mentally healthy people experience hallucinations upon waking up, as if they're half way between their dreams and waking life. I read one story about a woman who would wake up, see something horrific that was in her dream, realize that she was still in a dream, then wake up again, the same happened, realized she was still in a dream etc. etc. for about 10 cycles.

What I'm getting at is that sleep can induce very weird things upon completely healthy people. What you've described isn't half as odd as what some others experience, and, as you woke up at an odd hour, it's not really all that surprising that you felt that way.

Bottom line is: it's almost certainly nothing to worry about.

 

[g-funk]

I quite often wake up, get up, get dressed and go about my day. Only when a dragon or person with three heads crosses my path that I realise I'm dreaming then I wake up. Except I haven't, it's just a pretend wake up and then the whole thing starts again. When I do actually wake up, I am SO disorientated.

 

[gem]

Monkeydust, I agree with you. After posting I remembered someone who had the same symtoms and it was becasue she was not fully awake.

gem.