Strange Sensation starting to fall asleep

[Monique]

I've had the same sensation as well and tried to explain it to people, who thought I was insane for experiencing such a thing.

As said by several people in this thread, it starts when you're about to fall asleep, you feel like an enormous density that is being shrunk to a point in space and at the same time you feel like you are getting larger. It is like a disconnection of your body and brain.

It is not paralysis, since I am able to move during the experience, although that will disrupt the sensation (so I usually try to lay still to prolong the experience, it's so weird and beautiful at the same time).

I don't think it is a dream, since I'm conscious of where I am and that I can move. I can be in the sensation, feel completely detached. At some point the only thing that is left is the sensation of deep breathing, everything else will be gone (like the Never Ending story, where the Imagination world has disappeared into nothing and only the consciousness of the boy is left). When you reach that point it is somewhat unnerving, so to check that I am still there I move an arm and start becoming aware of my body after which the sensation slowly disappears.

I also don't think it has anything to do with migraines, although the brain areas that are affected may be the same.

I think it is an experience that you are are conscious of the first phase of sleep, when you'd normally be unconscious. It must have something to do with the deep relaxation of your body, the shutting down of parts of your brain in preparation for sleep.

 

[Monique]

It sounds like lack of motion is a prerequisite. I take it you can't bring the sensation about by thinking about it when you are in motion.

Lack of motion is a prerequisite, but reading this tread (in utmost concentration) was able to induce the sensation. I could feel 'myself' shrinking, not my body but some consciousness, to a heavy point; much like to what was described. When I started to type the sensation disappeared. It's not so strong as you'd experience when lying in bed, but it was an interesting experience. Apparently I was able to 'recall' the feeling.

 

[Monique]

I tried to find some information on the internet. This is not the best website, but it does somewhat describe the phenomenon. It appears to be an out-of-body experience that occurs in a lucid dream at the direct transition between wakefulness and REM sleep.

http://www.lucidity.com/NL32.OBEandLD.html

Above we described our operating theory that OBEs occur
when people lose input from their sense organs, as happens at the
onset of sleep, while retaining consciousness. This combination
of events is especially likely when a person passes directly from
waking into REM sleep. In both states the mind is alert and
active, but in waking it is processing sensory input from the
outside world, while in dreaming it is creating a mental model
independent of sensory input.
..
The unusual feeling of leaving the body is exciting and
alarming. This, combined with the realistic imagery of the
bedroom is enough to account for the conviction of many OBE
experients' that "it was too real to be a dream." Dreams, too,
can be astonishingly real, especially if you are attending to
their realness.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Very nice, Monique and Moonbear.

I found a name that sounds like a good description, but again, probably not a good site. Although the same or similar to micro/macropsia described before, this, on whatever authority (not sure, sorry) mentions feelings other than purely visual, and also mentions a range of possible causes.

Alice in Wonderland syndrome - depersonalization, altered perceptions of body image, visual illusions, feelings of levitation, metamorphosia. The syndrome could occur as migraine aura, epilepsy (simple or complex partial epileptic seizures), also in hypnagogic, delirious states, encephalitis, cerebral lesions, drug intoxication, schizophrenia [21,22,23,24].
The name of the syndrome is derived from a character from Lewis Carroll's (C.L. Dodgson) novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).


http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=ENE2005053004171

Monique’s paper, was very fascinating, but also interesting that it didn’t mention NREM (and so, maybe, less of the condition of atonic REM, along the lines Monique mentioned), as Moonbear and this link have.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I've had the same sensation as well and tried to explain it to people, who thought I was insane for experiencing such a thing.

As said by several people in this thread, it starts when you're about to fall asleep, you feel like an enormous density that is being shrunk to a point in space and at the same time you feel like you are getting larger. It is like a disconnection of your body and brain.

It is not paralysis, since I am able to move during the experience, although that will disrupt the sensation (so I usually try to lay still to prolong the experience, it's so weird and beautiful at the same time).

As I described, I've had sleep paralysis four times, and used to have this "big and little at the same time" as a kid. The latter is completely different than the former, so I agree with you, it has nothing to do with sleep paralysis.

I don't think it is a dream, since I'm conscious of where I am and that I can move. I can be in the sensation, feel completely detached. At some point the only thing that is left is the sensation of deep breathing, everything else will be gone (like the Never Ending story, where the Imagination world has disappeared into nothing and only the consciousness of the boy is left). When you reach that point it is somewhat unnerving, so to check that I am still there I move an arm and start becoming aware of my body after which the sensation slowly disappears.

Yes, it's clearly not a dream. A more accurate term might be "proprioceptive hallucination". It happens in full awareness of yourself and the environment. Without thinking about it, a person operates on a certain "feel" for how much volume they have, how much space they take up. During these episodes my sense of how much volume I had seemed to tangibly inflate like a balloon. This wasn't an "idea" or "notion" but a physical sensation. I was somehow taking up way more space than usual while, paradoxically, remaining the same size as ever.

I could always move, was never paralyzed, but moving caused it to stop suddenly.

I also don't think it has anything to do with migraines, although the brain areas that are affected may be the same.

Migraine auras can happen anywhere in the brain. Moonbear's aura consists of the hallucination of the smell of cigarette smoke. Evo's aura consists of fascinating visual light displays. I would call the experiences of feeling simultaneously large and small Migraine auras if the neuronal activity behind them is the same as during a Migraine aura.

I think it is an experience that you are are conscious of the first phase of sleep, when you'd normally be unconscious. It must have something to do with the deep relaxation of your body, the shutting down of parts of your brain in preparation for sleep.

Yes, it never happened to me unless I was extremely relaxed. On the other hand I been extremely relaxed many times when it didn't happen.

Lack of motion is a prerequisite, but reading this tread (in utmost concentration) was able to induce the sensation. I could feel 'myself' shrinking, not my body but some consciousness, to a heavy point; much like to what was described. When I started to type the sensation disappeared. It's not so strong as you'd experience when lying in bed, but it was an interesting experience. Apparently I was able to 'recall' the feeling.

That's pretty interesting. I bet with practice you could do it more and more easily at will.

 

[tishamarie]

My 11 year old son is having this sensation now (the far away feeling, the big and small feeling, and his thoughts being loud in his head). It's causing a lot of stress for him and for us, he's getting to sleep very late at night and dragging in the morning. It doesn't matter how much exercise he's gotten during the day or how tired he is. We've enforced relaxation time a half hour before bed, watched his food intake, etc. Nothing helps. I remember having very similar sensations when I was his age. White noise made it worse. Eventually I outgrew it and it hasn't happened since. He's very disturbed by it and nothing he does seems to help. Has anyone really found a good explanation for this and a remedy? why does it seem to happen more to children?

 

[zoobyshoe]

My 11 year old son is having this sensation now (the far away feeling, the big and small feeling, and his thoughts being loud in his head). It's causing a lot of stress for him and for us, he's getting to sleep very late at night and dragging in the morning. It doesn't matter how much exercise he's gotten during the day or how tired he is. We've enforced relaxation time a half hour before bed, watched his food intake, etc. Nothing helps. I remember having very similar sensations when I was his age. White noise made it worse. Eventually I outgrew it and it hasn't happened since. He's very disturbed by it and nothing he does seems to help. Has anyone really found a good explanation for this and a remedy? why does it seem to happen more to children?

It's most likely migraine aura.

As I mentioned earlier, migraine is a four part syndrome: prodrome, aura, headache, postdrome. A person can have any of the four parts in isolation from the others. What that means is you can have migraine without ever having the headache. Neurologist Oliver Sacks, for example, has experienced migraine aura all his life without ever getting the migraine headache.

If you go to this page:

http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e48971/e49032/index_en.html

You'll find a comprehensive list of possible migraine auras on the left hand side.

If it's chronic and becoming a problem I'd say take him to a neurologist. Myself and the other people in this thread only had it very occasionally, and it was never something that interfered with sleep to the extent it seems to be bothering your son.

 

[tishamarie]

Zoobyshoo...
I've been reading up on this a bit and it seems to fit in many ways. As I said, I had these same sensations around the same age. A few years later, the onset of migraines arrived for me and I've been a sufferer ever since...witout aura though. Several websites seem to state that children who experience this often become migraine sufferers in the future, especially when there is a family history, which I have a long one.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Zoobyshoo...
I've been reading up on this a bit and it seems to fit in many ways. As I said, I had these same sensations around the same age. A few years later, the onset of migraines arrived for me and I've been a sufferer ever since...witout aura though. Several websites seem to state that children who experience this often become migraine sufferers in the future, especially when there is a family history, which I have a long one.

I'd appreciate a link to one or two of those sites.

It's well known that Migraine runs in families, so that certainly makes it the prime suspect here. Since this is interfering with his sleep it's definitely time to see a doctor. I'd suggest a regular physical first with blood tests for sugar level problems, thyroid function, iron levels, all that stuff. If that all came back clear, then I'd see a neurologist.

 

[matthyaouw]

Thanks for digging this thread up. I have looked in vain tor it a couple of times. This is really interesting. I will look further into the migrane idea. I have not looked at the site in great detail but so far I haven't seen anything on there that quite matches. The experiences they recount seem to be in changes in size of real things- things they look at or themselves. For me, the bigsmall feeling hasn't (as far as I remember) ever been assoiated with a real object and only once with myself.


The time it was associated with myself & real positions was very odd. I had flu or similar and was feeling pretty horrible. I'd been for a nap and when I woke up it felt like the whole universe was facing a different direction. Sort of like- when I'm in a new place I subconciously make a little map of it as I explore, normally with a set of 'compass points'that align on easy to follow features like roads and that will be the way up I imagine the place after that when I'm thinking about getting from one place to another. Then if I see a map with the real north, the two won't marry up, I'll have to make sense of a new set of directions, a new frame of reference to understand wher I am and where I'm going. So it felt like this had happened with the whole universe. It had this new direction and I had to make sense of the whole universe or turn everything back bit by bit, and it would take me an eternity. I guess the universe and the time involved were the big and i was the small. I was fully conscious and it lasted probably an hour or more, even when I was up and walking around. Movement didn't break it, as often seems to be the case with other people's experiences. I could think clearly and rationalise it. I knew it was in 'in your head' kind of thing but that didn't help.

It was an odd one, but so far only a one-off. I probably sound nuts now, but oh well.

Three things that have cropped up here are:
-Movement normally stops it
-Control of it is sometimes possible
-Relaxation is important for it to happen

Are any of these true with many other mirgane symptoms I wonder. I shall have to look into this further.

 

[tishamarie]

A few links requested by Zoobyshoo:
http://medicana.blogspot.com/2009/02/alice-in-wonderland-syndrome.html
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/63/4/517
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=24174
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/40025025/
http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/what-are-silent-migraines?page=2

Of course, I did not find the link I was mentioning before where it said this occurance could be a precursor in children of migraines to come...especially with family history.

Anyway, to Matthyaouw: For myself, what I remember as a kid wasn't so nearly as cut and dry as the big and small sensation of objects or my body. It was much more complicated to describe...sometimes with images of heavy objects and tiny objects together, a sort of overwhelming silence or overwhelming feeling if there was a fan running or something, weird spatial feelings, etc. Yes, I think a lot of these feelings are similar to the delerium of a fever now and then.
Now that I'm older, my migraines are always without aura. I'm not clear if you're asking if the three "remedies" you listed help with actual migraines? If so, the answer is no, although relaxation is definitely necessary for me if my medication is going to take effect.

 

[sas3]

Thanks everyone for all the replies to this thread and all the links. I have looked through most of them and it may have something to do with migraines but most of the links talk about having a part of your body feeling big and that is not the experience that I have, it has always been about inanimate objects like the tip of a pin or a dust particle that seems huge. I have always found the experience to pleasurable except for the one time when it got so powerful that actually scared me.

 

[tishamarie]

Sas3,
As I said, I used to experience this myself, and it wasn't particularly a big small thing. The tip of the pin thing you mention is farmiliar. It's extremely hard to remember and even back then difficult to explain in concrete terms. But I remember things in contrast like you mentioned. It was never pleasurable though.

 

[Averagesupernova]

I never have any cool sensations like these. :( I do recall having dreams where I am able to crawl through VERY tiny places. I'll walk into a room thinking it is a hallway but it turns out to be a dead end. There may be a small crack or hole in a corner like up at the ceiling or down towards the floor. As I get closer to look through either I get smaller or the hole gets larger. I'm not really sure which. I can recall this happening several times before I became aware of what it really was.
-
I DO have a strange sensation every now and then that I used to have a lot when I was a young teenager. If I'm sitting in a chair for instance, it feels like the floor is sloping down ahead of me. I don't lose balance or anything like that. It's not a sensation like a sloping seat or my feet are on an incline. It's just a 'feeling' that the floor slopes away from me. So am I the only weirdo here?

 

[Mk]

Being able to control this sensation sounds a bit like lucid dreaming in the waking life.

There has been good success with this thread, may I offer a second strange sensation?
Once, when I was very sick I would sit up in my chair and feel the sensation on every inch of my body of being pushed backward. I was of course, not moving, and there was no physical force lending a push. Has anyone else felt this sort of thing?

 

[fleem]

Good grief. All these years I thought it was just me that got this!

I started to grow out of it around 35-40 years old, and now I never get it (early fifties).

Its an unnerving experience and I'd have to think about something else, get up and drink some milk and read a book, etc. With me it was infinitesimal to infinitely large, at slightly faster than 1 Hz. Its not anything visual--just the thought of something (not necessarily myself) that toggles between infinite and infinitesimal. Getting something in my stomach almost always helped. Sometimes associated with that sensation (really, thought or impression--not sensation) was the thought of a sharp object/large needle embedded in the small of my back. Ain't the brain fascinating? It is loaded with feedback paths with gains and delays barely adjusted to prevent oscillation (usually). It seems neurons adjust their gain just below that threshold, ideally. Somehow keeping things barely below oscillation improves brain utility, I suppose--kinda like a regenerative radio receiver--makes it more sensitive and discriminating. Maybe a lot of simple thought processes can be accomplished by iteratively processing the data.

 

[schism]

I'm 51 and have asked people about this all my life. (in fact, I thought, did I start this thread and then forget about it?) It seems fairly common. For me it was vacillating between the two extremes of big and small, sometimes with the sensation of much complexity (someone's earlier mention of dirtiness) I "felt" the presence of many voices (although unintelligible and not exactly hearing) and an out of body experience like hovering above. I can still feel it if I think about it (even now) and movement does not disrupt it. I've had it while driving! It doesn't happen as frequently or intensely anymore. But there have been plenty of lesser incidents.

Mostly, these are a disconnect between head and hands. I look at my hands, feel them and they are working but they do not feel like a part of me. But also as feeling like I am hovering just a foot or so above my body. As a child, I had out of body experiences and other visual hallucinations in a fever delirium, and tried to do OBE through my teens and twenties with no luck.

I do get frequent headaches although I have never been diagnosed with migraines (I don't think they are that severe) but very long lasting. No other visual disturbances other than "seeing" little vibrating and flashing dots that are infinitely small against the sky or a blank wall at all times.

 

[Rusalke]

I used to have exactly the same thing as a kid now and then: big and little at the same time. I thought it was weird, but it also felt cool, and I would try to encourage it once it started, but that would wreck it.

Anyway, it's a Migraine Aura.

You may object that you don't get Migraines, but Migraine is actually a four part syndrome, and a person can have any of the four parts in the absence of the other:
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=305792
As Mentor Evo attests in that thread, a person can have Migraine auras without ever having had a Migraine headache. (But maybe you have have the headaches at some other time.)


Here's a description from a Migraine site:


http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e43013/e46075/index_en.html

It seems to happen to people at any time, not just when lying down on the verge of sleep:



Descriptions of other body-image disturbances during Migraine aura:

http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e43013/e46067/index_en.html

Sense of body position and location in space is processed in the parietal lobes of the brain so this is most likely some migraine activity in one or both of those lobes.

did you ever experience this when you were experiencing any kind of stress? Also, dd any images come to mind when it was happening?

 

[Moonbear]

I'm 51 and have asked people about this all my life. (in fact, I thought, did I start this thread and then forget about it?) It seems fairly common. For me it was vacillating between the two extremes of big and small, sometimes with the sensation of much complexity (someone's earlier mention of dirtiness) I "felt" the presence of many voices (although unintelligible and not exactly hearing) and an out of body experience like hovering above. I can still feel it if I think about it (even now) and movement does not disrupt it. I've had it while driving! It doesn't happen as frequently or intensely anymore. But there have been plenty of lesser incidents.

Mostly, these are a disconnect between head and hands. I look at my hands, feel them and they are working but they do not feel like a part of me. But also as feeling like I am hovering just a foot or so above my body. As a child, I had out of body experiences and other visual hallucinations in a fever delirium, and tried to do OBE through my teens and twenties with no luck.

I do get frequent headaches although I have never been diagnosed with migraines (I don't think they are that severe) but very long lasting. No other visual disturbances other than "seeing" little vibrating and flashing dots that are infinitely small against the sky or a blank wall at all times.

Go see a neurologist or psychiatrist. These can be symptoms of a neurological disorder (not just migraines...we have too many people here who would like to push their own pet diagnosis on everyone here, but are not qualified to make any diagnosis, and should not be making any diagnosis anyway).

 

[sas3]

I have gone through all the links and it seems like this is what I have been experiencing however for me it doesn’t seem to be associated with anybody parts getting bigger/smaller.
It more of an illusion of a thing such as a speck of dust or small pebble that seem very large or the point of a pin that is holding back some incredibly large force.
I have never had the headaches associated with this, but do have the pulsing sensation and an increased sensitivity to sound and light at times.
I do find the experience quite enjoyable and it doesn’t seem be brought on by any type of stress.

Thanks again for all the replies and comments.

 

[bcbg]

I used to get the shrinking/expanding sensation as a kid. Basically, it feels like you're going from tiny and dense to large and light. Almost like a throbbing, but not in the physical sense. It's nearly impossible to describe. I think that it's probably quite common, but few people have actually felt concerned (or articulate) enough to try to research it. It's like trying to describe a color to a blind person. It took me several failed attempts at googling to find something that I felt best fit my experience.

 

[whs]

Hey! I thought I was the only one that felt like this at random times at night. Happens more if I go to bed drunk.

 

[stsolid]

I can't believe i finally found someone who knows what I've been tryin to explain for years now.I get the same big and small phenomenon.I also feel like time is moving frame by frame.it stays with me even if i get up and move around and i also can make it re-occur.it feels similar to some sort of obe but there is no snapping back sensation and is a more subtle feeling.it happened much more when i was a child also and i could will it by thinking about it before i went to sleep.thank you so much for helping describe this and any more descriptions would maybe help us figure this thing out finally as it is very hard to describe.everyone I've told about this don't understand and looks at me like I am crazy.

 

[sas3]

Welcome to the Physics Forums STSOLID, what did you do a search for to find this thread?
I know what you mean by saying that everyone looks at you like you are crazy when describing this sensation.
If you haven’t already take a look at some of the links about Migraine Aura in the replies above.

 

[FredericGos]

OH MY GOD!

I've been on this forum for a long time browsing treads etc. How come I never saw this!?

When I was around 8-9, I started to have a reccuring dream. It was basically me walking around what can best be described as a desert. All sounds and movement felt exagerated and I felt some kind of pulse. A bit like when your heart beat increases, allthough my heart was beating normally. At the time, after some month of dreaming this 2-3 times a week, I described the feeling to my mother, but she could not understand. After a couple more month I started to experience this feeling while fully awake. That scared me a lot I remember. It scared me to the point that I started not wanting to go to bed because I was afraid of having the dream...

So, for a long time in my childhood, I had this. I can say yes to many of the descriptions in the thread (small/big, exagerated noises, etc). I eventually learned to live with it.

At the age around 20 the dreaming stopped and I haven't had the dream ever since. But I still get the feeling once in a while. Often it is when I can't fall asleep, get up again to drink some milk or something, then go back to bed. boom. It starts and lasts for 5 minutes or so. Normally it is quite a disturbing feeling, especially if I lay still in my bed. When the feeling doenst stop after some minutes, I usually get up again to move around. (movement seems to dampen it)

These days this happens to me 5-10 times a year or so. I am 43 now and I know its not something dangerous. So sometimes, when it happens, I try to analyse what I feel and find an explanation. Thats why I learned that the pulse sensation is not my heart beating faster.
Last time it happened, I noticed that my vision also gets a bit distorted. I immediately concluded that what I am actually seeing is the quantum fluctuation of space. ;)

For all my life, I never found anybody who understood this, and then I see this thread :)
Nice to know I am not the only one out there.

br
Frederic

 

[kathrineder]

i have had the seize - sound experience too. many times when i was younger, and often fever related. i am a very detailed dreamer, but these strange sensations were different from dreams.

my "visions" usually manifested as huge massive massive bomb like objects in space, who were about to crush a tiny small house that was floating around between them. the visuals came with very low rythmic sounds of under water metal.

then I fully awake and my body feels like it is made of 100's of cubes. i ran to my mothers room, screaming, cryoing, tryng to explain what was happening to my body. i couldn't touch anything now could i shake off that feeling. i usually ended up throwing up.

thats what i remember from my childhood. nowadays, i have the sound sensation and a mild size sensation a few times a year.

has anyone found an article yet?

 

[riio]

I've had an extremely similar experience while trying to sleep and it's made me wonder about it since it happened, not sure my age but i remember it being well before teenage years, I was maybe 7 or 8.

I could have woken up from sleep or been trying to fall asleep but I remember being awake in bed, the feeling of everything around me being very large and almost far away. I remember at first a confusion of if i was feeling large or small compared to my room. It was a visual perspective as well as physical in that i felt a magnetic feeling that added to the feeling of being way out of proportional size with my environment. My hands felt like they needed to hold something and I couldn't get rid of this perceptive feeling by holding a baseball or round object for some reason or anything smaller than my hand so i had used two hockey pucks, the feeling of the edges of the pucks helped the weakness in my hands and the over all feelling I was experiencing. It's hard to explain the mangetic feel as It wasn't as if i felt i was being pulled or pushed it was an overall feeling of weakness you could say. I also remember hearing sounds before I had figured out holding on to something helped, the sounds were as if a needle or something high pitched was scraping or falling into a bathtub or something of that material. I did not see a bathtub or anything like that it was just a feeling of that sound and spatial perception you get when you hear this in a normal situation.

I havn't read every reply to this post but some of the descriptions are shocking and bring back memories of some of the feelings i was experiencing, I think someone mentioned a particle of dust, that was one of the first things I thought of when I was in my bed. I remember thinking of a large maybe empty metal gas furnace in my old basement with dust under it, maybe because of the metalic sounds i was hearing that are similar to echos giving enormous spatial perceptions. Another feeling i remember was that i was in a small space but my body was enormous in the capacity of that space. All this was mentioned to my doctor at the time who i think mentioned claustrophobia which I've never had a problem with till this day.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? I've also had a history of sleep walking and possibley lucid dreams where I feel conscious and awake but can't move. This has all stopped now that I'm older into my 20's but I still experience very realistic dreams.

 

[334dave]

i don't have the realistic dreams so often at 56
but when i do i enjoy them..
i rarely have the close eyes and open them awake and refreshed
once in a year if lucky

 

[atlantan]

hello everyone,
i'm new to the forum. apparently i finally found the right search words to find others that have this same experience. I've had it since childhood. to me if feels like I've suddenly become less dense and blown up. like the space between my atoms has expanded. very uncomfortable. i also have aural migraines occasionally with flashing prism circles in my sight. the difference is that i don't have to be falling asleep to feel this. it is always when I'm in bed, but sometimes wide awake. and i have the incredibly intense and detailed dreams. like being on a different planet... stuff like that. honestly, I'm just happy to see that there are others with the same feeling. really thought i was alone in that one! oh yeah, the sleep paralysis too. waking and seeing things in my room (dreaming) but being unable to move. quite terrifying. anyway, thanks for posting. made me feel a lot better.

 

[Count Iblis]

I have this every time when I have a fever. It will start after two or three days, unless I lower the fever using paracetamol. I will also have dreams while being awake.

 

[liberal]

I just remembered one more emotional aspect of the dream - the tremendous difference in size between the small (which incredibly gentle and harmless) and the gigantic (extremely brutal and forceful). And then I remembered the Dr. Seuss/Chuck Jones cartoon "Horton hears a who", featuring a tiny dust speck and a struggle against terrible odds ;)

 

[Count Iblis]

I think that extreme sleep deprivation can also cause this. Some years ago, I was traveling and the combination of jet lag and travel schedule left me awake for more than 70 hours. During that 70 hours there were opportunities to sleep, but I could not fall asleep at those times. After 50 hours or so, what happened when trying to sleep was that after closing my eyes, I would dream but I was still awake. I would also get similar sensations as described in this thread.

When walking outside I thought I was hearing people talking. But it later transpired that this couldn't have been the case, so I was dreaming at that time too.

Finally, after more than 60 hours, I got a proper two hours of sleep. I went to bed, closed my eyes for what felt like just a minute, and then opened my eyes again, looked at my watch and was shocked to see that it was two hours later. I had absolutely no idea how two hours could have passed in what seemed like a blink of the eye.

Since then I had trouble sleeping properly.

 

[hl_world]

I thought it was just me that got this too. Sometimes happens when I'm sick and really tired. To describe the feeling accurately, I suppose I would have to say it would be like taking a tiny sewing needle, stabbing something big, dense and soft like an armchair and picking it up with the needle. It seems I also alternate between focusing on big and small objects i.e. the needle & armchair. Not a hallucination that looks like you're seeing it with your eyes but with your imagination.

Even further back in my sleep-life I dreamed of large events that were extremely insignificant in relation to even larger events they lead up to.

Sometimes I dreamed of interacting with people before they operate heavy, loud machinery like a pneumatic drill or a chainsaw and they concentrate so hard on it while shaking violently backwards and forwards with the machine in a blur. They no longer seem like people more like machines themselves & I can't talk to them. But sometimes they stop for a few seconds and return to normal but without warning suddenly start again.

 

[Johanna M. G.]

Hello. I believe I have the same weird sensation you guys have being describing. For example I have being experiencing this sensation since I was a small girl. It usually occurs in the night. At first I did not know what triggered it, or how it started but ever since I have being getting older it seems like I, myself trigger it. I’am 19 now and today I experienced it once more, it had being like a year since the last time. But that's how it is, it happens like once or twice a year, the most 3 times. For example today i was laying in my bed and i started thinking of objects, light objects, like a needle, or a skinny twig and then i start picturing it in my mind, then something heavy like a heavy mattress, or a heavy metal, rock, etc came into my mind also. when i put them together in my mind i start getting nervous and my heart races faster. I start thinking of the needle or twig holding the heavy object, then my hands feel fake, they feel skinny than thick. I have to get up and go drink water or do something because i feel like crying, i want to run and just make it stop. usually needles come in my thoughts and i try washing my hands with hot/warm water to stop the weird sensation, and sometimes it helps but it last almost like 7-10 minutes. I call this my "panic attacks", and when i was younger i would run and cry to my mom, she would massage my hands and tell me nice stories so i would calm down. now I’am older and i don’t want to worry my mom, so like today, i just went to the restroom and tried to calm myself. Every time i try explaining it to someone they think I’am crazy, and usually they think my hands went numb and i’m experiencing the tingling sensation BUT is not that, I can assure that is not that, i can definitely tell the difference. I have gone with doctors, and they think I’m just going trough a phase! I don't believe that. I’m glad I found this cite. I hope someone can talk to me and we can eventually find out what this whole thing is.
I have written journal entries in which I’am experiencing this weird sensation, I want to talk to someone about it, someone that understands me, that is going trough the same stuff. thanks. i hope this helps someone

 

[zoobyshoe]

Hello. I believe I have the same weird sensation you guys have being describing. For example I have being experiencing this sensation since I was a small girl. It usually occurs in the night. At first I did not know what triggered it, or how it started but ever since I have being getting older it seems like I, myself trigger it. I’am 19 now and today I experienced it once more, it had being like a year since the last time. But that's how it is, it happens like once or twice a year, the most 3 times. For example today i was laying in my bed and i started thinking of objects, light objects, like a needle, or a skinny twig and then i start picturing it in my mind, then something heavy like a heavy mattress, or a heavy metal, rock, etc came into my mind also. when i put them together in my mind i start getting nervous and my heart races faster. I start thinking of the needle or twig holding the heavy object, then my hands feel fake, they feel skinny than thick. I have to get up and go drink water or do something because i feel like crying, i want to run and just make it stop. usually needles come in my thoughts and i try washing my hands with hot/warm water to stop the weird sensation, and sometimes it helps but it last almost like 7-10 minutes. I call this my "panic attacks", and when i was younger i would run and cry to my mom, she would massage my hands and tell me nice stories so i would calm down. now I’am older and i don’t want to worry my mom, so like today, i just went to the restroom and tried to calm myself. Every time i try explaining it to someone they think I’am crazy, and usually they think my hands went numb and i’m experiencing the tingling sensation BUT is not that, I can assure that is not that, i can definitely tell the difference. I have gone with doctors, and they think I’m just going trough a phase! I don't believe that. I’m glad I found this cite. I hope someone can talk to me and we can eventually find out what this whole thing is.
I have written journal entries in which I’am experiencing this weird sensation, I want to talk to someone about it, someone that understands me, that is going trough the same stuff. thanks. i hope this helps someone

Hi Johanna,

I wanted to ask you what kind of doctor you went to. Was it a neurologist, or just a general practitioner?