# Do You Ever Get This Feeling Before You Fall Asleep? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 13, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567 "2012-09-13T02:38:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/1 "2012-09-13T02:38:48Z")
Okay, so I have never heard anybody describe this before in my life, which leads me to think that I must be the only one this happens to. Ever since I was a little girl, I occasionally get this feeling when I’m laying in bed, before I fall asleep. It’s not a hypnogogic hallucination, because I’m not falling asleep yet. That is for sure. The feeling is that I’m rising up to near the ceiling., and then lying up there, like about an inch away from the ceiling. I’m not being suspended, but rather held up from the underside of me by… say, thousands of pins. I don’t actually feel pins and needles or anything, but it feels like I am resting on something like that. I mentioned this feeling to my best friend once, and she said that it was me actually levitating. But I don’t think that’s it. :dubious: I just want to find one person in the world that has experienced this, besides myself. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/2 "2012-09-13T02:59:39Z")
Many years ago, when I was in my teens, I’d lie in bed, slowly fading toward sleep, and feel myself grow. (No, no, not there!) It felt as if I were vast; ten feet long, fifteen, twenty… Then, I lost the ability to estimate space; I became “spaceless.” (I felt a little like the old DC Comics cover of The Specter stretching between Earth-1 and Earth-2. Now that was a great comics story!) And, yeah, it sometimes came with a sense of levitation, or, more properly, leaving the material earth behind entirely. Stopped happening when I was 17 or so. Weird… ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/3 "2012-09-13T03:03:25Z")
That sounds like it might be along the same lines of my thing. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/4 "2012-09-13T03:13:01Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Many years ago, when I was in my teens, I’d lie in bed, slowly fading toward sleep, and feel myself grow. > > (No, no, not there!) > > It felt as if I were vast; ten feet long, fifteen, twenty… Then, I lost the ability to estimate space; I became “spaceless.” > > (I felt a little like the old DC Comics cover of The Specter stretching between Earth-1 and Earth-2. Now that was a great comics story!) > > And, yeah, it sometimes came with a sense of levitation, or, more properly, leaving the material earth behind entirely. > > Stopped happening when I was 17 or so. Weird… Serious question: did you smoke cigarettes before this experience? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/5 "2012-09-13T03:22:18Z")
when I was younger I had my appendix out and the anesthesia seemed to have a long lasting affect. Best way to describe it was that I was wearing armor and moving forward slowly just before nodding off. This went on for years. Surprised I even remember it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/6 "2012-09-13T05:14:31Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Serious question: did you smoke cigarettes before this experience? Interesting question! But, no, I’ve never smoked. (Well, two cigarettes in my entire life. One, just to see what it was like, and one when I was in a student movie, playing a role.) Are cigarettes known to be associated with such sensations? Or have they affected you that way? ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/7 "2012-09-13T05:29:43Z")
I occasionally have similar feelings when falling asleep. The way I’d describe it is that I become almost disoriented. Up feels down. Forward feels backward. The bed is laying on me, and I’m HUMONGOUS. I’m floating upward with the bed above me, keeping it secure against the ceiling. The door is in the wrong corner of the room, and locations in general start to become meaningless. The illusion is broken if I open my eyes and look around. ---
**Author:** ![core\_dump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@core\_dump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/core_dump)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/8 "2012-09-13T07:19:35Z")
I had this feeling right before I was abducted. I’d check for implants and/or unexplained pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/9 "2012-09-13T08:28:12Z")
No, not that particular feeling, though I do get the sensation of having jaw blocks in if I lay in a specific position and am in just the right going into sleep state. It usually only lasts a fraction of a minute but if I am interrupted by someone/something at the perfect time and I rouse, I remember the sensation. ---
**Author:** ![benbo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@benbo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/benbo1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/10 "2012-09-13T10:27:09Z")
Aside from the hypnogogic/myoclonic jerking, I’ve had the sensations of falling or liquid flowing thru me right before drifting off. Occasionally, there’s a feeling of being weightless but unable to move. I’m told all of these are completely normal. If u sleep with some1, ask them to watch for gasping, heaving chest, snoring, i.e. signs of sleep apnea. Otherwise, IANAD, but from my questioning of doctors over the years of similar tableaus, all’s probably ok. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/11 "2012-09-13T10:42:11Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > I mentioned this feeling to my best friend once, and she said that it was me actually levitating. But I don’t think that’s it. :dubious: She was serious? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/12 "2012-09-13T11:21:40Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Interesting question! But, no, I’ve never smoked. > > (Well, two cigarettes in my entire life. One, just to see what it was like, and one when I was in a student movie, playing a role.) > > Are cigarettes known to be associated with such sensations? Or have they affected you that way? Yes, sort of, decades ago (as a teenager) when I smoked. I had a girlfriend then who said she felt her head expanding. At the time we thought it might be some kind of response to nicotine. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/13 "2012-09-13T12:50:01Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > It felt as if I were vast; ten feet long, fifteen, twenty… Then, I lost the ability to estimate space; I became “spaceless.” I used to get similar sensations, also when I was a pre-teen/teenager, and then they seemed to slowly stop happening. More commonly I would get the sensation in an “out of proportion” way – my hands would feel absolutely massive, or my head and upper body would feel huge, all while the rest of my body felt relatively normal. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, I’ve heard it called. ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Red](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7feea3/32.png) [@Old\_Red](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Red)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/14 "2012-09-13T13:07:35Z")
These are interesting experiences, and you notice that although different from one another, the experiences all happen just as the person is falling asleep. It seems there is a twilight zone between wide-awake and fast asleep. My experience during this twilight zone is (a) being super-sensitive to any sound - the quiet click of the 'fridge switching on can sound like a gunshot next to my ear. The 'fridge is at the far end of the house and normally not heard. The other sensation (b), often triggered by (a) is a beautiful light display, similar to bursting stars seen at a public firework display. This doesn’t happen often, sometimes once or twice in a week and then nothing for several months. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/15 "2012-09-13T14:15:53Z")
It hasn’t happened to me (well, maybe once). But the sensation described in the OP matches some accounts I’ve read of OOBE (out-of-body experience, aka astral projection). (I’m not saying OOBE is real, it may all be a hypnagogic thing. And I’m not providing links because it’s hard to tell what’s quackery and what’s real. But at least you’re not the first person in history to get the sensation of floating near the ceiling.) ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/16 "2012-09-13T17:04:25Z")
> [@Blackberry](#): > > She was serious? Ha, I think so. But that was a long time ago, when she was a bit woo. She’s better now. Plus she has many, many fine qualities. 😛 Just to clarify (as if it’s somehow important). my sensation does not happen as I’m falling asleep, so it’s not a twilight or hypnogogic thing. I am fully awake every time, waiting for sleep, which usually takes me 10-15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Bass\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@Bass\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bass_Chick)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/17 "2012-09-13T17:08:39Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Okay, so I have never heard anybody describe this before in my life, which leads me to think that I must be the only one this happens to. > > Ever since I was a little girl, I occasionally get this feeling when I’m laying in bed, before I fall asleep. It’s not a hypnogogic hallucination, because I’m not falling asleep yet. That is for sure. The feeling is that I’m rising up to near the ceiling., and then lying up there, like about an inch away from the ceiling. I’m not being suspended, but rather held up from the underside of me by… say, thousands of pins. I don’t actually feel pins and needles or anything, but it feels like I am resting on something like that. > > I mentioned this feeling to my best friend once, and she said that it was me actually levitating. But I don’t think that’s it. :dubious: > > I just want to find one person in the world that has experienced this, besides myself. This has happened to me once. It was a very vivid experience. I’ve tried, but have never been able to replicate that feeling again. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/18 "2012-09-13T18:33:45Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > I used to get similar sensations, also when I was a pre-teen/teenager, and then they seemed to slowly stop happening. > > More commonly I would get the sensation in an “out of proportion” way – my hands would feel absolutely massive, or my head and upper body would feel huge, all while the rest of my body felt relatively normal. Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, I’ve heard it called. Me too, and I started a thread about this awhile back. To the OP: Check out the Wiki on [Alice in Wonderland Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_in_Wonderland_syndrome), and see if it rings a bell. ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/19 "2012-09-13T18:36:20Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Just to clarify (as if it’s somehow important). my sensation does not happen as I’m falling asleep, so it’s not a twilight or hypnogogic thing. I am fully awake every time, waiting for sleep, which usually takes me 10-15 minutes. I wonder if you truly are “fully” awake-- What happens when you open your eyes? Are you able to maintain the sensation and describe it aloud, as it is happening? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567/20 "2012-09-13T18:54:57Z")
I don’t get anything like that, but if I’m lying on my couch and startig to fall into a nap, I can forget where my hands are. They might be behind my head, or at my sides, or on my chest, but I won’t know. Flexing my fingers cures this instantly. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-ever-get-this-feeling-before-you-fall-asleep/634567.md?page=2)