Hi guys, well this is my first time to register in any forum sites. I’ve been having these dream loops for a while and it is kind of hard to find a straight answer. I searched a lot about it and all i got was same results like sleep paralysis or lucid dream. My experience was like this, I’m asleep, example: like I’m leaning on my right side and my hand is under my head on my right and then suddenly i wake up but i can’t move any part of my body. I know I’m awake but i just can’t move any part of my body even if i tried to. I always force myself to move, but its hard. and when i moved, it took all my strength, but i moved even just for a little and i even try biting my fingers or pinching myself. And then the scary part comes. It always happens in a flash, I am back on the bed laying and leaning on my right side and my hand is under my head on my right side. It continued like that for a while, like 10 or more loops like that. i always get back in the same position when i started sleeping. Its scary as hell. Sometimes i wake up and thought that the loop is over, and then suddenly i was back in the same position. there were times that i will try to move hard and lick or bite my fingers just to see if when i really wake up, i will know that I’m really awake if my fingers are wet or have bite marks. and that didn’t work, i wake up and still fighting to move to see if my fingers are wet and they are not, and no bite marks. and when i FINALLY wake up, I’m in that same position in a loop, but after so many loops. sorry for this long story. What can you guys say about this? i want to know if anybody had the same experience.
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Welcome to the SDMB, ricolokoy.
Since this is basically polling for other experiences and asking opinions, it belongs in our IMHO forum. I will move it there for you.
Moving thread from About This Message Board to In My Humble Opinion.
oh thanks, i didn’ know since this is my first time doing stuff like posting. thanks
Sounds like sleep paralysis.
It’s happened to me and it is scary at first but once you realize it’s normal and happens a lot, but usually you are not aware of it, it’s not that bad.
"Physiologically, sleep paralysis is closely related to REM atonia, the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling asleep, or when awakening. When it occurs upon falling asleep, the person remains aware while the body shuts down for REM sleep, and it is called hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis. When it occurs upon awakening, the person becomes aware before the REM cycle is complete, and it is called hypnopompic or postdormital."
I’ve seen that link before because i searched a lot about it. right now its not that bad since i sometimes get that sleep paralysis/lucid dream. but still, when i am in that state, i always get scared that I won’t ever wake up and just ended up in that loop. My experience is kinda the same as this one…
Yeah, it most certainly is sleep paralysis. I’ve had it plenty of times. Sometimes I think I’ve awoken and am walking around, only to discover that, no, I’m still in bed and dreaming, and I know I’m dreaming and in bed, but cannot force myself to wake up or move.
It’s kinda fun after you get used to it and realize what’s going on. I usually try to make Heather Locklear or someone similar show up at this point. I haven’t been successful to date.
This tends to happen to me on weekends, when I sleep in WAY too late. The sun is up and the room is bright. I can actually open my eyes (physically, really!) and see the room…but I’m still dreaming. My eyes drift closed again, and I zone off into a dream state.
It can be very frustrating! I’ll dream of leaping up, bounding out of bed, even starting to get dressed…and, boom, there I am, back in bed. It was all just a dream…
Hypnogogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are somewhat related, and those can be buggers. They’re very often terror-filled. I suffer from those about once every two months.
The mind is a screwy place…
Had that happen to me once-woke up while my mind was still in dream mode. In the dream landscape in question were these 3 white balls. Only after I actually woke up for real did I realize that they were my ceiling lamps, which were white spheres…
I’m curious - I get plenty of hypnogogic - but little to none hypnopompic - what would you say the ratio of the two is? Is one “stronger” than the other?
This does not, by the way, sound at all like lucid dreaming to me. In lucid dreaming you know that you’re dreaming and you have control. What you’ve described,** ricolokoy**, includes not knowing if you’re asleep or awake and having no control.
If you were in a lucid state, even with no control over moving or looping, you wouldn’t be upset and, as Leaffan suggested, you could add in Heather Locklear. Or floating. And if you’re lucid, you realize that floating isn’t something that you can do while you’re awake.
Sleep paralysis for sure.
Just try not to freak out, focus on your breathing, breathe nice and slowly, think calm thoughts, and aim for going back to sleep. Usually falling asleep all the way will break you out of the loop, but be assured, you can’t get ‘stuck’ like that - eventually you’ll either wake fully or fall back asleep and then wake fully.
My experience with sleep paralysis is always hypnopompic, occurring in the morning. I have never experienced it at night.
More common in the morning, for me, but still happens often enough (too damn often!) when drifting off to sleep at night. Maybe two-to-one.
(The weirdest effect with the evening ones is that I can sometimes feel them coming. I can sense the onset of the effect. By the pricking of my thumbs, or something. At that point, the best thing to do is throw myself fully awake, turn on the lights, and read for ten minutes, to “reset” the nervous system, and then try to go to sleep again. Alas, I don’t sense all of them approaching, and a good number successfully ambush me. Eyikes! This ain’t called the “Night Hag” for nothing!)
I would definitely say that the morning ones are significantly stronger. They’re scarier, and more visual.
I once saw – just as clear as reality! – an enormous tarantula crawling on my ceiling. I jumped up and smothered it with a pillow. Only then did I realize that I had been lying on my tummy the whole time. I could not possibly have seen it, let alone have gotten up to act on it. The whole event was a hallucination!)
I remember having that throughout my 30’s into my early 40’s. Mine always happened after eating a load of chocalate chip cookies and then going back to bed. A few other foods caused it as well. It seemed like malt sugars were the common denominator in the foods that seemed to cause this but my doctor dismissed this theory of mine.
I disagree. At least some of the OP’s account mentions awareness of being in a dream state.
In addition, while lucidity and control over a dream are associated, they are not the same thing. You can be 100% sure you are dreaming, yet still have no control over your hallucinations, and have no more the ability to make a convincing hallucination of Heather Locklear than you have right now.
To the OP, what you are experiencing is unquestionably a form of paralysis dream. However, many above seem to be implying that paralysis dreams are the same for everyone, but they are not, and some people unfortunately experience particularly long and traumatic paralysis dreams. In some cases there can be secondary risks such as hurting yourself or your partner in your attempt to wake (and/or not being aware you are already awake).
If you are regularly having these dreams, and you are finding them very distressing, I recommend raising it with your doctor, as there are meds and pre-sleep exercises that can help.
Can you give a quick example? Like, for instance, is going for a walk before going to bed helpful here? Or…what?
(Not disputing you in any way; just curious for an example of what sort of thing you had in mind.)
The nineties called and they want their iconic sex symbol back.
To the OP, try doing some deep breathing, relaxation meditation and telling yourself when you wake up in the loop, it’s nothing to be fearful of and that you have control over it.
I know people who can set a mental alarm clock and awake at the desired time. You can control your sleeping mind, it just takes learning to do it. Study about lucid dreaming and start trying to implement.
I’m afraid that was just one of those things I’d heard, but never investigated personally as my paralysis dreams are not so distressing (I always realize what it is, and just calmly wait it out and/or focus on trying to hallucinate stuff).
So, just throwing out random stuff in an attempt to be helpful…
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A paralysis dream on sleep onset is more likely if you go to bed extremely tired as it means you go into REM sleep “prematurely” (cite).
(This had always been my anecdotal observation, so it was nice to see it backed up :)) -
Paralysis dreams are more common when sleeping on your back. So some people like to put a walnut or whatever in the back of their pajamas. Interesting that the OP is almost saying the opposite of this though.
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Many people (myself included) have their eyes open for some or all of a paralysis dream. So an option is to put some sort of calming message, or image, in a place you’re likely to look during these dreams (though obviously this only helps for paralysis dreams at the end of sleep, when it’s morning and light enough to see the message).
I’ve had one where:
(10) X=1
(20) I would wake up in my bed, my bed room, everything is normal, start to walk to the bathroom/kitchen and pass through the normal house till I get to a room that does not exist, realize still in the dream, able to wake myself but also able to explore
(30) X=X+1
(40) If X<7 goto 20
(50) end loop (Wake up)
The issue is that the extra rooms would also take me to different places, meaning it was also no return to the house even if I backtracked, It was also very frightening and somewhere I did not want to be and the fear build as I traveled. I recall my ability to move also became less, I became bound by spacetime (unable to precede in certain directions like the effort in certain directions was only getting me a ever diminishing distance).
Dream was related to what I was going through in life at the time, a different perspective on my life that helped clarify my life. In the end it was all good, but hard to go through.
Are you sure you’re not stuck in that new Tom Cruise movie coming out…Edge of Tomorrow?