weird almost synesthetic aspect to half-remembered dreams

In My Humble Opinion
1

I can hardly describe this because it sounds so weird. I sometimes have weird physical/emotional flashbacks to my dreams. But I generally can’t remember the dream very well if this happens. The flashback consists of a very strong emotional feeling that is quite negative. Today in the elevator at work, I had one. I thought of the song “Someone Like You” by Adele and I started having this strong memory of having a (bad) dream about that song and being at work or in an elevator. It’s like deja vu but about a dream. My heart started beating faster and I felt nervous, hot, slightly nauseous, and extremely unpleasant. (Perhaps the way people feel when they have a mild panic attack? I have never had one.) I kept telling myself, “It’s just a (memory of) a dream,” and it went away after a minute or so. The only connection with Adele is that I really like that song (or I did before I got sick of it from replaying it). On a sort of related note, sometimes at work I will listen to a song that I like over and over again. I only do it if I am doing a project that does not require thinking too hard. I have done this recently at work with this song. About two weeks ago, I had a similar flashback related to the Adele song, but I was still in bed. I kept thinking of the song and I felt as described above, but it was stronger and worse, and it took a longer time for the feeling to go away. While this is happening, along with feeling the feeling, I feel intellectually curious about it, thinking, “Hmm, this certainly is strange,” so that even though my brain tells me I feel scared and very unpleasant, I don’t really feel that scared.

The weirdest example of this is slightly different. About five or seven times now, I have had a situation where I remember a dream, and whatever is going on in my mind is so awful that I feel physically sick – extremely sick, as if I will vomit any second. It has to do with something I’ve done in real life – I think the dream is about that, and I think it has to do with a mistake or error in judgment I’ve made. There’s a strong emotional and self-recriminatory component to the sick feeling (definitely not like a food poisoning or something that would have no emotional component). Finally, during the onslought of the sick feeling, I can clearly remember the dream. I desperately keep trying to remember it so I can think about it when the sickness passes. However, no matter how hard I try, as soon as the sickness is gone, I can no longer remember the dream! It’s very weird and maddening.

Has anyone had any experience anything like this?? I’m not asking for medical advice, etc. – just theories and discussion if anyone can be bothered to care. This does not happen often and doesn’t really affect my life – but it’s so weird that I feel compelled to share it. Anyone else ever experienced anything like this?

P.S. For what it’s worth and in case it could be relevant, I’m otherwise generally neuro-typical. However, I do take an SSRI, same one and same dose I’ve taken for 8 years, and feel completely “normal” on it – appropriately sad and happy in response to sad or happy life events – with a default of generally happy and content – whereas off it I will experience mild depression (but still be almost totally functional). The SSRI itself used to give me really weird dreams regularly (not like what I’m talking about here – just weird and not necessarily bad dreams, which I did remember), but less so in recent years.

2

I don’t know shit about being no doctor, but this sounds like a kind of seizure to me. I’d bring it up to the person who prescribes your SSRI and see what they say.

3

Yikes, really? It seems more like neuron misfirings or something to me. But I guess I will bring it up to my doctor.

4

I missed the edit window, but I just looked up non-epileptic seizures and you are right, some types do sort of sound like this. Thanks for the tip. I do not think I need any “treatment” – especially since it is so infrequent – but I will mention it.

5

Well, I admit that I am literally talking out of my ass so please do not be alarmed. :slight_smile:

It’s only that the combination of the intense physical symptoms, the sensation of deja vu, and the strong emotional memories you experience only in the midst of these episodes sound like some sort of neurological event is going on. (To me, the layperson, who has seen too many House episodes and read too much Dostoevsky.)

6

Haha, thanks. Dangerous combination.

7

Have you considered keeping a little notebook and pencil with you at all times, and actually writing down the dream when you get the sick feeling? Just keep telling yourself you have had this feeling before and you aren’t going to vomit, and kind of “write through the sickness.” Then after it passes you can review your notes and see if they help you remember.

8

Good idea - I will, thanks. For whatever reason I haven’t had this part of it for quite awhile now - maybe 6 months.

9

I’m a bit skeptical about the seizure idea, especially if you have no history of seizures. I’d be more inclined to think of panic attacks. I used to have episodes that were very similar to what you describe. They started as what I would describe as intense episodes of deja vu that sometimes seemed to be triggered by certain qualities of light (probably on top of stress as my dad was very ill at that time). There was none of that sort of pleasant “Hey, this is cool” quality of normal deja vu. Instead, they filled me with what I could only describe as dread. I eventually went on to develop more typical panic attacks and the deja vu symptom disappeared completely. I still occasionally have the other kind with the sick feeling, not associated with dreams in my case but with memory, I think. The worst were the ones I got just as I was dropping off to sleep. I now take a very low dose of alprazolam (generic Xanax) at bedtime, so I don’t have those any more.

Like you, I was never particularly afraid during these episodes. I could kind of sit back and observe them. I had a couple classic “I’m going to die!” panic attacks, but I learned pretty quickly how to defeat those. The dread and nausea-inducing ones are more subtle and harder to get a handle on, and I still get them from time to time. In addition to asking your doctor about panic disorder, you might want to look into some relaxation techniques.

10

I’ve had similar sensations, not a good feeling, it started for me after heart surgery in 2005, possibly due to the pain meds. It was happening every few months, like I’m remembering dreams, but can’t quite remember specifics, but its a bad feeling, i really hate it. Luckily it only lasts a few minutes, for me it doesnt happen with just one dream, i’ll remember one then a few seconds later a different one etc. Over time I noticed an association between the dreams remembersnces and digestive issues, since i went gluten free a couple years ago, now ii have the sensation less frequently, had one today after about a year or so since the last occurence.

11

Several years ago they had a song on the radio, “Picture”. I loved the song and would have a pleaseant emotional reaction to it each time it came on. They started playing the song too often and even though I still liked the song it started having an uncomfortable affect on me. Very hard to explain but it became very unpleaseant.

12

I’ve been having the same weird dream things for about 3 years now, and I have no idea what could be the cause. From end 2017 to beginning 2018 I didn’t have any at all, but they’ve returned since. After a year of having them I started writing ALL times I would have one down, so now I have a huge list of dates & times, sometimes with specific details I remembered from the “dream” or how I felt physically, written next to it. I have the same kind of “dream” a lot, I just can’t remember anything of it, ever. It’s more a specific emotional feeling the “dream” gives me, not that much of an image. Sometimes it makes me feel very sick and kind of anxious for a few minutes, and very often I totally zone out and just become kind of numb, and I can’t seem to focus on anything but the “dream”. It’s very weird, and so hard to describe, but what you described sounds pretty similar to what I experience sometimes. I would like to know what these weird dream deja vu things actually are, and what causes them, so I’m still searching for answers!!
(Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my first language)

Femke
Ps I just remembered my parents told me I used to have night terrors as a toddler/younger child, and I also used to walk & talk in my sleep. Also had nightmares pretty frequently when I was younger. Haven’t had any of these things in the last couple of years (I’m 16 now), except for the sleep talking. Guess I grew over those things, but I’ve clearly been having more troubles with sleep and dreams and such in the past, so perhaps that could be related to the weird dream deja vu things?

13

Hi. I am having this feeling today, that deja vu, half remembered dream that makes me feel nauseous and a bit off balance. I have it infrequently but it really bothers me for hours even a whole day when it comes. It’s very upsetting and I want to make it go away, I can distract myself from it but it keeps coming back. Sometimes I think I’m going crazy or have some mental issue. I think finding this thread and responding is helping me.