this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
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I just kinda open my eyes and that's how I escape
for me that's when the nightmare begins
Keep opening your eyes until you escape
You've heard of sleep paralysis?
Some of us get that dream effect (eyes open, dream reality overlaid over real reality) but without paralysis.
Opening your eyes? They're already open and the dream is running
Getting out of bed? Touch hallucinations may become part of it
Usually turning on a light gets me out. That or time
Thankfully, I just occasionally get the not being able to move for 10 seconds, no residual dreams bleeding into consciousness.
It really sucks for nightmares. I heard about someone else with the same thing, they were prescribed sleeping tablets and told to use a sleeping bag if sleeping above ground floor (for fear that the dream might make him jump out of a window
I don't think accidentally hurting oneself is a likely outcome though as these dreams only happen when you're very close to full consciousness on the way to sleep or wakefulness, and they dispel quickly after you start being active
Speaking of hurting one's self, the comedian Mike Birbiglia (?) has a condition where his brain doesn't make the hormone, chemical, whatever, that paralyzes us in our sleep. He literally ran through a plate glass sliding door on a 2nd story motel room, and fell to the pavement. He survived, relatively unharmed, but has to sleep in a body bag like you describe to keep from hurting himself, or others, in his sleep.
Thanks for the reply. Have a good one.
https://gazette.com/news/a-case-of-near-deadly-sleepwalking-for-comedian-mike-birbiglia/article_e4af044f-4037-5890-a222-932fdec60e09.html
I'm glad I'm not as bad of as him or the one on the podcast
Me, too. I'm glad I don't have that, or the version where you wake up but you're still in the dream, I have the mild "I can't move for 10 seconds" version. And it happens rarely.
Speaking of, I don't know if you know, but the sleep drug Ambien accumulates over time, saturates, and when it reaches saturation, can have effects like Birgiblia's condition. People driving, eating, doing things in their sleep with no recollection. Awful drug.
My elderly mother with dementia, who I'm the caretaker of, was prescribed it a couple of years ago, old people have insomnia. I found her at 3 AM vacuuming. I asked her "Why are you doing this now....," She looked at me, with a blank face, and wide zombie eyes, the went back to vacuuming. The next morning, she didn't remember shit. And not because of dementia. We stopped the Ambien.
Now that just sounds like garden variety psychosis lmao
I can't really put it into words but I just randomly (?) have this thought of "certainly not" and have the feeling of "this has got to be a bad dream... Oh wait, it's actually a bad dream, why am I still here at all".
I just don't always manage to.
That's how my "I'm stuck in my own bed and can't move or talk" nightmare usually begins.