Waking Up Middle of the Night Thinking You Are Somewhere Completely Different!?

[Boss Raptor]

I suffer in spates a tendancy to wake abruptly at around 0100-0200 in the morning...in a total panic, heart/breathing racing, convinced I am somewhere completely different...like;

On a plane in a dark hanger

On the floor at Tescos down the road

etc. etc.

Anyone else get this...and/or is their a sensible medical explanation?

[tony draper]

Sounds like a condition called night terrors,usualy the person wakes up in a panic completely paralized and unable to move,sounds like you still have that to look forward to.
:uhoh:

When it happens the main thing is not to panic, try and move your little finger or something like that,once you can do that yer gorrit licked, it is perfectly natural of course your brain keeps your muscles paralized as you sleep, in order to stop you acting out your dreams, tiz just a timing error, said brain is supposed to cancel the paralisis order before it wakes you up.

Of course if Drapes thunk in a few weeks he was going to be at 200 fathoms travelling at forty knotts, the night terrors might assail him again.

:rolleyes:

[Boss Raptor]

Yep I think u have it TD...you are apparently lucid but cannot move that is the whole weird thing takes 20-30 seconds to come out of it

So the cure is? and why do you wake up? must be a medical explantion surely?

Google is a wonderful thing when you have a clue

http://www.nightterrors.org/

Think I can probably narrow mine down to stress although I believe my mother may have similar episodes so heredity may come into it

:rolleyes:

[Bre901]

Maybe this thread should be moved to the Medical forum.

Would be some kind of a première : a thread being moved out of JetBlast :p :p

[VFE]

Having been in and out of B&B's and hotels the last year this has happened to me once or twice. Actually occured at home a few weeks ago - I woke up and for about 10 seconds had absolutely no idea where the hell I was even though I was in my own bedroom! Very odd experience and not one I would wish to repeat anytime soon.

Oughta lay off the Class A methinks. ;)

VFE.

[Keef]

Often wake up from a dream that I'm preaching - and find that I am. Must try going to bed earlier.

[pulse1]

I frequently have this experience when I return home after a few days away. I put it down to the fact that home is very quiet and can be very dark so when I sort of half wake up there is no sound or visual reference to home in on. It can be quite frightening for a few seconds.

[tony draper]

Theres theory that REM sleep,(rapid eye movement dreaming sleep as opposed to none REM paradoxical none dreaming sleep) evolved as a survival mechanism,apparently one can come awake instantly from REM sleep ready to flee or fight should old Mr Sabre Tooth come sniffing at your sleeping bag, whereas from none REM sleep, should you be rudely awakened yer buggad and confused, noticed meself that I always seem to wake from a dream,perchance you are waking up from paradoxical sleep Boss another timing error I would say.
Tiz called paradoxical sleep I believe because it seems to have no purpose,deprive somebody of REM sleep, ie keep waking em up when their eyes begin to move and they quickly go off their chumps,waking folks up during none REM sleep doesn't seem to make a blind bit of difference, so they have come to the conclusion that REM sleep is necessary and tother kind is just a hangover from our single cell amoeba days, of course, they are probably wrong.
:rolleyes:
Drapes and the Woo person had a long and facinating thread about the Human mind and what dreams actually are, twas a while back though, we even had Danny interested, and that takes some doing.


:rolleyes:

[BahrainLad]

Not to unduly depress you, but waking up and not knowing who or where you are is one of the symptoms of a minor stroke.

But if it happens repeatedly, it's more likely to be something more benign like those mentioned above.

[stagger]

Once woke up in a room at a friends house that had the same patterned paper on the ceiling as is frequently found on pub ceilings (only without the brown tar coating).

No panic though - it made me feel right at home!

[Hawk]

Might be worthwhile doing a post in Medical Forum..its a fairly common sleep condition.

[Davaar]

But Mr Keef, that may give you something in common with the congregation.

[tony draper]

Ouch!!that stang Mr Davaar, very norty.
:E

[arem]

Trying to remember the name of the young(ish) lady lying next to you is the worst part:O

[Loc-out]

I have woken on many occasions, and wished I were somewhere else.

[Tuba Mirum]

Mrs TM woke up from a doze on the sofa a few months ago in the firm belief that the year was 1994 and that she was still married to the previous incumbent. Had no idea who I was (though I gather she rather liked me), and was utterly confused that her two sons were in their twenties rather than their teens.

Very confusing and upsetting episode :confused:, which happily wore off after a couple of hours :ok:

[brockenspectre]

Back in the 1990s I travelled a fair amount both on business and for pleasure and it was only during this time that I experienced the "oh, I am not at home" when I woke up and occasionally needed a moment or two to remember where the light switch was etc.

At the time I attributed it to being tired - I was pretty much a workaholic and believed in a busy social life (was also slim btw, amazing eh?) so I assumed it was just a q of having the brain not really "keeping up" and reverting to where it wanted to be (ie home) !!

Hasn't happened now for several years although I now seem to vivid dream a lot more than I used to! YAY!! :ok:

[gingernut]

Boss R, is it worse when you drink alcohol?

Its quite common for the liquid nectar to cause sleep diturbances, particually "rebound alertness."

The prevention, I'm afraid, is better than the cure !

[Boss Raptor]

It's not alcohol - that in actual fact keeps me awake all night, not send me to sleep

I have noticed that if I eat chocolate in the evening it always happens...there is no other real pattern...except possibly stress

[mad_jock]

Our QSMI had a incedent exactly like tuba's wife. Woke up in the field and thought he was a sgt again fighting in the Falklands.

It was put down at the time as post tramatic stress disorder. 2 months later it happened again but this time the whole of his left side was paralysed. CAT scan followed and he turned out to have a bleed point in his memory and motor function areas. He disappeared off to some mil hospital down south and we never saw him again.

I have had 3 grand parents who have dementia caused by stokes. Its a bloody awful way to go. With all of them they were found confused and dazed after a sleep. Short term memory gone. As it progresses the memory gets earlier and earlier. To the point that my granddad could quite happily talk about Dunkirk and france but didn't have a clue the war was finished.
In someways it was a relief when he passed away, if he had been a dog he would have been put down 4 years earlier.

Strangly enough he started speaking fluent French with a bloke in the nursing home. From what the family can tell he hadn't spoken french since the war and nobody knew he had even learned it when he was young.

The family has found that GP's (broad statement I know. But in general after speaking to other relatives of people) are crap at spotting this and managing it, you have to get a consultant who specialises in this area to do all the checks.

MJ

[Boss Raptor]

Have to say I think what Tuba Mirum describes is like 2 'Mini Strokes' I witnessed my mother have some years back - she woke up not knowing who or where she was, couldnt see, was acting like she was drunk - wore off after about 3 hours - I was only concerned the first time as I had that previous week read an AIC about 'Mini Strokes' before that would have been none the wiser

[ZK-NSJ]

ive often woken up in the middle of the night wishing i was somewhere different:E