Strange Sensation starting to fall asleep

[kathrineder]

i have had the seize - sound experience too. many times when i was younger, and often fever related. i am a very detailed dreamer, but these strange sensations were different from dreams.

my "visions" usually manifested as huge massive massive bomb like objects in space, who were about to crush a tiny small house that was floating around between them. the visuals came with very low rythmic sounds of under water metal.

then I fully awake and my body feels like it is made of 100's of cubes. i ran to my mothers room, screaming, cryoing, tryng to explain what was happening to my body. i couldn't touch anything now could i shake off that feeling. i usually ended up throwing up.

thats what i remember from my childhood. nowadays, i have the sound sensation and a mild size sensation a few times a year.

has anyone found an article yet?

 

[riio]

I've had an extremely similar experience while trying to sleep and it's made me wonder about it since it happened, not sure my age but i remember it being well before teenage years, I was maybe 7 or 8.

I could have woken up from sleep or been trying to fall asleep but I remember being awake in bed, the feeling of everything around me being very large and almost far away. I remember at first a confusion of if i was feeling large or small compared to my room. It was a visual perspective as well as physical in that i felt a magnetic feeling that added to the feeling of being way out of proportional size with my environment. My hands felt like they needed to hold something and I couldn't get rid of this perceptive feeling by holding a baseball or round object for some reason or anything smaller than my hand so i had used two hockey pucks, the feeling of the edges of the pucks helped the weakness in my hands and the over all feelling I was experiencing. It's hard to explain the mangetic feel as It wasn't as if i felt i was being pulled or pushed it was an overall feeling of weakness you could say. I also remember hearing sounds before I had figured out holding on to something helped, the sounds were as if a needle or something high pitched was scraping or falling into a bathtub or something of that material. I did not see a bathtub or anything like that it was just a feeling of that sound and spatial perception you get when you hear this in a normal situation.

I havn't read every reply to this post but some of the descriptions are shocking and bring back memories of some of the feelings i was experiencing, I think someone mentioned a particle of dust, that was one of the first things I thought of when I was in my bed. I remember thinking of a large maybe empty metal gas furnace in my old basement with dust under it, maybe because of the metalic sounds i was hearing that are similar to echos giving enormous spatial perceptions. Another feeling i remember was that i was in a small space but my body was enormous in the capacity of that space. All this was mentioned to my doctor at the time who i think mentioned claustrophobia which I've never had a problem with till this day.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? I've also had a history of sleep walking and possibley lucid dreams where I feel conscious and awake but can't move. This has all stopped now that I'm older into my 20's but I still experience very realistic dreams.

 

[334dave]

i don't have the realistic dreams so often at 56
but when i do i enjoy them..
i rarely have the close eyes and open them awake and refreshed
once in a year if lucky

 

[atlantan]

hello everyone,
i'm new to the forum. apparently i finally found the right search words to find others that have this same experience. I've had it since childhood. to me if feels like I've suddenly become less dense and blown up. like the space between my atoms has expanded. very uncomfortable. i also have aural migraines occasionally with flashing prism circles in my sight. the difference is that i don't have to be falling asleep to feel this. it is always when I'm in bed, but sometimes wide awake. and i have the incredibly intense and detailed dreams. like being on a different planet... stuff like that. honestly, I'm just happy to see that there are others with the same feeling. really thought i was alone in that one! oh yeah, the sleep paralysis too. waking and seeing things in my room (dreaming) but being unable to move. quite terrifying. anyway, thanks for posting. made me feel a lot better.

 

[Count Iblis]

I have this every time when I have a fever. It will start after two or three days, unless I lower the fever using paracetamol. I will also have dreams while being awake.

 

[liberal]

I just remembered one more emotional aspect of the dream - the tremendous difference in size between the small (which incredibly gentle and harmless) and the gigantic (extremely brutal and forceful). And then I remembered the Dr. Seuss/Chuck Jones cartoon "Horton hears a who", featuring a tiny dust speck and a struggle against terrible odds ;)

 

[Count Iblis]

I think that extreme sleep deprivation can also cause this. Some years ago, I was traveling and the combination of jet lag and travel schedule left me awake for more than 70 hours. During that 70 hours there were opportunities to sleep, but I could not fall asleep at those times. After 50 hours or so, what happened when trying to sleep was that after closing my eyes, I would dream but I was still awake. I would also get similar sensations as described in this thread.

When walking outside I thought I was hearing people talking. But it later transpired that this couldn't have been the case, so I was dreaming at that time too.

Finally, after more than 60 hours, I got a proper two hours of sleep. I went to bed, closed my eyes for what felt like just a minute, and then opened my eyes again, looked at my watch and was shocked to see that it was two hours later. I had absolutely no idea how two hours could have passed in what seemed like a blink of the eye.

Since then I had trouble sleeping properly.

 

[hl_world]

I thought it was just me that got this too. Sometimes happens when I'm sick and really tired. To describe the feeling accurately, I suppose I would have to say it would be like taking a tiny sewing needle, stabbing something big, dense and soft like an armchair and picking it up with the needle. It seems I also alternate between focusing on big and small objects i.e. the needle & armchair. Not a hallucination that looks like you're seeing it with your eyes but with your imagination.

Even further back in my sleep-life I dreamed of large events that were extremely insignificant in relation to even larger events they lead up to.

Sometimes I dreamed of interacting with people before they operate heavy, loud machinery like a pneumatic drill or a chainsaw and they concentrate so hard on it while shaking violently backwards and forwards with the machine in a blur. They no longer seem like people more like machines themselves & I can't talk to them. But sometimes they stop for a few seconds and return to normal but without warning suddenly start again.

 

[Johanna M. G.]

Hello. I believe I have the same weird sensation you guys have being describing. For example I have being experiencing this sensation since I was a small girl. It usually occurs in the night. At first I did not know what triggered it, or how it started but ever since I have being getting older it seems like I, myself trigger it. I’am 19 now and today I experienced it once more, it had being like a year since the last time. But that's how it is, it happens like once or twice a year, the most 3 times. For example today i was laying in my bed and i started thinking of objects, light objects, like a needle, or a skinny twig and then i start picturing it in my mind, then something heavy like a heavy mattress, or a heavy metal, rock, etc came into my mind also. when i put them together in my mind i start getting nervous and my heart races faster. I start thinking of the needle or twig holding the heavy object, then my hands feel fake, they feel skinny than thick. I have to get up and go drink water or do something because i feel like crying, i want to run and just make it stop. usually needles come in my thoughts and i try washing my hands with hot/warm water to stop the weird sensation, and sometimes it helps but it last almost like 7-10 minutes. I call this my "panic attacks", and when i was younger i would run and cry to my mom, she would massage my hands and tell me nice stories so i would calm down. now I’am older and i don’t want to worry my mom, so like today, i just went to the restroom and tried to calm myself. Every time i try explaining it to someone they think I’am crazy, and usually they think my hands went numb and i’m experiencing the tingling sensation BUT is not that, I can assure that is not that, i can definitely tell the difference. I have gone with doctors, and they think I’m just going trough a phase! I don't believe that. I’m glad I found this cite. I hope someone can talk to me and we can eventually find out what this whole thing is.
I have written journal entries in which I’am experiencing this weird sensation, I want to talk to someone about it, someone that understands me, that is going trough the same stuff. thanks. i hope this helps someone

 

[zoobyshoe]

Hello. I believe I have the same weird sensation you guys have being describing. For example I have being experiencing this sensation since I was a small girl. It usually occurs in the night. At first I did not know what triggered it, or how it started but ever since I have being getting older it seems like I, myself trigger it. I’am 19 now and today I experienced it once more, it had being like a year since the last time. But that's how it is, it happens like once or twice a year, the most 3 times. For example today i was laying in my bed and i started thinking of objects, light objects, like a needle, or a skinny twig and then i start picturing it in my mind, then something heavy like a heavy mattress, or a heavy metal, rock, etc came into my mind also. when i put them together in my mind i start getting nervous and my heart races faster. I start thinking of the needle or twig holding the heavy object, then my hands feel fake, they feel skinny than thick. I have to get up and go drink water or do something because i feel like crying, i want to run and just make it stop. usually needles come in my thoughts and i try washing my hands with hot/warm water to stop the weird sensation, and sometimes it helps but it last almost like 7-10 minutes. I call this my "panic attacks", and when i was younger i would run and cry to my mom, she would massage my hands and tell me nice stories so i would calm down. now I’am older and i don’t want to worry my mom, so like today, i just went to the restroom and tried to calm myself. Every time i try explaining it to someone they think I’am crazy, and usually they think my hands went numb and i’m experiencing the tingling sensation BUT is not that, I can assure that is not that, i can definitely tell the difference. I have gone with doctors, and they think I’m just going trough a phase! I don't believe that. I’m glad I found this cite. I hope someone can talk to me and we can eventually find out what this whole thing is.
I have written journal entries in which I’am experiencing this weird sensation, I want to talk to someone about it, someone that understands me, that is going trough the same stuff. thanks. i hope this helps someone

Hi Johanna,

I wanted to ask you what kind of doctor you went to. Was it a neurologist, or just a general practitioner?

 

[Johanna M. G.]

it was just a regular doctor, i went in for a physical check up and i told her and she just said not to worry that maybe i was going trough a phase :/

 

[Johanna M. G.]

Hi Johanna,

I wanted to ask you what kind of doctor you went to. Was it a neurologist, or just a general practitioner?

Hi Zoobyshoe

it was just a regular family doctor.
i went in for my regular check up and I decided to just speak about the problem.
she just told me not to worry that i was going trough a phase.
but its not a phase, i mean c’on i have beeing experiencing this since i was like 5.

 

[zoobyshoe]

it was just a regular doctor, i went in for a physical check up and i told her and she just said not to worry that maybe i was going trough a phase :/

OK.

Explain in more detail what you mean when you say your hands feel fake.

 

[Johanna M. G.]

yeah for example it feels fat then skinny as if my fingers were needles or twigs and my skin around it was fake. if i start thinking about it, i start getting it. its really freaky. and scary. as i talk about it i feel like is happening but not strongly. theirs a another website were a lot more people explain it a little better than i dohttp://www.steadyhealth.com/confusing_feelings_on_fingers___thick__and__thin__at_the_same_time__heart_beatin-t149789-0-asc-0.html

 

[Johanna M. G.]

Hi Johanna,

I wanted to ask you what kind of doctor you went to. Was it a neurologist, or just a general practitioner?

OK.

Explain in more detail what you mean when you say your hands feel fake.

yeah for example it feels fat then skinny as if my fingers were needles or twigs and my skin around it was fake. if i start thinking about it, i start getting it. its really freaky. and scary. as i talk about it i feel like is happening but not strongly. theirs a another website were a lot more people explain it a little better than i dohttp://www.steadyhealth.com/confusing_feelings_on_fingers___thick__and__thin__ at_the_same_time__heart_beatin-t149789-0-asc-0.htm

 

[zoobyshoe]

yeah for example it feels fat then skinny as if my fingers were needles or twigs and my skin around it was fake. if i start thinking about it, i start getting it. its really freaky. and scary. as i talk about it i feel like is happening but not strongly. theirs a another website were a lot more people explain it a little better than i dohttp://www.steadyhealth.com/confusing_feelings_on_fingers___thick__and__thin__at_the_same_time__heart_beatin-t149789-0-asc-0.html

Wow, there were a lot of people with the same thing: all mostly in the hands.

I think the kind of doctor you have to see about this kind of thing is a neurologist. I have the feeling that it's something they will have run into before and have figured out. If all those people on that one site have it, I'd figure there are a lot more, and if it's that common then neurologists will have treated people for it.

What country do you live in?

 

[Johanna M. G.]

Wow, there were a lot of people with the same thing: all mostly in the hands.

I think the kind of doctor you have to see about this kind of thing is a neurologist. I have the feeling that it's something they will have run into before and have figured out. If all those people on that one site have it, I'd figure there are a lot more, and if it's that common then neurologists will have treated people for it.

What country do you live in?

yeah and in this cite i also found the other part of how i start thinking of light/heavy objects. For example a needle holding a mattress up. Usually is needles that roam in my mind. and i found that many people in this cite seem to have tat in their head once this weird sensation starts. I live in the USA

 

[zoobyshoe]

yeah and in this cite i also found the other part of how i start thinking of light/heavy objects. For example a needle holding a mattress up. Usually is needles that roam in my mind. and i found that many people in this cite seem to have tat in their head once this weird sensation starts. I live in the USA

OK. What you need to do is get an appointment with a neurologist. A regular doctor isn't going to have heard of anything like this, and you're right: if it's been happening since you were a kid it's obviously not a "phase", whatever the hell that means anyway. These episodes are clearly upsetting you and I think if any kind of doctor knows what they are it will be a neurologist.

 

[Monique]

zoobyshoe is right, it will be best to make an appointment with a neurologist to discuss your feelings.

 

[sas3]

This feeling is called macrosomatognosia and microsomatognosia, here is a site that explains it.

http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e43013/e46020/index_en.html"

Hope this helps, personal I enjoy the feeling, though I have had it so intense that it became a bit scary.

 

[Hobart]

I have had this sensation and was trying to describe it to someone today and it's how I ended up here. There are few things however that I had that were not mentioned by anyone and I wanted to know if anybody else had had these symptoms/sensations as well
1 Fingers feeling incredibly thin and everything you touch feels immense followed by the reverse where the fingers feel very fat and everything you touch feels tiny.

2 During the onset of the sensation I have a smell that I can only describe as stale nuts.

All the explanations about denseness are exactly what I felt as well. My whole body was totally absorbed in the sensation and as a kid it used to really scare me.

 

[slider142]

Interesting, I didn't know this sensation was so popular. It's similar to my momentary feeling that a book or small item is ridiculously massive, not in size, but in some sort of phantom pseudoweight (doesn't feel heavy as in difficult to hold/lift, just incredibly 'massive'. I cannot describe the sensation accurately).
Ie., you can open the cover of the book without physical difficulty, but there is a nonphysical massiveness to the cover that makes it disconcerting to work with, like a sinister rumbling bass sound (perhaps it was a moment of synesthetic hallucination between the sleeping and waking states). As I grew older the frequency of this sensation, as well as hypnogogic sleep paralysis, waned.

 

[Meegz]

It's so reassuring to find others who have experienced this sensation. I'm 24 now but I haven't felt that feeling since I was about 12. That big/small feeling was bizarre and a lonely experience because my parents wouldn't really understand when I ran to them crying about it.

I've also experienced some things that I feel are related to this sensation. It sounds strange but occasionally as a child I would hear this ominous calm male voice when it was quiet. More often than not it seemed like it came from an unplugged radio in my bedroom. I would hear it mostly while I was in bed so I would have to hum loudly to drown it out. It scared me a lot but went away eventually. Ever since then I've feared that I had latent schizophrenia and it would reoccur eventually. I would also sometimes experience a feeling that tiny people were walking on me, and that my fingertips were soft and mushy like foam.

I'm now concluding that perhaps these sensations are just a side affect of our brain development during childhood, but I would be very interested to read more articles about it.

On a side note, there was a night where I took a tab of LSD having no idea what I was getting myself into. All these sensations I experienced as a child engulfed me, albeit with 100 times the intensity and duration. After that night I've never been more thankful to be on this solid plain of reality. I get the feeling that beyond our bodies there is nothing but a swirling sea of hysteria and our brains are sophisticated enough filter out most of it.

 

[nismaratwork]

There are many manifestation of hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations, and they are quite common. It'a thought that this is often the cause of the "alien abduction" experience of paralysis in bed, lights, and strange figures. For some it's mild, others never experience this, and for some it's quite terrifying. You are certainly not alone in this, and it's not a sign of mental illness or damage

 

[Monique]

This thread has run its course. We've found out the name for the strange sensation that has been described by the majority of people in this thread, which is macrosomatognosia or it's opposite microsomatognosia. Also known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome. More information can be found here: http://www.migraine-aura.org/content/e27891/e27265/e26585/e43013/e46020/index_en.html"

I'm closing the thread, because we don't encourage personal accounts in this forum. If you want to know more about the science behind Alice in Wonderland syndrome, feel free to start a new subject.