...inner monoolgue screaming at you? I am going to attach an old conversation/blog I found to help get across my question. Please ad to this if you have had this experience. I want to find out if there is a named cause!
NOTE: At least for me this is NOT Sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming and I have had both occur, this is completely different.
Some say could be related to "alice in Wonderland syndrome"
feel free to email me at [email protected]
Experience 1 (Random person):
It's a really strange feeling. I am actually currently experiencing in this very moment. I've been experiencing once every two months or so the past few years. When I am falling asleep, it seems like I hear extremely loud screaming. I don't really hear it but it's like a feeling of hearing loud screaming inside my head. At the same time, time seems to slow down and I feel like I've traveled through time back to the past. All this time I experience extreme fear. Once again, I don't really feel the fear, but it's more like a memory of this feeling of extreme fear. It's strange because everytime this happens I have a vague memory of feeling this way once when I was maybe 5. It's like all this really happened to me at that time and it has been pushed into my unconsciousness and it would creep back up once in awhile. But I really have no recollections of anything remotely close to this ever happening to me when I was young. I had been experiencing this since about 10 minutes ago while trying to sleep and decided to wake up and write about this. Maybe someone with a background in psychology can explain this. I really would like to find out what this is all about.
DISCUSSION ENSUES:
It could be a panic attack, or something else related to anxiety disorders. Does it seem to be related to stress at all? Specific activities during the day, reading or seeing disturbing things before bed, being worried about things in your life?
Hope people have helpful idea for you, man--that sounds like a pretty rough thing to live with.
posted by hippugeek at 10:42 PM on April 1, 2007
Sleep Paralysis can often cause people to have auditory (as well as visual) hallucinations. Many times it is incoherent murmuring, talking, or even screams. I've personally experienced it as shouting coming from the next (empty) room followed by whispers right next to me.
However, I have never heard of anyone continuing to have such hallucinations while fully awake after the fact.
posted by nightchrome at 10:42 PM on April 1, 2007
Does it sound like one person screaming, or many? Words or just general yelling?
posted by Liosliath at 10:48 PM on April 1, 2007
I've had the exact same thing happen to me many times when I was a kid. Screaming sensation in my head and extreme fear when I was trying to fall asleep. Every time it would happen was when I was very sick with a fever or flu. I've never had it happen when I was in good health, and it hasn't happened to me since I was about 12. I dunno if that helps at all.
posted by sputgop at 10:54 PM on April 1, 2007
I've experienced what nightchrome describes few dozen times myself.
Also, when I was a child, I had night terrors; sometimes, now, after waking up after a semi-asleep sleep paralysis thing, I'm left with a feeling very evocative of the aftereffect of night terrors. This corresponds very closely to "...a memory of this feeling of extreme fear. It's strange because every time this happens I have a vague memory of feeling this way once when I was maybe 5."
posted by onshi at 10:59 PM on April 1, 2007
Wow, that is so interesting. I used to have a very similar experience when I was young. Like you, I would hear a loud screaming in my head or an intense buzzing/ringing sound. Time would feel like it slowed down and my movements, even the slightest ones, would feel incredibly fast and disorienting. The voice of my mom talking to me would sound impossibly far away though she was only across the room. My body would feel like it was shrinking down to a tiny size, yet I could look down and see that my arms and feet were still normal.
This was not a common occurrence. It happened probably once every month or so when I was 4-10 years old. Each time, it only lasted a minute or less. Although, I do remember that when it would happen, another "episode" would usually follow shortly the next day or so.
I think I eventually grew out of it. I haven't totally experienced it in over a decade. I'm 22 now. Very rarely, I'll experience it again, but very very slightly. But it will be enough to bring back the memories that I had when I was younger.
I googled around trying to find something that would explain these symptoms and the best fit is Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I read online a few years back that there is an unexplained high percentage of children from Taiwan that suffer from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I was born in Taiwan, so maybe I did indeed have AIWS. It sounds crazy as hell, but who knows?
I've never met an
NOTE: At least for me this is NOT Sleep paralysis or lucid dreaming and I have had both occur, this is completely different.
Some say could be related to "alice in Wonderland syndrome"
feel free to email me at [email protected]
Experience 1 (Random person):
It's a really strange feeling. I am actually currently experiencing in this very moment. I've been experiencing once every two months or so the past few years. When I am falling asleep, it seems like I hear extremely loud screaming. I don't really hear it but it's like a feeling of hearing loud screaming inside my head. At the same time, time seems to slow down and I feel like I've traveled through time back to the past. All this time I experience extreme fear. Once again, I don't really feel the fear, but it's more like a memory of this feeling of extreme fear. It's strange because everytime this happens I have a vague memory of feeling this way once when I was maybe 5. It's like all this really happened to me at that time and it has been pushed into my unconsciousness and it would creep back up once in awhile. But I really have no recollections of anything remotely close to this ever happening to me when I was young. I had been experiencing this since about 10 minutes ago while trying to sleep and decided to wake up and write about this. Maybe someone with a background in psychology can explain this. I really would like to find out what this is all about.
DISCUSSION ENSUES:
It could be a panic attack, or something else related to anxiety disorders. Does it seem to be related to stress at all? Specific activities during the day, reading or seeing disturbing things before bed, being worried about things in your life?
Hope people have helpful idea for you, man--that sounds like a pretty rough thing to live with.
posted by hippugeek at 10:42 PM on April 1, 2007
Sleep Paralysis can often cause people to have auditory (as well as visual) hallucinations. Many times it is incoherent murmuring, talking, or even screams. I've personally experienced it as shouting coming from the next (empty) room followed by whispers right next to me.
However, I have never heard of anyone continuing to have such hallucinations while fully awake after the fact.
posted by nightchrome at 10:42 PM on April 1, 2007
Does it sound like one person screaming, or many? Words or just general yelling?
posted by Liosliath at 10:48 PM on April 1, 2007
I've had the exact same thing happen to me many times when I was a kid. Screaming sensation in my head and extreme fear when I was trying to fall asleep. Every time it would happen was when I was very sick with a fever or flu. I've never had it happen when I was in good health, and it hasn't happened to me since I was about 12. I dunno if that helps at all.
posted by sputgop at 10:54 PM on April 1, 2007
I've experienced what nightchrome describes few dozen times myself.
Also, when I was a child, I had night terrors; sometimes, now, after waking up after a semi-asleep sleep paralysis thing, I'm left with a feeling very evocative of the aftereffect of night terrors. This corresponds very closely to "...a memory of this feeling of extreme fear. It's strange because every time this happens I have a vague memory of feeling this way once when I was maybe 5."
posted by onshi at 10:59 PM on April 1, 2007
Wow, that is so interesting. I used to have a very similar experience when I was young. Like you, I would hear a loud screaming in my head or an intense buzzing/ringing sound. Time would feel like it slowed down and my movements, even the slightest ones, would feel incredibly fast and disorienting. The voice of my mom talking to me would sound impossibly far away though she was only across the room. My body would feel like it was shrinking down to a tiny size, yet I could look down and see that my arms and feet were still normal.
This was not a common occurrence. It happened probably once every month or so when I was 4-10 years old. Each time, it only lasted a minute or less. Although, I do remember that when it would happen, another "episode" would usually follow shortly the next day or so.
I think I eventually grew out of it. I haven't totally experienced it in over a decade. I'm 22 now. Very rarely, I'll experience it again, but very very slightly. But it will be enough to bring back the memories that I had when I was younger.
I googled around trying to find something that would explain these symptoms and the best fit is Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I read online a few years back that there is an unexplained high percentage of children from Taiwan that suffer from Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I was born in Taiwan, so maybe I did indeed have AIWS. It sounds crazy as hell, but who knows?
I've never met an