Weird Dreams You Have

[annasuave]

Originally Posted by flameswin

I also get sleep paralysis that some have mentioned. Scary as hell. It's a tough phenomenon to describe to people who don't have it, to explain how odd/jolting it is.

I've read (I think on CP) that there are various degrees of sleep paralysis that range from a couple of seconds to literally minutes, combined with thinking someone's in your room trying to attack you.....Just imagine being "awake" unable to move you body and you're dreaming that someone is attacking you....and this goes on for like 5 minutes? That's insane.

Luckily I'm on the low end of the scale and get it about once every 3 weeks or so. For me it's usually 5 - 10 seconds. I just lay there, trying desperately to move limbs, then I start feeling like I can't breathe (I'd imagine cause your body is still trying to breath extremely lightly like when you're sleeping, so you can't speed it up/take larger breaths), so panic sets in.

Then when I snap out of it, I usually just jolt up and breath heavily, like I've just woken from a nightmare. Pretty surreal experience every time.

Wow! That's sounds crazy-scary! I've never heard of that before.

And it totally explains a very strange experience I had a kid where I woke up once, unable to move, and totally convinced that Marvin The Martian from Bugs Bunny was in my room trying to drink my soul.

[JonDuke]

As a teen, I had a constantly reoccurring dream. I was in a green, single car, roller coaster. I went up and up a spiral staircase-like course, and at the top, the track ended. As soon as I went over the edge, I woke up. I've had that dream dozens of times, but haven't had it on over a ten years.

I've found that with meds like Champix (for quitting smoking) I always had very graphic and vivid dreams. Ones that, when I awoke, I thought I could write a script for a top selling horror film. At the time, I could recall every fine detail of the entire dream, but never did write them down and forgot them by mid day. Wish I had kept a record of them though.

One final one: In 2001, I had a dream of a good friend back home. We were up to no good, underage drinking, and the cops chased us through the woods. He was the only one who they caught, and in the dream, we later learned that they shot him. That's when I woke up. I had never dreamt of him before or since. A few days after that dream, he was killed by a drunk driver in a car crash while driving his mother to work. Always thought that was weird.

[Ex libris]

Originally Posted by flameswin

I also get sleep paralysis that some have mentioned. Scary as hell. It's a tough phenomenon to describe to people who don't have it, to explain how odd/jolting it is.

I've read (I think on CP) that there are various degrees of sleep paralysis that range from a couple of seconds to literally minutes, combined with thinking someone's in your room trying to attack you.....Just imagine being "awake" unable to move you body and you're dreaming that someone is attacking you....and this goes on for like 5 minutes? That's insane.

Luckily I'm on the low end of the scale and get it about once every 3 weeks or so. For me it's usually 5 - 10 seconds. I just lay there, trying desperately to move limbs, then I start feeling like I can't breathe (I'd imagine cause your body is still trying to breath extremely lightly like when you're sleeping, so you can't speed it up/take larger breaths), so panic sets in.

Then when I snap out of it, I usually just jolt up and breath heavily, like I've just woken from a nightmare. Pretty surreal experience every time.

This is so true. I've tried explaining it to people, and they pretty much think I'm crazy, haha.
I used to get it quite often, but thankfully it hasn't happened to me for quite awhile...it's a completely terrifying experience. For me, it always happens that I'm drowning or being suffocated and trying to call out for help, but I can't move or make a sound.

I have to add, because I'm a linguistics geek , that this is actually the origin of the word nightmare. The phenomenon of sleep paralysis was thought to be caused by demons (called Mare in Old English) sitting on a persons chest as they are sleeping, causing terrifying thoughts and the inability to move.

[RougeUnderoos]

This is a cool Grantland "30 for 30" short about 70's Bruins tough guy John Wensink. He briefly describes what I guess could be the hockey player's version of the "exam dream".

http://grantland.com/features/30-for...our-tough-guy/

His last NHL game was in 1983 (for the Devils). Very loosely paraphrasing... "I still occasionally have this dream where I get a call up from the Bruins and I can't get my skates tied up and they leave me behind".