'Temporary Reality Distortion/Confusion'?

In lack of a better description, I chose 'Temporary Reality Distortion/Confusion' as a fairly accurate description of the several incidents I've had in my life. I'll try my best explaining what I mean.

Have you guys ever woke up after falling asleep in the couch/bed or just anywhere, and then having a feeling of unease and confusion? You get that very unsettling feeling of loneliness and emptyness, as if you're alone in the world and that everyone has disappeared off the face of the earth. And you're 'surrounded' by a really unsettling atmosphere that kinda like goes through your body sort of like chills.

Now this hasn't happened to me in quite a long time, so I'm only describing from very vague memories of these incidents. Also this one time during one of these very rare incidents I remember having left the TV on, and this really strange program or commercial was being shown. Almost as if it was an enforcement for the unsettling atmosphere, sort of like it was part of the whole 'Reality Distortion'.

Since I have very vague memories of these incidents as mentioned before I can't really explain with a lot of detail. Neither can I remember if everything went back to normal all of a sudden after these 'incidents' without having to fall asleep again or anything like that. So I can't tell wheather these were just very active dreams (aka lucid dreaming?) or something else unexplainable? What I do know is that these aren't memories of what I usually get from dreams, because these memories are of something that feels a lot more real than a dream.

Considering these incidents were very likely not dreams, I have a real urge to find out what they were. Maybe you guys can help?

What do you think?

I frequently experienced similar incidents back when I was around 15 -16 years old. I remember I told my mom that I had a feeling of everything around me being unreal and that I could not explain it in a better way. As you say, it comes after waking up from sleep...and almost always if I fell asleep after school and woke up later in the evening.

It is very unpleasant and at times I could almost see the world around me in pixel like state. Inside my head questions were raging...why am I living now...what is going on. Later on I have been thinking that it could have something to do with that the activity and amount of certain neurotransmitters in the brain are low right after one wakes up. For instance, depression tends to be worse in the morning and get better during the day. I really do not know, but I guess it could be a plausible explanation...

I can't say I had an experience like yours, but I have woke up being unable to "focus". Usually this has happened when I just went to sleep, or was repeatedly woken up before I could go into REM (dream). To maintain your sanity in a very real sense sleep, is not at all as important as dreaming. Over time, if you don't dream, you will go mad. Sleep deprevation is a standared technique of interegation because it reduces your resistance. (please forgive any spelling errors, I AM tired at the moment)

I have had this occur to me as well...along with some very odd commercials and even very odd programs airing and trying to figure out what they were and never being able to find anything even remotely close to it, and I would remember the sentences and everything all the dialouge so if it was even remotley close I'd be like that's it, thats what I was seeing.

Well can you share what those commercials said?^^

I have woken up a second after falling asleep, and felt a sensation like being sucked into a vortex and my mindstate was very confused - it was a sickening feeling. I couldn't "think". It lasted for about 3 seconds while I shook myself to wake up properly.

Apart from that, nope.

reply to post by ZikhaN


I can't remember what the commercials said, but the one show stuck in my mind forever. It was like that episode of Your Money Or your Life on that Outer limits or whatever, I even thought it was an Outer Limits episode, but the game show wasn't called that when I saw the show I saw, but basically it was like answer these questions right you win the money, answer wrong, they take your life, I fell asleep before the end and I had already seen that episode with the fake game show, but this was NOT the same!!! I still beleive it's a real game show in sum messed up alternate reality!!!! I remember seeing the title of the game show, but can't recall what it was either. I can remember one commercial now was for an airline that was non existent as far as I know.

Personally I think that it all comes down to '___'. In adults the pineal gland, the source of our di-methyl tryptamine, is calcified. This is why our dreams as children are so much more intense. '___' is a neuro-transmitter, the most potent hallucinogenic substance known to man, and it is used by the brain during the dream-state. It takes the place of serotonin and uses the same receptors.

If you are disturbed from this state, you will still have '___' in your system even after it stops being released, until the monoamineoxydase can break it down. This could explain the feeling of un-reality and strangeness you experience, and these exoeriences will always be stronger in children because their pineal glands haven't been calcified yet (this usually happens by the age of 12)

This isn't the only time you can get a flood of endogenously produced '___', though. Any event which causes large amounts of adrenalin to flood your system the barried of andrenalayse cells surrounding the pineal gland can be overcome, resulting in a release of '___'. This could explain many alien abduction experiences, as during medical tests of '___' carried out in 2000 many participants reported such experiences.

Originally posted by Scorpiotropic
I frequently experienced similar incidents back when I was around 15 -16 years old. I remember I told my mom that I had a feeling of everything around me being unreal and that I could not explain it in a better way. As you say, it comes after waking up from sleep...and almost always if I fell asleep after school and woke up later in the evening.

It is very unpleasant and at times I could almost see the world around me in pixel like state. Inside my head questions were raging...why am I living now...what is going on. Later on I have been thinking that it could have something to do with that the activity and amount of certain neurotransmitters in the brain are low right after one wakes up. For instance, depression tends to be worse in the morning and get better during the day. I really do not know, but I guess it could be a plausible explanation...

yesss.. i had this very same thing happen to me.. i was sood on a field.. and there was a tree.. expect the tree didnt look like a tree.. more of a pixel object from a cartoon.. i remember telling a freind of mine at the time i felt like i was in a episode of the simpsons lol.. But really its scary to think that many people think in this way.. its not just a minute proportion of the population.. its actually alot..

onestly now im freaked out lol

AND TO TOP IT OFF.. I WAS 16 WHEN I ALSO EXPERIENCED THIS LOL

Excellent thread, very interesting thanks!