Does anyone else experience this "Sleep intoxification"/hypnopompic confusion states

[Atlas]

Does anybody else get this kind of sleep intoxication where either

1. You get stuck in a phase between sleep and wake and your mind is very confused. Thinking irrational thoughts that you remember when you wake up and are completely illogical. Like pretty much jibberish. But when you wake up your cognition returns to normal. (Albeit usually particularly drowsy) [update to add: and there is usually the same kind of exhausted drunkenness feeling as in below]

2. In your dreams you feel some kind of drunk or intoxicated, like you are both incredibly exhausted in the dream as well as feel like the world is kind of swimming around you and your thoughts are simple and often silly like a drunk person. It is not the same as a normal dream which can be ridiculous anyway, there is an all permeating sense of impaired awareness like a kind of drunkenness.


I get both of these and recently the second one pretty badly, usually it only happens on nights when I've overdone it cognitively that day, and it gets much worse when I'm in a crash. It also gets worse during the second half of the night if I don't take a large drink of (saline) water in the middle of the night like I usually do. Sometimes it is scary because I become semi consciously aware of it and wonder if I'm ever going to wake up. But when I wake up somehow my mind returns to normal cognition.

Anyway, curious if anyone else experiences this.

 

[Bluebluesky]

I think it might be called sleep paralysis? At least the first one. I don't have it myself, but someone explained it to me. Sounded like that.

 

[Byles]

The first one is a pretty normal hypnagogical state

 

[Judee]

I have had dreams where I can feel my exhaustion in the dream but I'm not sure I've had either of these exactly. Still mornings are not always my best. Sometimes I wake up feeling very wonky.

Also when I was younger, I used to wake up from naps feeling really out of it and miserable. I think I kinda figured out that if I ate a lot of carbs before laying down, it made it much worse so just an idea to say maybe eat some protein before bed and see if that makes either of these states any better for you.

 

[Atlas]

I think it might be called sleep paralysis? At least the first one. I don't have it myself, but someone explained it to me. Sounded like that.

As far as I know I thought sleep paralysis you are mostly conscious but unable to move.. whereas this is unconsciousness but a kind-of sluggish slipping in and out of partial consciousness.

The first one is a pretty normal hypnagogical state

That's interesting...Yeah, looking back at how I described it, I did get some hypnagogic confusion states before I was ill... but since ME it is on a whole other level. Maybe I'm not describing it well, but it feels a lot different than those states I got when I was relatively healthy. It is a lot more intense and longer duration, and has the same kind of drunkenness feeling as in the dreams. And it only happens on days when I have PEM, which is weird.

I think I kinda figured out that if I ate a lot of carbs before laying down, it made it much worse so just an idea to say maybe eat some protein before bed and see if that makes either of these states any better for you.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah too much carbs before sleep definitely makes the sleep worse in general. I usually find a small bedtime snack helpful though — usually I have a single fruit and in the past had cheese as recc'd by Dr Vallings, but not sure I notice any difference between the two.

 

[Byles]

That's interesting...Yeah, looking back at how I described it, I did get some hypnagogic confusion states before I was ill... but since ME it is on a whole other level. Maybe I'm not describing it well, but it feels a lot different than those states I got when I was relatively healthy. It is a lot more intense and longer duration, and has the same kind of drunkenness feeling as in the dreams. And it only happens on days when I have PEM, which is weird.

I find dreams very interesting and have many experiences with Lucid dreaming, and it can get super weird especially the more you notice them and the more fragmentary your sleep is. As pwME have various sleep issues, it's not strange these sleepstates are affected. but it could also be medication, supplements or even a herbal tea or something.

 

[Marylib]

I had an intensely horrible experience with what I think are called hypnogogic hallucinations - owing to sleep deprivation. I find it hard to describe - but it was like not knowing if you are - or have been - asleep or awake. You kind of wake up and then decide you were actually asleep, but you do not know what state you have come from. Once fully 'really' awake - you realize you haven't been awake or asleep. That's when I obtained some quentiapine. I hate that stuff, but I hated the hallucinations even more. That state is entirely unsustainable unless you reckon you will be dead soon. Problem for me with quentiapine is that the sleepy effects come on the following day rather than on the night you take it. In my experience it's nothing like lucid dreaming - it is torture. I don't know how I could have coped if it went on for longer than a few days/nights.

 

[HRManager]

I experience the first upon waking.

In my dreams I run jump etc and rarely get tired