Alice in Wonderland syndrome

Probable Cause of Sleep Paralysis, Hypnagogic Hallucinations, & REM Behavior Disorder

it never scares me, in fact its kinda "enjoyable", but ive always wondered what caused it. anyone else have any knowledge on this?

I'm a psychology major, so I'll take over here. :) My understanding is that your mind awakens before your body does. What does this mean? REM atonia is a state in which your motor neurons aren't stimulated, so the muscles in your body will not move.

During sleep paralysis, it is frequent to feel like you should be able to hop out of bed and start your day, only to find you can't open your eye lids, you can't roll over, you can't breathe faster or harder than your body is already doing, and so on and so forth.

When sleep paralysis ends, the REM atonia has ended, so your motor neurons will respond again. I often find it easier to start twitching my finger back and forth at first, and then when I can do that, I can slowly start to move my hand, then my arm, then doing this will slowly end the REM atonia fully.

It can be very terrifying knowing that the opposite can happen, you can be asleep, but REM atonia may not set in fully. This phenomenon would be referred to as REM behavior disorder, during which, you would act out the physical actions taking place in your dreams - in part or whole.

The loss of motor inhibition leads to a wide spectrum of behavioral release during sleep. This extends from simple limb twitches to more complex integrated movement, in which sufferers appear to be unconsciously acting out their dreams. These behaviors can be violent in nature and in some cases will result in injury to either the patient or their bed partner.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REM_behavior_disorder


Cool! I actually told my boyfriend what I experience (I had never told him before) and he gets a similar thing sometimes as well! Maybe it is more common than we thought....
It is very common n3o, surveys which took place in several countries have shown that 20 to 60% of the population experience such phenomena.

kurt, I don't think anyone knows why this kinda stuff happens.

I've got a pretty good idea why. ;)
 
In my case macropsia (objects appear larger than they are) with occasional pelopsia (objects appear closer). .


So thats what that is called.....

This has happened to me randomly since i was a child even before my drug days mostly at night when going to bed but recent years has happened during the day and at high times of stress...When this is happening i also notice sounds get louder and more aggressive and scary..i also sometimes get a feeling that something has happened that i couldn't stop and someone is laughing at me but that was more when i was a kid and it scared me..maybe what i have is different but ive searched everywhere and could never get an answer..
 
I'm not sure if it's the same or similar but when lying in bed and I close my eyes it feels like I've become really big the room really small (or vice-versa), it's keeps me awake for nights then bam and I'm fine for a few weeks. Used to have it a lot as a child when trying to sleep in the dark (hence why I'm afraid of it) and still do do a degree, very uncomfortable to explain though.
 
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