Extreme Disorientation After Waking Up

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mikeman7918
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21 Mar 2016, 3:11 pm

This morning I had a pretty bad case of disorientation right after waking up. This isn't like not knowing where north is kind of disorientation, if someone were to ask my name when I was in that state then it would probably take at least 10 seconds for me to remember and reply assuming I could do it at all.

There were crazy rather depressing existential thoughts raging through my mind with such intensity that I couldn't focus on anything else like remembering who I am. Everything seemed so unfamiliar despite everything going as it does every morning for me. My body, my voice, and my room all seemed strange and alien somehow. The exact existential things going from my mind is different in each episode, but this time my mind was obsessing about time and how little sense it made. The passage of time seemed strange and alien just like everything else. I couldn't even make sense of my clock (which is digital) and when people talked to me they might as well have spoken in Chinese.

These episodes can last as long as 5 minutes before I get my bearings on who I am (although it's hard to know for sure when I have no idea what time is), but when they are over the feeling of unfamiliarity sticks with me all day. These are very unsettling, and it really doesn't help when you are familiar with the teleportation paradox or last thursdayism.

I read somewhere that disorientation like this is strongly linked with autism and various other mental disorders and it's official name is "sleep drunkenness". So I got curious, does this kind of thing happen to the rest of you?


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Raleigh
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21 Mar 2016, 3:36 pm

I can't speak for a while after waking.
I can only make noises in my throat, or nod, etc.
My speech and my brain take some time to make a connection with each other.
I do feel a certain disorientation but I can usually remember who/where I am etc.
I just wouldn't be able to tell anyone :P


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MissAlgernon
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21 Mar 2016, 3:47 pm

I have sleep drunkenness, it happens more when I didn't sleep enough or outside of my cycle (I'm naturally nocturnal so I often try to force my cycle to diurnal, but it's very hard). It lasts between 1 and 2 hours. My symptoms are somewhat different, because I don't have depressing thoughts, I'm just a zombie. I can barely move in the beginning, I can't really speak or understand what people tell me, I can't think normally, I feel nauseated to the point where I can't swallow anything else than my medications with water, and I can even mix my dreams of last night with reality. The weirdest thing is amnesia. Sometimes my sleep drunkenness is so deep that I remember absolutely nothing that happened during the whole period, even very important things. People tell me what happened later. It's frustrating and I really hate that. If I'm lucky enough, I only have partial amnesia.



babybird
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21 Mar 2016, 3:49 pm

I do experience something like that in the morning time. It's more that I think I've woke up in a house that I lived in years ago and I can hear all the sounds from that house and it is really confusing for (what seems like) a good few minutes.

I also experience disorientation where it comes to what time of year it is and what season it is. This happens whilst I am wide awake however.

I get completely confused, thinking that autumn is coming when it's spring and I think Christmas is coming when it's just gone.

This has been going on for years now and although it hasn't got any better, it hasn't gone any worse either so gives me no cause for concern.


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Trogluddite
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21 Mar 2016, 3:53 pm

I've been notoriously slow to awaken all my life - my Mum remembers it from when she used to have to try and get me ready for school. I don't recall ever experiencing anything quite so "existential" as described in the OP, though I do feel rather like I'm under water or something. It takes me anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour to feel like my thoughts and senses are fully functional. I can't hold a conversation when I'm like that, and struggle to eat any breakfast if need to get anywhere early. I can cope with it much better if I have time to lie in bed until I feel totally 'present' in the world. And I absolutely hate it if people get all noisy and over-enthusiastic, trying to encourage me to wake up more - that just doesn't bring me to my senses any quicker.


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Ashariel
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21 Mar 2016, 3:57 pm

That happens to me sometimes - I wake up having no idea who I am, or where I am. I just lie there for a few minutes, trying to remember, and slowly it comes to me. Usually I remember something vague from my childhood, and then piece it together from there. Definitely a weird phenomenon - I'm glad it doesn't happen to me often.



Outrider
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01 Apr 2016, 8:15 am

I do feel like that a little, but nowhere near that intense.

I'm generally very groggy and take several minutes to wake up properly.

Sometimes just for a few brief seconds after waking up I've completely forgotten my identity and where am I and what I'm doing and all that but it only takes a minute or so.



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01 Apr 2016, 9:32 am

Long ago, there lived a man named Joe,
who dreamt he was a Butterfly.

While he was dreaming,
he lived a happy, fullfilling life of a Butterfly,
knowing nothing of Joe the man.

For a while after he awoke, he could not be sure if
he was a man, who deamt of being a Butterfly, or if
he was a Butterfly, dreaming he was a man.