Strange mental state before falling asleep (Page 3)

I absolutely cannot believe that there are other people out there experiencing what I can only describe as the scariest phenomenon that has ever occurred in my life. I am currently 18, the first time I remember experiencing this was probably about 5 years ago. These episodes are not every night, and when they occur they might occur in episodes of about 6 or 7 times in a period of 2 weeks then not return for a few months. I'm not entirely certain of the pattern, but they have become often enough over the years that I consider it noteworthy.

I agree with the majority of you that the feeling is best described as overwhelming dread. I too tend to experience a ringing or whistling in my ears, a sort of head pounding or even what I would like to call "brain locking"...I can almost feel my brain doing some weird thing where it sort of locks and is very intense. My whole body is of course paralyzed, and I am not asleep yet, this is right as I am attempting to fall asleep.

The first few times this happened I chalked it up to thinking too much before bedtime, I tend to have racing thoughts before this happens. I don't know if that has anything to do with it. But more recently these episodes have become what I can only describe as terrifying. It is exactly how others have said, you feel as though you have two choices. Either you can continue trying to sleep and being completely taken over by this death like feeling, or you can jar yourself awake. I always jar myself awake as soon as possible, and the one or two times I have tried to "ride the wave" I feel like I KNOW something bad is pending and I don't want to find out what it is.

I definitely feel a sense of death involved...but I've recently been pondering a new theory. I myself have had issues with alcoholism and blackouts and know that there are some things I've done that I may be pushing to the back of my mind. Is it possible that these episodes are repressed memories pushing through? Is it possible that we are trying to awaken ourselves because we don't want to uncover them? Is it possible that associated with these episodes are feelings of guilt? I'm not quite sure.

That is just an idea because I do feel more inclined that this problem has more to do with death. I feel as if I continue letting the feeling take over that I may die.

It is quite comforting that other people experience this, I'm not gonna lie, for a time I thought I was crazy.

I get this weirdness too. It went to a different level tonight which brought me here. Normally it'd just be like I'd stop breathing as I was falling asleep then feel really weird and on the verge of dying. Tonight was different though. I felt tired and went to bed feeling fine, then as I lay there I could feel my heart slowing right down and my arms and legs tingling. Then it started to feel like someone was taking my heart out of my chest - it wasn't beating hard or fast (the opposite in fact) it just felt like it was slowly being sucked out through my ribcage. Then it started to feel like more than my heart, like my whole soul was being taken out or something.

Then I started thinking this must be what it feels like to die, and I genuinely thought I was on my way out, but not in a panic attack kind of way. Just in a calm yet slightly apprehensive sort of way. After a few minutes I started to feel slightly normal again and started drifting off to sleep, however that is when the usual breathlessness hit me and I did feel a bit panicky. Once that happens I know I won't get to sleep if I stay in bed so I have to go downstairs and watch tv til I fall asleep on the sofa. Tonight though it felt so weird that I had to look for it on the internet and here I am... good to see I'm not the only freak.

To the original post pleas someone if anyone has found something to help a medicine anything because when it happens to me it's the sam feeling . It just happens at random times and I hate it I take a pm aspirin and pass back out with the tv on but if there is a cheap good medicine out there someone
Please help

many months later for this reply
interesting to find so many with similar experience as I..
I feel almost exactly as you do "jhanso"
yes ever sense I was a child and now I am 55
not every night though and for some periods of my life
it stopped but the past 5 years almost every night
and I am just as scared every time it comes as I was as a child..... yes everytime I think ...now its going to drag me away from life "it" (the feeling) feels as if it is something outside of my self that wish for me to come over from life to death... ? ... but it happens within me
as if my body will just stop living ...without any cause "just stop living" and as you said it feels as if I would not to act and fight it "it" in the different ways I learned also thru the years ..."it" will take me over to death ......but I can as you say fight it...
I believe there is more to this world and life as we know it ......much more I believe we are also spiritual beeings and that there are all sorts of energies spiritual beeings around us..I also find quantom physics very interesting... but I could never find a satisfying explanation to my nightly experiences they are just there and real very real for many years now...

I have the exact same thing happening but its not an everyday thing and it only happens right before i wake up. It is the strangest feeling what i experience is when i am asleep i cant feel my body and it feels like your foot is asleep but without the tingling and i am in a place that looks browwnish black everywhere that is all you can see and i can hear my voice talking inside my head i feel pure fear and its like there are two of me and one is trying to explain to the other me what is going on everytime this has happened the questioning continues until my second voice inside my head says your dead and i instantly wake up after i wake up i feel very depressed and question my own mortality and wonder how can your body even know how it feels to be dead. Ive had another experience and it was the same feeling of pure fear but i was fully awake i was watching tv one day and it advertised so i closed my eyes i was suddenly standing in what looked like a dark cave or cavern and i started to float faster and faster going forward it felt like a straight roller coaster soon i could see a black blur out of the corners of both eyes and then i suddenly stopped and there was someone standing in front of me but it was very dim so i leaned forward and looked and it was me standing there but i looked very skinny and all drawn up looking like starved or sick or something.i opened my eyes and it was over i cant explain the feeling the only way to say it is death.this has only happened once, and i dont know if these experiences are related but the death feeling before i wake up has happened several times during my whole life im 36yo i wish that i had the right words to explain this feeling its hard to describe

I have the exact same thing happening but its not an everyday thing and it only happens right before i wake up. It is the strangest feeling what i experience is when i am asleep i cant feel my body and it feels like your foot is asleep but without the tingling and i am in a place that looks browwnish black everywhere that is all you can see and i can hear my voice talking inside my head i feel pure fear and its like there are two of me and one is trying to explain to the other me what is going on everytime this has happened the questioning continues until my second voice inside my head says your dead and i instantly wake up after i wake up i feel very depressed and question my own mortality and wonder how can your body even know how it feels to be dead. Ive had another experience and it was the same feeling of pure fear but i was fully awake i was watching tv one day and it advertised so i closed my eyes i was suddenly standing in what looked like a dark cave or cavern and i started to float faster and faster going forward it felt like a straight roller coaster soon i could see a black blur out of the corners of both eyes and then i suddenly stopped and there was someone standing in front of me but it was very dim so i leaned forward and looked and it was me standing there but i looked very skinny and all drawn up looking like starved or sick or something.i opened my eyes and it was over i cant explain the feeling the only way to say it is death.this has only happened once, and i dont know if these experiences are related but the death feeling before i wake up has happened several times during my whole life im 36yo i wish that i had the right words to explain this feeling its hard to describe

I feel the exact same thing. The feeling of mortality and death as I'm falling asleep. It mostly happens when I go to bed very exhausted, and/or if I've taken cold medicine or sleeping pills. As well as the feeling of mortality, I also get a supposed rare form of sleep paralysis where I feel a vibrating sensation move throughout my body as I'm falling asleep. It's pretty uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as the full on sleep paralysis where my mind is awake but my body is still asleep; I have to attempt to shake my head around and wake myself up. This makes me wonder if the death "sensations" are a form of sleep paralysis? The feeling for me is odd; it's like my body is sensing my consciousness (or soul?) differently. I feel like whatever makes up "me"/my conscious awareness is in a different position in my body. I know that sounds crazy but I don't know how else to describe it. It feels like "I'm" closer to brain/eyes, and my body is just kind of there and I can look down at it from behind my eyes and feel like I'm not fully a part of that section of my body as much during that time. I also feel like at any moment, if I don't "hold on" or if I "let go", I could leave my body and die. It's a terrifying feeling. If I start thinking about it too much during the moment I feel like it's getting closer and closer and I could accidentally leave myself and this world and die. It feels like some sort of infinite, mysterious blackness that I could float off into. Like I'm on the verge or the outskirts of whatever happens when you die and I could float away into it if I'm not careful...

I'm just glad that there are so many other people that are experiencing this and that I'm not alone (or crazy) haha.

Add me to the list of people who are having this problem! Crazy... Just a note - I've been on pain pills for about two months, and have now stopped - so I wonder if it has anything to do with that? I also was just diagnosed with BPPV (vertigo) although it has stopped now too, the strange sensation of dying or fear of dying comes right before the moment I'm going to fall asleep...

i have been feeling such a problem from 5 or 6 months.
i have been searching about this and i find this site where not only me others are also suffering from this kind of weird disease. plz any one suggest me the solution
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testing

I googled the words "Waking up with strong sense of death" and this was the first thing that popped up. It happened again last night and now here I am at 2:45 am, not wanting to go to sleep. I slept last night from about 1 am to 9 am, but have no idea what time it was when it happened. It could have been while I was trying to fall asleep to a few hours later. Very scary. Can only describe it as a strong sense of death, as if death was actually there with me. Very freaky, dont even know if it was all a dream, though I think I awoke with this feeling. Oh well, lucky me.

Oh my gosh I'm so glad I found this thread. I literally have felt like I've been going insane at night for the last few months. Sometimes I'll wake up and see weird hallucinations of cubes or dots. Other times I'll think I'm all the way awake but kind of relax my vision and the hallucinations return. One time I even saw my blankets levitating. Seeing weird stuff doesn't scare me though. It's the strange feelings that accompany the visions that scare me to death. It feels like life is completely strange and meaningless and I may as well be dead. Sometimes now when I'm trying to go to sleep I'll close my eyes and feel like I'm in a meaningless and empty void before I even fall asleep. I believe in a God and everything but these feelings about mortality are so frightening that I've really questioned my life. Sometimes I've had to have a drink before bed and even that doesn't help all the way. The only thing that really helps is knowing other people go through this stuff and we're all in this life together.

Well, having read all these amazing posts, and relating to pretty much everything described, one thing is for sure the human mind is a complex thing! I suppose if we thnk about it like this, we have the most sophisticated piece of machinery in the universe between our ears, which has a complexity we can barely comprehend. Sometimes it plays up. Sometimes the record just skips a bit. Our sense of self, our mind, our whole sense of reality and our place within it, is the result of electrical circuits and stored memory within our brain. A few crossed signals or processing errors plunge us into a whole world of uncomprehensible strangeness.
That's my take on things, doesn't make the experiences any less frightening when we're in the grip of it, but it can help to think about these things retrospectivly.
Hope you see where I'm coming from.

Hello, I am curious if you still feel like this while falling asleep? I just recently( a month or two) started feeling like this while falling asleep. I often times jerk myself wide awake by kicking the bed or sitting up like a rocket. It is annoying and I am tired. Anyone know how to get it to stop? Thanks.

Hello, I am curious if you still feel like this while falling asleep? I just recently( a month or two) started feeling like this while falling asleep. I often times jerk myself wide awake by kicking the bed or sitting up like a rocket. It is annoying and I am tired. Anyone know how to get it to stop? Thanks.

This has just started to happen to me within the last few months. I'm 34 and have never had any sleeping issues (I could sleep thru a trainwreck!). This has never ever happened to me before. It's really weird how it would come to be at this age. I am very care-free and never have had issues with anxiety. But for me, it's a little different that most the above-mentioned stories. As soon as I lay down to go to sleep, about 1-2 minutes go by, then an overwhelming sensation takes over. My heart starts beating really fast, and I'll see weird hazy visions and I feel like I can't move. One time, just a few weeks ago, I saw myself sliding up the wall all the way to the 10-ft ceiling. Then I felt like I fell down, then woke up with a falling sensation.
Other times, I feel like I'm fighting the overwhelming sensation with my mind, and I make it go away within a few seconds. I have to relax, and concentrate on it, and it works every time.
I;ve never felt "death", or feeling like mentioned above, but I've experienced some freaky stuff. It's maybe happened 5 times total.

It's 3:30 and I just woke up with this; can't sleep. I am currenty in this state on constant dread over death, or life itself it's very hard to say.

The only way I can describe this feeling is by saying that i'm stuck in this one-way, narrow passage towards death and every single moment I live, i'm getting closer and closer to it. Life seems so pointless in this dark room but at the same time I don't want it to end.

Ive felt before the feeling of surrealness of life and not be able to comprehend nothingness after death but this isn't that, it's less logical.

Just an insane, crazy thought but maybe my mind is using this single night as a surrogate of my life, my whole existance. I did wake up in the middle of the night in a dark room and it would explain the sudden feeling of impending doom. (nights are short after all)

Well better try to go back to sleep, have an early start at uni tomorrow, or today.

Hi, I am not sure anyone has exactly described what I feel. At first I felt it strongly after I had been drinking and then recently it has occurred when I haven't had any alcohol.

It is a feeling that occurs when I wake up and it is a thought process that seems to take only a couple seconds. The thought process is usually thinking if someone that recently died and how they died and like an overwhelmIng feeling of helplessness to be able to do anything about it and then it immediately moves on to my own mortality and how I am helpless in doing anything about it but it almost makes me feel like life is helpless , not suicidal or anything but that soon I will die and then that's the end of that. It feels like it is some sort of waking up anxiety but why is it always the same topic ? If I am honest I have previously had anxiety but no attacks since my early 20s and I am now mid thirties. I also have had recently quite a bit of stress in my life but it seems other people get this and don't have stress. Luckily for me after the couple seconds after waking it goes away but does leave a bit of a dark cloud

I used to have sever anxiety but cured it with new and natural state of art technology. I started listening to typneural binaural beats and listened to this product, I had not slept that well in a few weeks and I woke refreshed; actually was surprised to feel that way; it had been so long.

I also share a feeling somewhat like this.
If i think about it really hard, I get this weird sense of being alive.. Like I just can't believe I am actually alive, that I am a part of existence. And it seriously freaks me out so I start thinking about something else.. It's so surreal, I start thinking how i got here and what is the point of life... It's so scarey i'm only 18, I get this weird feeling of.. erm i don't know how to explain it extreame fear i suppose and start sweating and finding it hard to breath... I have to get up and try to take my mind off of it