Do you ever wake up thinking you are somewhere else?

[ShitStrategy]

I've had this experience repeatedly over the last few months - I wake up about an hour or so after falling asleep, and I'm convinced I'm alone in a strange room (or an abandoned shop, or a tent, or a filthy B&B etc etc) with no access to a loo, and I haven't taken my nightly medication.

It takes me a minute or so to reorientate myself, and I realise I'm at home in my bed, DH asleep beside me, the loo is across the landing and of course I've taken my tablets, as I have every night for 20 years.

It's a really odd, disturbing sensation and it feels like it's every night.

Does anyone else get it, what is it? Alzheimer's is rife in the family so I'm understandably worried it's a sign of something!

Yes, a lot! I wake up suddenly with absolutely no idea where I am or who the person lying next to me is (my husband...). It's called sleep drunkenness I think - can be linked to depression and anxiety.

Yes I read something about "confusion arousal" () being sleep drunkeness. DH says he can have a conversation with me whilst I'm still asleep and I come out with all sorts of weird shit.

My medication is for anxiety but it is well controlled - I've been a bit stressed with work recently and I have to stay away occasionally, usually once a month or more, but only for 2 nights tops.

Yes, I get that regularly. I travel a lot for work and I have a commuter flat in another city to where I live, so I reckon it is because I often am in different places that I don´t immediate relate to where I am immediately I wake up.

It has happened to me two or three times. It was a really strange feeling. I think anxiety cause it for me.

I get it fairly often, DH thinks I'm strange! I have very vivid dreams so if I wake, I have no clue what's happening or where I am. I've been known to lay there, scared rigid because I don't know who it is laying beside me (obvs DH). I find it happens more when I'm stressed and worried over things.

Occasionally. It’s a horrible feeling isn't it.

Quite frequently, you're not alone OP.

Yes. I sometimes wake up thinking I'm in one of our old houses and for a minute I can 'see' the layout of the old room. I'm probably not quite awake though, just think I am.

I'm glad to hear that it's quite common - so I'm not losing my marbles then?!

It's so disorientating, it weirds me out and I'm always so relieved to discover I'm not actually locked in some weird place dying for a wee.

I regularly wake in the middle of the night with a feeling of doom. Like I am about to be attacked by the light from a tv or something outside or the world is ending. The other night I found myself crawling under the tv in the hotel as I was convinced it was some sort of spy device!

Whoah Bodicea that's awful. I haven't anything quite that bad, but it feels like it's not far away if you see what I mean? Like it wouldn't take much for me to be climbing into the wardrobe, sort of thing.

I used to be a bit of a regular sleep walker/talker. I don’t know if the two things are related! I also used to occasionally wake up feeling like I couldn’t move, body seemed to be frozen/pinned down although that hasn’t happened for a few years thankfully!!

I'm definitely a sleep talker, haven't ever walked...have had occasional episodes of sleep paralysis (horrible), but more so in my teenage drinking years! I don't drink at all now.

I got this really badly for a year or so in my 20s - it was awful, it's horrible waking up terrified every night. My poor then-bf found it really upsetting that I would start literally screaming at him in the night - a couple of times I accused him of trying to assault me before I realised where I was and who he was. We used to sleep naked (ah, young love) and I had to start putting pyjamas on because I was waking up so terrified that I was naked, and often convinced that I was in a public place.

I was a sleep walker as a child, and still am a sleep talker. It also coincided with - but definitely preceded - my first really bad bout of depression. I heard something on radio 4 recently about research suggesting that rather than sleep problems being a symptom of depression it might actually be that they come first and trigger the depression (when a person is already prone to it) - I found that really interesting as it seemed a bit like my experience.

I also had a brief recurrence when DS was a newborn - waking up in terror convinced he was in the bed and suffocated, mostly, sometimes waking up convinced someone had stolen him - which is apparently also very common.

I also wonder if it's linked to sleep talking walking. I sleepwalk, used to sleepwalk but haven't since being an adult. My DS also sleep walks and talks. He woke up in the back garden a few months ago - we now have to hide all the door keys.

Do you go to the toilet straight before bed (and perhaps limit fluids in the 2 hours before)?

It sounds quite disturbing op, hopefully it stops.

Now and again yes.

Pretty sure I've always been a sleep talker, DH discovered it is great sport to talk back to me and see what I come out with. He has also been chatting away to me thinking I'm awake, when I say something completely nonsensical and he realises I might look awake but I'm not.

Yes I do normally use the loo before I go to bed but I don't limit fluids. In fact I rather enjoy a bucket of tea IN bed before I go to sleep, maybe that's not helping!

I've never been "physical" with it, apart from biting a BF quite badly when I dreamt I was biting into pizza.

Is the tea decaffeinated? If it's not then try cutting it out as it's probably not assisting a restful nights sleep and it's probably making you need to pee

I get this a lot, think I’ve pinpointed it to stress. Similar to @Bodicea, I can wake up thinking I’m buried somewhere or in a strange place, or rummaging because I’m convinced I’ve lost something. I also have sleep hallucinations and can sometimes spend a good few minutes having an inner tussle over what I know to be real and what I think I can see!

Advice would be to try not to stress about it, as it’s likely a vicious cycle! Is anything worrying you at the moment?

Not exactly like that but about 5 times I've woken up with no idea who DH is. I've not turned to look at him so wonder if I'm still partially asleep when it happens but can clearly recollect that I have followed a thought process of "I know he knows my sister..." but that's as far as I can get for a few minutes. It's not scary just really really confusing. It's not that I think I'm in bed with someone other than DH, it's that i dont even remember i have a DH.

Yes this has happened twice. But I have been struggling with anxiety and stress for a long time. So I don’t know if this has anything to do with it. But it is something that I want to know more about.

I get it if I've been away or am away....first night I have no idea where or who I am!