Middle of the Night and something Strange just happened

[HiveHoofHole]

I woke up with a start about 10 minutes ago. Thought I could hear something moving around the house outside. I got out of bed, feeling a bit weird, then walked around the upstairs peering out the windows. In one corner of the house there are some curious vibrating sounds. Eventually after much craning of my neck out of the window, I see a badger rubbing it’s backside against the wall, obviously scratching some ticks out.

Now here is the weird bit. I shut the window, walk down the corridor thinking I will just pop to the loo, am definitely wide awake, not groggy or the like. I catch a glance in the mirror and I have the head of a Thomson’s gazelle. I blink and think this cannot be real, but sure enough it is. It’s faded now but really shook me up. I’ve had no wine, don’t do drugs or on any meds. Very bloody weird.

Could you have dreamt the whole thing? Is a badger scratching its behind a normal occurrence for you?

Yes we have badgers here. We film them also with cameras sometimes. I was wide awake and in fact have not gone back to sleep. It happened 10 minutes ago as I said. Gone back to check mirror and lighting - nothing amiss so not a prank.

I can only imagine some sort of ocular hallucination. How unsettling for you. Has anything similar ever occurred?

Only once before about 20 years ago. I returned to a village I had previously lived in for a while Summer. It was early December, as I walked through a kissing gate by a church, my favourite walk back then, for about 5 seconds everything around me had changed into full green verges, warm sun, leaves in trees. Then it faded back to Winter again. No antelope head then though!

How strange. No suggestions as to why other than I guess tiredness might have affected your eyes/brain?
You feeling ok generally?

Yep too form. I’ve googled @Pomegranatemolasses suggestion ‘ocular hallucination’ and it comes up with a Charles Bonnet syndrome - possible cause. Only thing is I don’t have any sight problems, far from it in fact. Just weird!

Top form I mean.

You must have an active imagination (in a good way!). Do you dream vividly? Are you creative or artistic? Do you read a lot of fiction? Listen to music? Dance?

You’re coming across as quite sanguine. I’d be bloody petrified if it were me!

Not particularly artistic, at the moment I’m heavily involved in technical stuff. I’m not one to flap at anything though. Just take it in my stride. Though I’m wide awake now and won’t sleep that’s for sure.

Is your partner there?

Are you a Thomson's Gazelle?

How strange. Have you been very stressed lately?
Maybe you weren't as wide awake as you thought you were?

Obviously a dream. No badger could rub its backside on a house hard enough to cause the wall to vibrate! And much as I am impressed you can tell a Thompson's gazelle from other types of gazelle, or indeed from a cow, I suspect this could be strong evidence you were dreaming.

I think you just didn't come around properly. I had something vaguely similar last week, I was fast asleep then started to wake up thinking my housemate was screaming at me but I was unable to respond, paralysed. Then I thought it was next door and couldn't work out if I was holding my phone or not.

Turns out the noise was a fox screaming outside my bedroom window when I'd woken up properly, they really make a racket at times. It may happen if you're disturbed in deep sleep?

I've had 2 incidences of being 'properly awake' and both times (different people) I was asking my partner, if he knew where my partner was.

Both times was able to hold a conversation, recognise where I was and who I was, and no fear of being with a stranger, lights on and saying yes I know, but really where is name? It took a good couple of minutes to recognise the face.

The first time we were in a shared house and i went in to everybody else's room to see if they knew where he was. Explaining no I've checked and that's not him.

Quite frightening really, but have since had MRI for unrelated issues and all good, so twice in near on 30 years isn't bad.

I hadnt looked in a mirror (possibly fortunately) but I do remember telling housemates its def not him as he has blue hair. The 2nd time it was just me and partner and afternoon nap in daylight.

No, definitely not. I was and still am wide awake.

I have no idea about your experience, but it reminds me of the time I had to try and identify a moth that I had seen in a book in the middle of the night. I had seen the moth only in a dream, but not knowing what it was was stopping me from getting back to sleep...

@MrsEricBana

Are you a Thomson's Gazelle?

Occam's Razor says 'yes'.

I’m looking at the Charles Bonnet syndrome. It seems too uncanny to ignore now.

But I do accept it was because I was still in some dream like state.

I've also been known to get up, go downstairs, make a sandwich and bring it back to bed - the proof and only knowledge of it being in my hair and in bed in the morning.

@HiveHoofHole

I’m looking at the Charles Bonnet syndrome. It seems too uncanny to ignore now.

You are researching inherited sight loss on the back of one incident?

Responding because this struck a cord with me, although I don't know what a Thomson's gazelle is. In 2012 I had a bad fall in poor weather, walking my dog. My head hit the pavement. It resulted in a massively swollen black eye and bruised face, but I didn't get it checked out - it was just a fall. For months after that, several times a day, I would seem to fade out of reality and see a specific sort of image. It involved a woman with short, dark, wavy hair. Over time it became more frequent, and if somebody was in the room with me they'd know it was happening. I started making a mark on the calendar everytime it happened, which could be up to five times a day, and by the time it stopped happening it had occurred over 100 times. I felt as if I was getting closer and closer to knowing what this image was showing me, and it would turn out to be something lodged in my memory. That never happened, and I never had any explanation for it as I had no idea how I could ever have explained it so that a GP could understand what I was experiencing. It was a bit like what I imagine a small epilectic seizure might be like.

The closest I came to it was through researching deja vu and finding out that there was more than one form of this type of 'vu' vision. It was such a weird period (and frightening, simply because I couldn't understand it). Might the image in the mirror be connected to some physical thing that's happened to you - and the badger's just coincidence? I was about to turn off the laptop but when I saw this I responded because, as strange as your experience is, I totally believe that you saw what you saw.

I'd write down a detailed log of tonight and if it happens again speak to your GP.

It was probably a one off though. The mind can be baffling at times and play tricks.

Ah you've googled yourself into a syndrome, good luck with sleep tonight, we all end up with a brain tumour on Dr Google.

@cheesemongery

So what ails you tonight, my child?