# Waking up disoriented?



## PositiveThinking!

Did that ever happen to you? Like waking up, feeling panicky, not knowing where you are or what day/month it is, feeling REALLY disoriented .. just wondering because it happened to me this morning and it was quite scary


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## ValleyGirl

PositiveThinking! said:


> Did that ever happen to you? Like waking up, feeling panicky, not knowing where you are or what day/month it is, feeling REALLY disoriented .. just wondering because it happened to me this morning and it was quite scary


Like every single day. I still wake up and have to say to myself "you're in your bedroom in your apartment".


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## babybowrain

That's funny, last night I woke up staring at my closet. For a few seconds I looked around and couldn't tell where I was, what was going on, what I was looking at, etc. It was really scary and then it went back to normal. I told someone and they told me it's normal and always happens to them.


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## PositiveThinking!

ustabetinyfairypeople said:


> That's funny, last night I woke up staring at my closet. For a few seconds I looked around and couldn't tell where I was, what was going on, what I was looking at, etc. It was really scary and then it went back to normal. I told someone and they told me it's normal and always happens to them.


Yeah as soon as I managed to calm down I went back to normal too, but it was quite scary while it lasted


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## billy

Yes, one morning I woke up and had no clue where I was..it is scary, I know how it is.
I had to tell myself, "I'm in my bed in my bedroom" but didn't know what city I was in, had to think really hard..it finally came to me.


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## ohwell

PositiveThinking! said:


> Did that ever happen to you? Like waking up, feeling panicky, not knowing where you are or what day/month it is, feeling REALLY disoriented .. just wondering because it happened to me this morning and it was quite scary


This can be normal, not necessarly related to depersonalization. It can be induced by waking someone from stage IV sleep.


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## PositiveThinking!

billy said:


> This can be normal, not necessarly related to depersonalization. It can be induced by waking someone from stage IV sleep.


Oh that's good to know, since I thought my DP was getting worse again after what happened


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## razer777

I saw this youtube video with Adam Duritz (lead singer of counting crows) who has DPD and he mentioned how he has this. But I frequently get this where I'll look at something and I completely forget what I'm looking at, it lasts like a split second though.


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## letsgetbetter

When I had DP this happened to me a few times a week. I would wake up and not know ANYTHING! Where I was, WHO I was...anything at all. I knew that I should know. It would take about 4 or 5 seconds for it to all come back. It was horrible. It still happens occasionally even though I'm pretty much recovered.


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## PositiveThinking!

letsgetbetter said:


> When I had DP this happened to me a few times a week. I would wake up and not know ANYTHING! Where I was, WHO I was...anything at all. I knew that I should know. It would take about 4 or 5 seconds for it to all come back. It was horrible. It still happens occasionally even though I'm pretty much recovered.


Really? You're recovered? How did you get DP and how did you get rid of it?


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## snowcat3030

PositiveThinking! said:


> Did that ever happen to you? Like waking up, feeling panicky, not knowing where you are or what day/month it is, feeling REALLY disoriented .. just wondering because it happened to me this morning and it was quite scary


I can possibly shed some light on what this may be. There is a name for it but I can't remember. It happens when you get suddently awoken after just falling asleep into a particular sleeping cycle. You CAN get it in the morning, you may wake up without relising and snooze a bit, and go back to sleep for a snooze - just at that point you are awoken and BAM, confusion, dissorientation, horrible brain feeling like you are not there and pure PANIC - the panic helps to snap out of it.

Found it - Sleep Inertia

sleep inertia
feelings of grogginess and/or sleepiness that persist longer than 10 to 20 minutes after waking up. Symptoms include what goes under the scientific term is transitory "hypovigilance" or low vigilance, along with confusion, disorientation of behavior and impaired cognitive and sensory-motor performance. Happens often when a person is aroused from deep sleep in the first part of the night. More on sleep inertia.

Hope that helps bro


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## orbitbrazil22

I want to know if this has ever happened to someone outside of their bedroom? I can tell you it has happened to me.


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## PositiveThinking!

snowcat3030 said:


> I can possibly shed some light on what this may be. There is a name for it but I can't remember. It happens when you get suddently awoken after just falling asleep into a particular sleeping cycle. You CAN get it in the morning, you may wake up without relising and snooze a bit, and go back to sleep for a snooze - just at that point you are awoken and BAM, confusion, dissorientation, horrible brain feeling like you are not there and pure PANIC - the panic helps to snap out of it.
> 
> Found it - Sleep Inertia
> 
> sleep inertia
> feelings of grogginess and/or sleepiness that persist longer than 10 to 20 minutes after waking up. Symptoms include what goes under the scientific term is transitory "hypovigilance" or low vigilance, along with confusion, disorientation of behavior and impaired cognitive and sensory-motor performance. Happens often when a person is aroused from deep sleep in the first part of the night. More on sleep inertia.
> 
> Hope that helps bro


Thanks for the information, good to know that this didn't have anything to do with DP


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## iforget

It happens to me also but not only when I wake but during other times of the day during other situations- Occasionally it's preceded by a feeling of panic/dejavu and not being able to breathe- Then after that happens I feel like my body/mind is going to shut down- I see things but have no idea what they're called and then get this sort of out of body experience feeling- It happened to me again this morning (which is why I joined this forum!) It was awful- Not as frightening as the first time it happened, but I still find it difficult to just let go and go with it until it passes- Sometimes hours after it passes it feels like it's on the verge of happening again and this feeling like it's going to happen again can happen several times afterwards in the same day- Like getting side-swiped- It's completely weird beyond words- I've recognized what one of the triggers are which helps- How it helps I'm not exactly sure! Maybe it helps me to see the first step of the experience as sort of a warning to prepare myself because an episode could soon follow- I've tried to throw myself into some activity in an effort to ward it off which sometimes works but other times it seems like I just have to sit back and let it happen-


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