How do you feel when you first wake up?

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I used to feel relatively normal when first waking. I basically knew who I was, where I was, and what I had to do (get up, shower, breakfast, class starts at 8:00, etc.) The past weeks, things have been getting progressively worse, and it's starting to scare me.

Now, when I wake up, almost every morning I suffer through maybe 30 seconds of confusion. What day is it? What am I doing today? Do I have class? Do I work today? Why am I awake so early? It sorts itself out after a minute and I get out of bed and do my thing.

Yesterday I had a terrible wake-up. I truly couldn't figure out who I was. When the alarm first went off and I slammed the snooze button, I laid there and asked the regular questions - why am I awake this early? What do I need to do? Then I realized something else and it was terrifying. I couldn't figure out who I was or where I was. I tried to get a mental picture of myself and that didn't work. I just started imagining strangers, people who weren't me. After a minute my mind started working again, and I was in my regular lucid state, but the shock of the morning stuck with me some time into the day.

Is this normal? How do you usually feel in the morning?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:49 (twenty years ago)

have you started drinking lately?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:53 (twenty years ago)

I'm drinking pretty much the same amount I had before. I don't think the change is significant, but I'm actually drinking somewhat less.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:54 (twenty years ago)

How much sleep do you get at night?

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

Is it dark when you wake up?

― Mädchen (Madchen), Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

It'll be to do with it being darker in the mornings probably. Get one of those light boxes that mimics sunrise in yr bedroom.

― JohnFoxxsJuno, Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Stress? Allow yourself a few minutes after waking to come to. Just sorta doze a bit. Maybe set the alarm for five minutes later? I started doing this and now I wake five minutes before the alarm goes off. Stops me from being jarred awake by it.

― Rumpie, Thursday, 27 October 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

Snooze alarm is urgent and key. I am always dazed and disoriented when I wake unless it happens naturally... i.e. I am not woken by an alarm. If I'm woken by the alarm, I need the snooze so that I can come to.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

I usually get between 6-9 hours of sleep, averaging around 8. I sleep a good amount at night. As for the darkness, eh, sometimes, but usually not. Yesterday, the terrifying morning, I woke up around 9 AM so it was actually fairly light.

I think I need to get one of those progressive alarms if this trend continues. Suggestions would be welcome.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:06 (twenty years ago)

Maybe get a CD player alarm clock, and set it to wake you up to music you really love instead of BZZZZZ. It might give you a sense of yourself & surroundings more quickly.

The progressive alarms are nice. My wife has one that brightens to full in 30 minutes.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

snooze alarms make my waking up worse actually. i should get rid of it one day and use a ring once one. waking up shouldn't be procrastinated when you need to get to work.

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:22 (twenty years ago)

the autumn and winter i find i wake up more and more in a dazed stupor, unable to move my limbs, etc. last year i found it physically impossible to get out of bed before 7am. things always improve in the spring and summer when the sun rises earlier.

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:23 (twenty years ago)

the guy wakes up not knowing who or where he is, and you suggest waking up when it's light and waking to music?

dude, see a doctor.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

I have my cd alarm clock set to wake me with a women's choir singing a requiem for the dead quietly with increasing volume the more I push the snoozer. Before that I had Esquivel ("Night and Day") and before that I had Jim O'Rourke (the first song from Eureka.)

Now, I can't listen to any of those songs again since they remind me of waking up, but it's a lot better than BEEP BEEP BEEP.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

PS -- I got up today at 5AM.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

g-kit, I really doubt a doctor would have any helpful advice. If anything, I imagine he'd give similar advice to what's in this thread.

If it does keep up, I probably will go see a doctor, but thankfully it's only happened once. That one time was horrifying enough to make me start this thread though.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:38 (twenty years ago)

I mean, everyone's been disoriented. It happens. If you can shake it within a few minutes, you're not losing your mind or anything. You're probably just tired. If you couldn't shake it, well, there's a problem. Sounds like you're overreacting a LITTLE.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

i woke up once with a shiny head!

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.joblo.com/images_movie_reviews/fight_club.jpg http://www.joblo.com/images_movie_reviews/fight_club.jpg http://www.joblo.com/images_movie_reviews/fight_club.jpg

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

well, you're probably not the first person this has happened to, so i'd think it was worth a visit. he won't laugh you out of the surgery.
key words here:
"i'd imagine..." sure. but you don't KNOW.
"horrifying" enough said.
not knowing who or where you are; could be a problem with your BRANE. that would be serious.

i'm far from a hypochondriac, but if this happened to me, i'd not just pass it off with a 'meh'.

but what do i know?

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

g-kit otm, i dont think this is normal. it's never happened to me, from the description it sounds quite different to 'disoriented', like you wake up on the couch and you dont know where you are. i would definitely see a doctor.

― minna (minna), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:43 (twenty years ago)

women's choir singing a requiem for the dead quietly with increasing volume the more I push the snoozer.

Sheesh, what a way to start the day! Seems depressing.

I prefer to wake with the radio alarm first and then the beeper.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

If it does keep up, I probably will go see a doctor

yes, this sounds very odd. you could try a sleep clinic first, mind ... they might have some advice.

stet to thread. calling stet. mr stet to the thread, please.

me: the way i describe it is that every morning is like a particularly distressing birth. for the first couple of minutes after i wake i feel absolutely appalling, and would rather die than get out of bed.

once i force myself out and into the shower, i feel fine within a minute.

i've always been like this, though. when i was a kid, my dad would wake me up at 7am. then he'd come back at 7.05 and 7.10. i'd crawl out of bed at 7.15, then lie down on the floor outside the bathroom and fall asleep again until he came and hoofed me in the pods.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:46 (twenty years ago)

the only time this has happened to me is if i fall asleep at times of the day i wouldn't normally sleep, even if it was only for an hour or two.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

i'm glad somebody is with me on this. it sounds fucking awful to me. i'd shit my wack if i didn't know who i was, even for 30 seconds.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:47 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, g-kit absolutely OTM. It's bad enough when you wake up not knowing where you are, let alone who you are.

― melton mowbray (adr), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:49 (twenty years ago)

How do you feel when you first wake up?
Ahhhh, the only time of the day when I'm not AT ALL talkative (if you ever want to see me with my mouth closed, you'll have to get there before I make coffee).

― Laurel (Laurel), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:51 (twenty years ago)

It really was terrible, but it was just once. I'm kind of surprised that nobody else has said this has happened to them... well, er, I'm going to invest in a progressive alarm and we'll see what happens.

I don't know if it's related, but recently I've had some other odd sleep related things occuring. I think I may have posted about it somewhere on ILX before, but around a month ago I sleep walked nude into my roommates bed room where him and his girlfriend were watching late night TV. Now that was embarrassing.

Things like this really make you feel like you're going crazy.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:55 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone answered "horny" yet?

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

only you, mark :)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

of course not, we're all pure!
i cast thee OUT!

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 12:59 (twenty years ago)

I have not only sleepwalked, I've laughed, punched, danced and eaten in my sleep before. I often wake up disoriented. You're not alone!

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:00 (twenty years ago)

I once woke up screaming in an extremely high pitched way that I'm pretty sure I can't even replicate while conscious.

When I had a girlfriend I onetime woke up in the middle of eating her out. I had no idea I started doing that in my sleep. She woke up around the same time as me, also having no idea what we started doing.

The more I think about this the more going to sleep scares me.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:03 (twenty years ago)

if i could be arsed, i'd post a picture of Freddy Kruger looking hella scary, but i can't, so you'll have to use your fucking imaginations.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

xpost - That's not what I was eating in my sleep.

― The Milkmaid (of Human Kindness) (The Milkmaid), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Mickey, what you've got is normal, it's just a bit rare. I've had it before too -- I'll wake up and wonder who I am while staring at the buzzing alarm clock trying to figure out the mystic code of the numbers and how they have any possible bearing on me and my life. Then, when I work out what the numbers mean, I have to translate that to a time I want to get up.

I once came-to and found myself mumbling Pythagoras's theorem to see if I had more time to go back to sleep. Another time, I woke up and found that *everything* in the room had been unplugged and the socket pulled out of the wall -- TV, stereo, radio, iron, heater, phone charger. Apparently my befuddled brain couldn't work out what the hell was making the alarm clock noise so turned everything off and sent me back to bed.

These sorts of things happen to me most of all when I'm not getting enough sleep. At the time of the two above I was getting about four hours a night. It sounds to me like you're overtired. Are you going to bed too late? Stressed? Do you wake in the night? Have you got a cold? At the outside, it could be sleep apnoea preventing you sleeping properly.

Also, waking in deep sleep can cause it too. Get two alarm clocks -- one a radio set to go off softly about an hour before you want to wake up, and a normal one for yr normal time. The quiet one shld wake you when you're in light sleep; the normal one's just a backup.

xpost: sleep sex is even more common. Again, it's most likely down to not sleeping deeply enough. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1896181.stm

― stet (stet), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:11 (twenty years ago)

nobody admitted to pishing the bed yet.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:12 (twenty years ago)

I have to wake up to feed my Nintendog. Is this worth seeing a doctor about?

― melton mowbray (adr), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:15 (twenty years ago)

sorry about this, but: yes.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:16 (twenty years ago)

Sleep sex is common? Really? Wow, normally when I tell people they don't believe it.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

She woke up around the same time as me, also having no idea what we started doing. Classic!

"Wha? Who, who are you again? Oh, whatever..."

My alarm goes off at 5 am and I have trained myself, regardless of fatigue, to leap out of bed and turn on the shower. A few minutes under the water and I remember who I am and what I'm doing.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

A mixture of:

1. Phew, it was only a dream
2. I don't want to go to work today
3. "I'll get up and put the TV on, then go back to bed for as bit"
4. I won't bother washing my hair today

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:24 (twenty years ago)

i once woke up on a couch realising that i never brushed my teeth

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:26 (twenty years ago)

"should i be late for work and masturbate?"

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

Ste hahaha

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

Ste, just set your alarm earlier.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:34 (twenty years ago)

The early morning w@nk is something I keep meaning to ween myself off of, but I always keep returning to it. It makes you so late for work. I often doze back to bed as well since I wake up to Radio4 and I don't want to w@nk to the sound of John Humphries.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

Yikes, I should either read this or check out the "what do you look like" threads. Both would just make me go all giggly.

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:54 (twenty years ago)

"hoofed me in the pods" !!!

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Morning wank? God, men are stranger than I ever guessed.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

gotta have something to put on your toast, yo.

― g-kit (g-kit), Thursday, 27 October 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

At least we don't talk about our bodily functions in polite company!

― jdubz (ex machina), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:05 (twenty years ago)

Like wanking isn't a body function...

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

sleep sex is even more common

by which you mean your partners usually fall asleep?

My alarm goes off at 5 am and I have trained myself, regardless of fatigue, to leap out of bed and turn on the shower

how did you train yourself? i've tried everything, but my innate laziness kicks in. i know this is what i need to do, but no matter how full of good intentions i am the night before, i'll do anything to stay in bed in the morning.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

grimly fiendish, low blow, man. Low blow.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

By the way, I just bought this:
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70460.asp

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:11 (twenty years ago)

Kate, surely you have heard of morning boners. There's nothing strange about this apart from the fact that you've never heard of it.

grimly, when I worked in film production, our start times changed all the time and the anxiety about being late usually made me jump up in the morning. All I mean about 'training' is that I do not negotiate with myself at all when the alarm wakes me. I just get up. I may totter, trip on cats, etc..., but I'm out of bed, and once I'm out of bed, I want to be in the warm water of the shower. This is why it's so lovely on a Saturday morning to be awakened by random exterior noises and know that I don't have to leap up and can fall back asleep or read or whatever.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

M. White, probably because everyone who ever beds down with her chews their arm off to ESCAPE?

― jdubz (ex machina), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

was that really necessary?

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

I have heard of morning boners, I have woken up next to morning boners. I just did not know that *every* boner requires a wank. It's just an amusing thought. The frequency of male masturbation sometimes astonishes me. I should be used to it, but I still find it funny.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

sometimes friskiness just wins outright

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

It doesn't *require* one, kate, but, I dunno, imagine waking up each morning next to a warm fresh donut. You wouldn't *have* to ~~fuck~~ eat it, but you probably would, right?

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)

sometimes you have to pee :(

― jdubz (ex machina), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

I suppose it's just a difference in wanking styles of female and male - that I think female wanking requires more effort, and perhaps preparation. Also, perhaps it might also be about a fundamental difference in the mechanics of male vs. female desire. (OK, female sample size here of one.)

An interesting question, but this is probably not the time or the place for such discussions.

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I know plenty of ladies who beat me in terms of masturbation frequency. (Interesting choice of verb my unconscious came with there, huh?)

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

so what time of the day do females wank?

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

http://selland.boisestate.edu/jbrennan/139/images/sine4_ani.gif

― jdubz (ex machina), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Morning boners are terrible. Like if you get woken up by the postman ringing the doorbell. Most inconvenient.

In the morning, I am totally not in the mood for a wank. I'm usually still to tired and cranky.

― melton mowbray (adr), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

(too, obv.)

― melton mowbray (adr), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:36 (twenty years ago)

Only on the Internet does a conversation about, well... anything, lead to masturbation.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:38 (twenty years ago)

i've been having strange dreams this past week. when i wake up it takes me about 15 minutes to stop thinking in "holy shit, that dream!" mode and be one lert and ready to face the day.

― jagged little filly (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:40 (twenty years ago)

Oh no, carry on any conversation long enough and it'll end up with boners or masturbation, I'm pretty certain. (xpost)

― melton mowbray (adr), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

I usually feel tired.

Except last night I took a Xanax, smoked a joint and drank half a bottle of wine, and today I woke up and felt awesome! I still do!

― knife (nordicskilla), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:42 (twenty years ago)

SO JEALOUS

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

in the morning it sometimes takes me some time to forgive people I know if they've pissed me off in a dream.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:44 (twenty years ago)

Soon, Teeny!

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

I don't know - I certainly don't masturbate every day. Lately it's becoming less than once a month. (Don't know if this is age, hormones, or medication.) I'm sure there are individuals who go against the grain for their gender (I've known males who *never* masturbate, and I've known females who masturbate several times a day) but I would venture to guess that males, on *average* just tend to do it more. Certainly the average ILX male does it a great deal more than me!

― Paranoid Spice (kate), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:47 (twenty years ago)

Most women choose to do it just after elevenses.

― Dark Cilla (alix), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:53 (twenty years ago)

i think it's sad that women don't masturbate more than they do. (if that is the case)

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 27 October 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

where i grew up when very young in senegambia, we were awokened by the sounds from nature, such as animals and people on the farms awakening and working, because they will need to shout from one to the other. now i live in small city but still usually i am awake by hearing neighbors drive their cars and talk. there is also a coffeeshop business nearby my house, so that i can hear the people who are coming early for coffee.

― ponypoop (ponypoop), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

i should say that somtimes i too also awake confused and uncertain who i am being, but i think this is because i am not used (unused?) to living in this place still.

― ponypoop (ponypoop), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

i wake up at 3:30am, how do you think i feel.

― bingo (Chris V), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

To answer the question, I'm usually kind of silly in the morning. I make stupid jokes and laugh at them. If I'm not in a silly mood, I'm mostly just quiet. It's very rare that I'm in a bad mood in the morning.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

I'm really lucky in being able to drop off to sleep almost instantly, and waking up almost instantly without a lot of groggy "wha...?" time. My wife and daughter are slow and grouchy in the morning. When I'm off on trips I always come back to tales of epic battles of my wife trying to get my daughter up for school, or my daughter shaking my wife awake and saying "you overslept and we're late!" They totally take me for granted.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 27 October 2005 15:31 (twenty years ago)

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