Getting Extremely Tired/Weak in Dreams

I wish I could know if this happens to anyone else, because I experience it very often. I had a dream once a few years ago where I was in class when the bell rang to go to the next period. I tried to pick up my books and leave, but I was so unbelievably physically tired and heavy that I couldn't even lift a finger without incredible strain, and I was starting to feel panic and frustration inside as I was just leaning down sideways against my desk like a limp, heavy doll, staring at the floor. It was like the power of gravity and my sleepy fatigue were both overwhelming. It was quite disturbing.

I had a similar tired state in my dream last night, although not as intense as that one. I woke up pretty tired this morning, too, and had to strain to get out of bed.

When it's not being too tired to do anything, it's being too weak to do anything with regular force. For example, sometimes in dreams I get really mad at someone and try to smack them with my hand, but it swings in slow motion, straining to even reach the destination of their face, and once I really really try to hit them, the most I can get is a soft, pathetic little slap that touches them. It's one of the most frustrating experiences ever.

The night before last in a dream where I got really angry and lost my inhibitions, I tried to scream out as loud as I could, but my body closed up tightly and no matter how hard I tried, all I could get were some subdued, frail groans.


What's wrong with me? Is there a meaning behind this? I've also experienced sleep paralysis a few times when I woke up, usually when I took naps and was more tired because of it. Maybe it has something to do with that. I also notice just as I'm typing this that there's a running theme of anger with my dreams. I do get regularly angry and irritated in real life lately, so....

I experience similar fatigue, but not to the extent that you have been. Often times when I try to fight something or someone, I can never land punches at full force. Also, there are times when I am running that it seems as though I'm running through waist deep water. It's really weird!

As for meaning, I don't think the fatigue would have a meaning to it because it's quite common in dreams for everyone. The anger on the other hand might have some meaning or symbolism.

i have experienced this alot in dreams where my head is very hazy and i can barely move

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Originally Posted by DeeryTheDeer

I wish I could know if this happens to anyone else, because I experience it very often. I had a dream once a few years ago where I was in class when the bell rang to go to the next period. I tried to pick up my books and leave, but I was so unbelievably physically tired and heavy that I couldn't even lift a finger without incredible strain, and I was starting to feel panic and frustration inside as I was just leaning down sideways against my desk like a limp, heavy doll, staring at the floor. It was like the power of gravity and my sleepy fatigue were both overwhelming. It was quite disturbing.

I had a similar tired state in my dream last night, although not as intense as that one. I woke up pretty tired this morning, too, and had to strain to get out of bed.

When it's not being too tired to do anything, it's being too weak to do anything with regular force. For example, sometimes in dreams I get really mad at someone and try to smack them with my hand, but it swings in slow motion, straining to even reach the destination of their face, and once I really really try to hit them, the most I can get is a soft, pathetic little slap that touches them. It's one of the most frustrating experiences ever.

The night before last in a dream where I got really angry and lost my inhibitions, I tried to scream out as loud as I could, but my body closed up tightly and no matter how hard I tried, all I could get were some subdued, frail groans.


What's wrong with me? Is there a meaning behind this? I've also experienced sleep paralysis a few times when I woke up, usually when I took naps and was more tired because of it. Maybe it has something to do with that. I also notice just as I'm typing this that there's a running theme of anger with my dreams. I do get regularly angry and irritated in real life lately, so....

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Yes I have experienced this exact thing. Dreams where I will be on the couch with friends just chilling, but I am so exhausted that I cannot even move a muscle, and if I do it's with extreme effort and only an inch or so. After which leaving me totally exhausted.

Or I will have dreams where I will try and run, but like stated above it feels like my feet are made of concrete, or I am running through waist deep water.

Also I do not if anyone has experienced this, but I will have dreams where I will run or move forward and a force pulls me back preventing me from advancing, very annoying.

As for the causes of these I am not totally sure. I do know that the body falls asleep before your mind does at which point you would start to dream. Perhaps if your mind is aware of this fact it may subconsciously decrease your ability to function properly in the dream.

It might also be that you are in a limbo of being on the verge of waking up into sleep paralysis however this is just a theory.

Actually I may of just found the reason for the sluggish movement. During the stage of REM Atonia, it describes what your body acts like during this stage of sleep. Perhaps if you are dreaming while in this stage of sleep you act as your body is in real life here is a quote.

Quote:

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One interpretation of the term sleep paralysis is as a natural phenomenon that is more properly called REM atonia.[1] When you fall asleep you first go into non-REM sleep stages. In these sleep stages the tone (tension) of your skeletal muscles is reduced, that is, you become physically relaxed. You can still move, even though movements may be sluggish. For example, you can turn around in your sleep.

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I am absolutely the same. And it happend to me like every night and i finally getting to forum so i can learn from where it comes and what it means.
I can remember now a dream where i was parkouring or trying to, running from cops. In real life i really wanted to try parkour so i was happy to see i can on dreams and control mysel. Guess what, my muscles started getting slow, and i also was extremly tired, as hell. I tried to run as much as i can , i was focosing on putting all the straight i could, nothing happened. Other dreams i remember , someone really made me angry and i wanted to hit him really hard really!! But then my hands were getting so slow and tired, its the same feeling as when i wake up in the morning and trying to close my hand in a fist hard, and it kinda hurts but its more frustrating.
There was one thing that helped me , download a boxing game on the phone and its all about hitting other people or some fighting game. After i started playing it , i was dreaming how i hit someone.
Sorry for my bad english.

I've experienced it too, it's very common in fact. I think the people above you are right - it seems to be a related phenomenon to sleep paralysis, but rather than waking up to find yourself paralyzed, it's more subtle. You can sort of feel the signals from your sleeping body, and I suspect you're trying to actually move in your bed. Have you ever seen a sleeping dog when it's dreaming of running? It's legs will twitch and move as if running, and sometimes it will make soft barking sounds. People will do this too (I mean, not barking, but moving and trying to speak in their sleep). I think at those times you can get too strong of a connection to your sleeping body sometimes, and realize that when you do try to move your arms and legs don't really respond the way you want them to - they can't because you're laying in bed sleeping! I think they're just sort of twitching the way the dogs do. And you get signals back from the muscles saying they can't move right, so that filters into the dream and makes you feel half paralyzed and weak.

I also suspect at these times you're very close to lucidity, or at least you'e in some strange half-waking level of sleep. I also suspect that, if you were able to freely move in this condition, you would be actually sleepwalking and sleep-talking. If you look up videos of people sleepwalking, people have actually got in their cars and driven this way, or gone to the kitchen and made food - sometimes from cleansers and other dangerous products. So be glad at least the REM atonia prevents you from doing this!! I went through a period of sleepwalking as a teenager and apparently I walked around in the house and made sandwiches and would walk into the living room and sit down and say weird nonsensical things and then go back to bed. I think better to just dream of being weak and half paralyzed, while laying safe in your bed!

For me it was just a period that lasted - I don't know, a few months maybe? And not all my dreams were like that, just occasionally. Haven't dreamed like that for few years. So don't worry, it will pass.