The delirium upon waking

[sheogorath]

Recently, I have noticed that, upon waking, I remain in the dream sort of mode of thought. It happens most every day, and produces some interesting thoughts. For example, today, I awoke to go to my father's house for Easter lunch. For about 30 minutes, I stayed in bed half-awake. I was utterly convinced that I had to think of a way to make a soup-pie for my father that contained AgCl2. I was thinking of how I could accomplish this. I was afraid that I would mix the wrong amount and end up with left over chlorine that would kill them or would end up with gold floating in the pie which I imagined would not be fun to bite into(I realize that Ag is silver, but I thought it was gold during the instance). I started to do the calculations for balancing the reaction, and realized I needed paper and calculator, but I didn't want to get up because the bed was comfortable. Eventually, I decided that I would not have enough time to make the pie if I kept in bed, and got up. I immediately came to my senses and laughed incredibly at myself. The funny thing is that I was fully aware that I was in bed, and that I was partially asleep, and that I had to leave at 12:30. This happens quite often and is always amusing. It is almost a reverse sleep paralysis. Does this happen to you, and please share your experiences, I am sure they are entertaining.

[melanieb]

Yeah, this happens to me all the time, and not just following sleep. Often, when I am tired, I find myself slipping into a waking dream state, and having the most unusual visions. The other day I was sitting outside with a friend, having a conversation and enjoying some cool drinks, when a lull in the conversation and a quiet period permitted me to close my eyes. Immediately I start having a mini-dream about two well-dressed women standing in the lobby of some office building, or hotel, and talking about another crappy assignment. Both women were neat, had shoulder-length hair, and were clearly news reporters. They were reporters for the Fly News Network...news for flies. And then I returned to what was going on around me. This whole dream took maybe 7 or 8 seconds. Not quite as long as yours but I have experienced exactly what you describe on other occasions. Just a side-note, I used to work at an electronics company, and in one of the rooms I worked in for about 18 months we did electro-gold-plating of circuit boards. The gold was kept in a cyanide solution, which had to be kept at the proper pH or we would all die. Your story reminded me of that.

[Caenis]

That happens to me a lot, too. For me, it's only when I'm half-asleep, either while falling to sleep or just after waking up. When I'm going to bed, I can't keep my mind silent. So I'll start out with normal thoughts, but then as I get more tired, my imagination starts taking over. By this point, I don't intentionally think about anything, my brain just begins the dreaming process while I'm physically awake but mentally drifting off. When I wake up in the mornings, sometimes I'll be a little confused and think that my dreams are memories. Eventually logic returns to me and informs me that my memory is too ridiculous to be true. Most of the time while I'm half asleep in the morning, I also continue that hazy dream process. I'll wake up, think about my dream, and while I lay half-asleep, both my waking and sleeping states will keep adding to that dream until I'm fully awake. It makes it very confusing to differentiate what happened in my dream, and what happened in my imagination. This happened to me just today. I woke up in the middle of my dream, then stayed in bed for another hour, thinking about my dream on and off and adding to it.

[melanieb]

This happened to me today also. I was tired and sitting in a chair in my back yard. I closed my eyes to avoid the sun and I started dreaming, just for a couple seconds, before I opened my eyes and rejoined the conversation I was having. I dreamed of three old Bishops, all with white beards, standing in a row facing some church event. All three were also wearing large, white marshmallow hats, probably about two feet on a side and squarish. They weren't made of marshmallow, just looked like big marshmallows. Funny what the mind comes up with.

[EarthInferno]

Is this similar to staying awake too long, then being so tired during the day that your brain sleeps for a second or two? It's like you get dream fragments when that happens.

[xkldx]

this always happens to me when i wake up , you know you're in bed but still you're not totally conscious , most of the time i am amazed at the stupid and weird thoughts i keep thinking in this state but after waking up for a few more minutes i forget what was happening so i can't remember any of them right now