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scary visions of shapes before bed

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Diggon:

Hi hi. I have been tormented by strange visions of boxes when trying to fall asleep for my whole life and it's kinda odd... I'm curious if anyone else can relate.

My earliest memory of this happened when I was a little kid trying to fall asleep, but was rudely interrupted by an odd vision. I unwillingly imagined a scrolling grid of floating boxes with numbers in them. I wasn't able to stop imagining the boxes and it felt very overwhelming/ claustrophobic.

(it felt like this gif:
)

And then, the most recent time I experienced this was a couple of days ago. When trying to drift off to sleep, I was bombarded by this idea of boxes enclosed in boxes enclosed in boxes enclosed in boxes... And it was just as overwhelming and claustrophobic. I couldn't stop thinking about these boxes and I felt like I wasn't in control of my mind.  :ohdear:

My working theory on why this happens:

I wonder if it’s like... just a horrific extension of how I already think while I’m falling asleep. Cus normally it’s like... Random shapes that go in all sorts of random ways (like a line turns into a truck, turns into a balloon, etc). I used to try and control them and manifest specific things (like sheep) but that would always make me overwhelmed and frustrated because I really had no control over the shapes in my head.
I wonder if the only difference is that the shapes aren’t soothingly random anymore and instead manifest into horrifyingly endless, repeating patterns.

Anyways... lmk what you guys think  :dog:

grubbyfox:
Do you have any inner-ear issues? Like ear drum, pressure etc?

Because what you explains sounds similar to something I would have when I was a child and I would have high fevers. Firstly, yes I would get crazy fever dreams/hallucinations - but those would wear off. And those would always be very random.
However, when I was sick (and still when I am as an adult) - my ears get messed up. Like the anatomy in my ears is messed up by default, and it gets even worse when I'm sick.

I remember being "haunted" by round shapes as a child when my ears were messed up. Like, I would see these big stone wheels, kinda like cogs? Just huge stone wheels going back and forth in front of me, and there was this specific noise as well, like they were rolling on gravel. And it was relentless, like it would not give up until my ears were better - and I would have it many times. It was like something was manifesting in my brain?? Idk it's hard to explain and I was so young back then I had no idea.

Does this happened every night, btw? Like, literally every time you go to bed, or something that happens only sometimes, but for years?

Do you "see" them when you close your eyes or are your eyes open? Either way, have you had your vision checked?

urgellx:
Hello !

I don't think that having those kind of visions while going to sleep, while being in a low-light environment or when closing your eyes is
that rare and from what you're telling us, they seem to be relatively tame, just being disturbing and not causing you any pain. I can relate
since i see a lot of different things and a lot of repeating things while going to sleep or even in every-day life but when going to
sleep, it just adds one hour or so before you end up falling asleep most of the time. Patterns that are not that colorful aren't even that
annoying to the eye so they're not that disturbing. I don't know what it's like in your country but in mine, you could try to understand how
to approach properly those recurrent visions by consulting a psychiatrist if you have healthcare, otherwise it would be a money sink that
may not even get you results during the first year.

Maybe it's overkill for such a average problem but at least taking one rendez-vous to see if there's something a bit deeper may be good.
Would have been nice to have started getting psychological care earlier when i only had those symptoms ! :dog:

Hope you have a good day nyan-cat. :dive:

EDIT : Lots of spelling errors, my bad

Melooon:
I had a similar experience, although it was much more common when I was younger, now it mostly happens if I'm sick!

I start imagining rice; usually, it's falling through one of those random chance games like this one.

At first, I'll imagine one grain of rice falling through it and imagining each permutation of physics as it falls. Soon though it becomes two grains, then three, then 10, then 50, then a million.

When it first happened I think my mind tried to simulate the physics of every individual grain of rice until it no longer could process any more and I broke out into a fever and just a general terror at the size and complexity of things. Also, that first time it happened, when I sat up there was a random dog at the foot of my bed staring at me; apparently, it was our neighbour's, but he'd never been in the house before and he never came in again. I wonder what about that moment summoned that dog and if it had anything to do with my experience :ohdear:

Anyway, as I've gotten older my brain has gotten better at abstracting; instead of trying to simulate every grain of rice, now it knows to abstract them into one mass that's pretty easy to imagine. Sometimes though that seems like a loss. I liked the clarity and honesty of not knowing my rice imagining limits, so sometimes I try to imagine lots of rice anyway  :tongue:

TheFrugalGamer:

--- Quote from: grubbyfox on March 09, 2024 @468.60 ---I remember being "haunted" by round shapes as a child when my ears were messed up. Like, I would see these big stone wheels, kinda like cogs? Just huge stone wheels going back and forth in front of me, and there was this specific noise as well, like they were rolling on gravel.
--- End quote ---

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I had nearly this EXACT same hallucination as a child, and like yours, it was also caused by fever! The main difference was that I was usually being chased by the wheels rather than watching them, and the entire room was red.

Another particular feeling, which is usually exacerbated by fever but not always caused by it, is the feeling that I am shrinking while the rest of the room grows larger. It's a bit like the "spinning room" feeling that others described, but slightly different.

@Diggon I'm hesitant to offer any names for what you might be experiencing because I am not a medical professional, but it reminds me a little of the things the mind does when you have compulsive thoughts. A psychiatrist could probably nail it down more, though I know not everyone has access to good mental health care. I hope you have not lost too much sleep over it and that it gets better!

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