Dreamless Sleep

[lordborealmark2]

Apologies in advance if this needs to be merged in with another sleep thread.

Has anyone else experienced dreamless sleep?

My own experience was as follows; I was about 19 at the time, and had a fold out sofa bed which was a pain to set up each night. On this particular occasion I had had a long day and not only couldn't be bothered folding out the bed, but I couldn't find the effort to undress either, so I just kicked off my shoes and lay back on the sofa bed with my legs dangling over the side (not the most comfortable position in the world).

The next thing I remember, it was daylight and I had been out cold for about nine hours. Now normally I'm a very restless sleeper, and I always wake up several times during a night for various reasons, but on this occasion I hadn't, and I had no recollection of dreaming either, which is very unusual for me as I always remember fragments of my dreams at the very least. The other thing I recall is feeling very, very refreshed after my sleep, which I never do as I always wake up sluggish and groggy.

As far as I can recall this is the only experience of this I've ever had, and the strangest feeling about it was the sensation that no time had passed at all, as though less than a second had passed between my eyes closing and opening again hours later.

Has anyone else experienced this, or is it more common than I know and I'm the odd one out in all this?

 

[Anonymous]

I have usually in the past. Always when we had a large group of relatives to our house for holidays. I would go upstairs to my room and literally pass out and not wake up til everyone left. No dreams no getting up. I haven't done it in years the last time I did it was when my grandpa had cancer and we went to visit lots of relatives there. We got there ten inthe morning on a Friday I went layed down on my Grandpa's bed slept he woke me up to move when he came to bed I stumbled to the couch and went back to sleep and didn't roll over again until late sat. it was as if I were comatose no dreams or anything. So yes other people have experienced it. I only do it when very stressed. Were you experiencing unusual stress?

 

[lordborealmark2]

Hard to say exactly... at around the time I was at college in the period that this happened I did have a couple of things that put me under a great deal of pressure. One in particular, but I can't recall if it was about that time...

...no, I'm wrong. I can remember something about that day which suggests that I was going through a quite black time when it happened.

Stress does drain me of nervous energy though, and if I've had a bad experience, I do get tired afterwards. Not so much physically, but more mentally, as though my brain is low on blood sugar.

Just around this last Christmas we had three upsetting experiences, and the same thing happened where I started to vegitate after a while, but only on the days that they happened.

 

[OneWingedBird]

I used to get that happening after I was prescribed Haloperidol once, sort of like I'd lay down to sleep and then a few minutes later I'd still be laying there and it was morning but I didn't remember going to sleep, sleeping, or waking up.

 

[Anonymous]

The way I understand it is, You Always Dream.
The question is do you remember the dream/remember you have dreamt ?
Sleep has distinct stages, which you cycle through if left undisturbed. One stage is REM (dream) sleep.
If you sleep for a couple of hours or more, you will probably go through a bit of REM sleep, hence you will have dreamt.

I frequently wake in the morning without a clue of what the nights dreams have been, though I normally remember having dreamt.
But quite often, I do not remember having dreamt at all.
Its something I'm used to, and not something I find extraordinary.

 

[lordborealmark2]

It wasn't the fact that I couldn't remember dreaming that made this experience so unique (if I get up quickly in the morning and have things on my mind I don't remember the dreams anyway), but rather the sensation ofcomplete loss of time.

It was as if you were to close your eyes now, and open them a second later only to find that several hours had passed. A very strange feeling.

 

[Jerry_B]

I know what you mean. And I think it's vaguely stress-related. And I don't mean necessarily a negative form of stress (i.e. worries, etc.). I've had several occasions where this has happened to me, usually when my mind has been very active during the day (with work related stuff). I'd go to bed, fall asleep and would then be awake - with no senstation of being asleep in between. It's as if you've had an on-off switch somewhere. It is unsettling, because after a while you don't seem to be able to take on board that you have actually slept but haven't had the usual stimuli telling you that you'd done so.

 

[Anonymous]

Has anyone else experienced dreamless sleep?/The other thing I recall is feeling very, very refreshed after my sleep, which I never do as I always wake up sluggish and groggy.

Yep. I had that once (well actually almost consistently for a whole two months), when I was working nights. I would come home at eight o'clock in the morning, watch breakfast telly, then go to bed, and sleep almost precisely eight hours. get up, fully refreshed with absolutely no recollection of dreaming...or for time passing, then head off to work. Never felt groggy, always felt I'd had just exactly the right amount of sleep.

Reason for this was (and it's key in why I always slept eight hours and never felt like i'd over slept or under slept) was that my body would sleep ONLY to recharge it's batteries so to speak. Nothing more, nothing less, hence no over sleeping or under sleeping I suppose. Didn't need an alarm clock either. Sure, I'd probably dreamt, but no doubt my mind was so at rest, by the morning I'd have had absolutely no recollection of it. The only times this didn't happen was when I'd had alcohol.

 

[Anonymous]

i wish i could do this

 

[Anonymous]

i wish i could do this

Get a job working night shift. It's most perculiar. When you work night shift you never get a "tomorrow" only a "later". You have people saying to you, "see you later" not "see you tomorrow" when you leave work. and after a bit that really begins to sink in, that in essense you're almost balancing between days, cheating time in some strange way, like floating in a boat on the date line, sailing backwards and forwards, gaining a day, losing a day, gaining a day, losing a day, until eventually time catches up with you.

There's is something quite surreal about it.

quite a few times I'd be walking home after work, if I finished early, say about six...I'd walk by the river. there'd be no cars on the roads, no boats on the river, just still, calm, quite, not the world of "coming home from work" that most people experience. A "dead to the world" place, like something out of a zombie movie. sometimes beautifully serene but unearvingly creepy at the same time.

almost like a place that you should be visiting in your dreams.

 

[Daftbugger1]

I remember getting this as a child once. It is very odd. Like I'd blinked my eyes, but a night had passed. Haven't had it since.