Seeing shapes and patterns after waking up

[italiancookie]

So I get very very vivid dreams sometimes, and a lot of them are disturbing. Maybe not quite nightmare level, but just off and weird enough that I feel really unsettled.

Sometimes I wake up from one in the middle of the night with a panic response: elevated heart rate, trembling, kind of tingly and light in my stomach and head. But over the past several months, I’ve been waking up with a reaaaallly weird symptom: kaleidoscope vision. Straight up shapes like triangles or ovals that move all over. Once my body calms down, it seems to go away, but it’s really unsettling. I think it’s also more apparent in the dark, behind my eyes, rather than if the sun was up.

Has anyone else experience this? It’s really freaking me out and only happens after I wake up really abruptly from a freaky dream. I’ve been tested for seizures many times and a specialist actually just told me I definitely don’t have them. But stuff like this makes me question again.

[tigerjuz86]

Have you been checked high blood pressure as my eyes go funny when it’s high i also have iron deficiency too which can mess with eyes ,, but I’ve being waking up like you too weird dream that carry’s on sorta when I’ve awoken fast heart rate scares me not sure if mines just health related anxiety but so know how u feel ,, hope you find some peace x

[PropertyOfJesus]

Hello. I get the same exact thing! I think it’s either when our rem sleep is disrupted; or, when we’re not fully awake and the brain isn’t finished processing all that it processes during sleep, through dreams, etc. (such as how we can “see” our dreams in our mind). I think the moving kaleidoscope we see is a result of the chemical or other processes still going on. Because our brains are dysfunctioning a bit, by not being able to finish up the processing soon enough upon waking. So, that’s my theory. What do you is the reason this happens? Do you also find, as I do, that if you just keep your eyes closed for a few minutes ít slowly goes away? One additional note to my symptoms is this: sometimes among the kaleidoscope shapes, l’ll see bursts of colorful specs, as if a small capsule of colorful pixels explodes, lol. Do you get that, too? Also, I didn’t always have these symptoms, but only recently, so age or female factors may have contributed? Also important, is that I have been recently diagnosed with a sleep disorder. You might want to be checked for that as well. Lastly, I don’t think our symptoms are anything to worry about. No more than, for instance, how some people take longer for a new cut on their finger to stop bleeding than others; this is just the nighttime processing taking longer to finish up. May God Bless You! 😊