Waking Up Feeling Delirious

Last night I struggled to get to sleep. At about 3 AM, after hours in bed, I finally fell asleep. I slept until morning, not waking once. This doesn't happen very often.

When I woke up, I didn't feel like me

This happens sometimes; I'm not sure of the reason why.

I woke up feeling drunk, feeling delirious. I noticed I was slurring my words and speaking slower than usual. My family noticed this too. Once I got up out of bed, I was extremely dizzy.

A terrifying, recurring dream

Sometimes, I feel awake during my dreams. I don't know if something similar happens to you, but sometimes when I'm dreaming, I feel like I'm awake. When this happens, it's nearly always the same dream. I'm trying to climb up my stairs to get to my bedroom. Everything looks and feels so real. I can feel the carpet beneath me.

In my dream, I'm trying so hard to move, trying to pull my arms and legs to move, but they don't. Finally, after some hard work, I slowly start to move, feeling so heavy, like I'm trying to crawl through quicksand. There is nothing chasing me up the stairs; there is nothing scary about this dream. But, I find the fact that I can't move terrifying.

My brain felt heavy in the morning

During this dream, I feel like I'm hallucinating as the walls and floors move around me. This is how I felt this morning when I was awake. I felt like I was hallucinating.

For about 2 hours, I couldn't comprehend anything said to me. And when I spoke, it didn't make much sense. What I was trying to say and what I said ended up being 2 different things. I also found it hard to focus my eyes. My brain felt heavy.

Why does this happen?

This has happened a handful of times. At first, I thought it might be caused by the tablets I take at night to treat my ankylosing spondylitis. So, I started taking them earlier. It still happens, so now I don't think it is caused by my medication.

So, I started to wonder, is my body in shock that I actually slept without waking during the night? Who knows! I have decided to keep a journal for whenever this happens.

Feeling like this scares me. I feel like my brain is working slower than usual and the fact that I am aware of it when it's happening causes me to panic. I think thoughts like: What if I'm like this forever? I cannot function properly like this.

Not a daily occurrence

Luckily, this doesn't happen every morning! And, luckily, this has never happened on a morning when I have college. College is online now due to COVID-19. But, even so, I would not be able to listen to an online lecture or answer any questions without my lecturers or classmates thinking that I'm drunk at 9 AM in the morning.

It's a horrible feeling. I would much rather wake up during the night than feel delirious when I wake up.

Do you ever feel delirious in the mornings?