Question about brainwaves...

I'm not sure if I should be posting this in dissociation, but I often get really sleepy when I'm under stress. Not the usual kind of sleepy, but a sort of drugged sleepiness that I just cannot fight. I also feel weird, wavy sensations on my scalp, actually, more like inside my head. If I try to fight off the sleep, it feels like i'm in a trance. All I want to do is sit and stare. It's a rather pleasant feeling, but makes it VERY difficult to accomplish anything, and forget about driving!

So, I got sick of not knowing what was happening to me and started researching this stuff. Based on what I found, I think my brain starts producing vast amounts of the Theta brainwave which apparently (sorry, I'm not very good at science ) we get right before we drift off to sleep or when we're meditating or under hypnosis.

I still don't know what the wavy, tightening and relaxing sensations in my head or on my scalp are all about. Anyone have a clue?

And has anyone else experienced this??? I would love ANY feedback and would feel better knowing I wasn't the only one... thanks.

Hey great topic. I experience this too. I think for me it is dissociation, shutting down. I couyld fall asleep driving, it's scarey. I would like to hear what everyone thinks.

Hey I agree great topic....I too feel the same way...when I have had a stressful session with my T I get so sleepy on the drive home.....kinda scares me....but yes while I am driving I find myself staring and yes it feels good.
Even when I am home and under stress I find myself staring and getting so sleepy...and I have a tingling feeling on my scalp too....I glad I am not alone....just thought it was all in my head...

I explained it to my T that it felt like "I" was trying to leave my body via my skull, but "I" ended up in a traffic jam of pins and needles tapping against my scalp. She actually got it...LOL

Petunia

Hi Lauren1214,

Yes, i've experienced that uncontrollable sleepiness when i don't want to do something or be somewhere or under stress. It's a strange thing, like you describe and comes on suddenly. i could be filled with energy one minute then something happens and i can barely keep from falling asleep.
It happened lots of times, sometimes it happens at therapy, once it happened when i felt threatened by my h when he was angry with me at a grocery store. If WW3 started it wouldn't have upset me at all.
It's weird how much our body can be affected by our minds. That's interesting that the brain waves change.
Take care,
kerria

I did the fall asleep while driving home from my psycologist appointment several years ago after a tough session. I crashed across all the lanes on my side of the freeway, across the center brush & almost onto the other side. I woke up in a daze with my little eskie on the floor under the dash on the passanger side. I grabbed her & tried to get to the call box. I was in so much of a daze that I put in a call to the fire department rather than the Highway Patrol. No damage to me or my dog & only dents to the car.

After the trauma I went through at the end of last year, I found myself looking at myself doing things. I would watch my hands doing things but it wasn't really me....I would respond to questions but I wasn't talking.....I was walking but it wasn't my legs that were moving....my Pdoc told me it was depersonalization I was experiencing. I never researched the brainwave aspects of what goes on when this happens....I am sure there are lots of studies on it & probably a lot of answers & theories.

All I want to know is how to make it stop.

Debbie

When I was younger, like 10 - 15, sleep was my escape route. I had a thievery problem, & one time I came home from school to find all my ill-gotten gains spread out on the coffee table - it was kind of like someone hypnotized me, because I didn't even think about what the eventual consequences would be once my cousin (I was living w/an older cousin at the time) got home from work - I just went to my room & fell asleep... Or if a huge test was coming up & I knew I was going to bomb it, I would fall asleep in class, or sleep through class altogether.

I think I just kind of grew out of it - now when I'm under stress, I get insomnia, which I feel is much, much worse, but not as dangerous in traffic...

Thanks so much for all the replies! It feels good to know I'm not the only one... Kerria, yeah, I totally understand how WWIII wouldn't even upset you at that moment... lol...

eskielover, OMG, I'm so sorry about your traumatic experience! I'm glad you and your dog were physically ok, but I'm sure the mental aspect of it is no fun. I've also had depersonalization, and it's scary as hell! I still get it once in a while, but not as bad as before. My T has really helped in making it less scary. When I experience it now, I just hear her voice in my head telling me "it's just depersonalization, it's just your brain's way of dealing with stress." I do wish my brain would find some more constructive ways, though...

Petunia, that's a great picture! I think I may use it, too, if you don't mind :-)

Hope and Wisewoman, I'll do more research on brainwaves and let you know if I find anything that explains those weird scalp sensations. Thanks for letting me know i'm not alone.

Take care--Lauren

I've studied brainwaves a bit. And I have a sister who was the certified sleep study director in the state. The physical sensations imo are not from brainwaves. "Normal" stress might be the answer, as others have alluded to.. the tightness in the neck or even to the forehead... perhaps what you are sensing, physically, is from this. IMO the two experiences, though connected (stressors) and not one in the same. This is an interesting subject, and I look forward to the thread continuing...

Hi Sky,
I have experienced a sleepy reaction to stress, to normal stress, but this one feels a little different to me. It's the kind of sleep I really cannot fight, sort of like if you took a high dose of a sleeping pill. And it often happens when I even fleetingly think of something that's emotionally tough for me. The first time I experienced this was when I was fifteen. We were being bombed day in and day out for three months back in my country.. At one point, the moment the bombing would start, I'd get sleepy and would fall asleep no matter how close and loud the bombs were, and how uncomfortable I was physically in the space where we were hiding. Now i get the exact same sleepiness the moment the topic comes up with my T. Also, the tightening sensations are not in my neck and around my forehead. It feels like they're on and right inside my scalp. It's hard to describe it. I wish I knew how. I'd be interested in anything you can tell me about brainwaves, etc. I'm finding out that I really like the subject!