First experience of Scintillating Scotoma while dreaming

[lorisarvendu]

I'm in my 50s now, but I've had these almost all my life.  The first time was probably when I was about 14, and scared the crap out of me.  Funnily enough I used to suffer from migraine headaches (steel balls in the head, nausea) when I was young, but they stopped about the same time as these scotomas started.  I don't get headaches any more, just the flashing zig zag across both eyes.

Anyway, this morning at about 5am I woke up from a dream in which I was having an episode.  The dream was very vivid and involved me sitting at a table with a large sheet of paper on it, trying to explain to someone else what I was seeing, and attempting to draw it. While this was going on, I could see (in the dream) the typical wide shimmering rainbow "C-shape" across my vision.  Now the dream went on for quite a while, involving me going off and doing other things, while this thing shimmered in the air in front of me.

Then I woke up...and it was still there, exactly as it had looked in the dream.  This tells me that mine are not caused by anything dietary (sugar, caffiene, whatever) because I'd been asleep for 5 hours and I don't tend to eat or drink while I'm asleep.  More likely to be caused by dehydration.  But what it did prove to me is that no matter how long a dream appears to be subjectively, it's only about a minute in real time.  The scotoma was the same size all the way through the dream as it was when I woke up, but of course in real life they start out small and spread out beyond the field of vision in about 15 minutes.

I guess that although I was in darkness with my eyes closed, when I got my scotoma my brain could "see" it and so constructed a dream around it.  This is the first time this has ever happened.  I never thought it possible.

Although I was scared at first as a child, my optician just told me it was a "retinal migraine" and nothing to worry about.  I've had them ever since and they no longer worry me, although I do find them irritating if they stop me from doing something like watching TV, reading a book or driving.

-Dave

[petersonjesse75]

Interesting Dave, I've had dreams about SS and may of even been having one in my sleep but I've never awoken with one happening.  I have however awoken and had one while laying in bed waking up, just never fully manifested like you described.

I wonder if they are linked to adrenal things as well, I noticed about the same time I started getting SS (about 2 years ago now) that I can no longer tolerate long periods of computer monitors or cellphone screens without getting eye fatigue, even to the point of feeling somewhat exhausted over-all.

Then again, pretty much all my late teens thru early 30s was spent gaming online for hours and hours at a time.. (39 years old now) looking back I rather wish I hadn't, but hindsight is 20/20 right? lol

Case and point, I am presently back east visiting family, and on the flight out I made the mistake of playing a very involved 3D game on my phone for about 2 hours straight...BAM, SS about 10 minutes after I got off the airplane.  That followed with a 2nd the very next day while checking email on my laptop, even now 2 days later I'm still feeling exhausted and not sleeping all that well here.

That is very interesting what happened to you, the whole "twisting" of the perception of time within a dream-state is kinda cool intriguing.

Take care, and less SS for all of us!

-Jesse

[lorisarvendu]

Wheee!! Had another SS dream Saturday morning.  This one was slightly different in that the scotoma was there, all the way across everything, but my dream seemed to be acting like it was a psychedelic "fence" in front of me.  I could actually look round it and see things that it would normally be hiding. Spooky or what.  

[Stephanie]

On Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 1:58:10 AM UTC-8, lorisarvendu wrote:

Wheee!! Had another SS dream Saturday morning.  This one was slightly different in that the scotoma was there, all the way across everything, but my dream seemed to be acting like it was a psychedelic "fence" in front of me.  I could actually look round it and see things that it would normally be hiding. Spooky or what. 

I just had a SS dream for the first time.  My SS started about 5 years ago where I was getting 1-3 a day and I'm now on 1000 mg of depakote to reduce them to about 1 a week (was on 750 which eliminated for a while but sadly, not any more).  My dream was literally a dream about having an episode, where I was outside and could see the twinkling C hovering over trees and sky.  It woke me up and boy was I surprised to open my eyes and see that C still there.  I never thought it was possible to have a SS during sleep and now I wonder if I've had others like that or what and just didn't wake up/forgot about them. Always a cheery thought! lol

They really do highlight the passage of time during dreaming, don't they?