The Strangeness of Subjective Experience

[contrarianarchon]

What subjective experience of falling asleep do people have? I ask because I fucking don't. If I didn't have dreams to wake up from, or, like, stiff limbs and bleary eyes, I would not actually notice sleep happening. (I know this because this happens sometimes, that I lie in bed for a while and then I notice the lighting changed a bunch and I check the clock and I guess I was asleep for 8 hours, huh.) It's really weird! I am honestly surprised that this repeated lack of memory integrity doesn't get to me more than it does, but I guess you can get used to anything!

So yeah - what're other people's experiences of falling asleep like?

Comments

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

I don't notice falling asleep, either, unless I'm interrupted in the process. I definitely notice waking up, though given the intensity of my dreams, I don't really feel like time is vanishing. The line between dream and consciousness is often thin for me.

[contrarianarchon]

Oh yeah it's very clear that dreams/sleep happened when I *do* wake up from dreams, which is the case nearly all the time - this makes the days when it's just a total blank in my memory that much more concerning, because it's not typical!