Old dream about trying to get to the phone but being almost paralyzed?

Question

It was really weird, this feeling that I was dying, almost, groggier than you can imagine, was trying to crawl ten feet from my couch to the phone,

but couldn't get there.

Could have been that the phone rang and part of me was envisioning getting up but I couldn't wake up.

Could be that I couldn't get a message?

Ever happen to anyone else, to feel one's body and mind dying off in a dream like that, all foggy and paralyzed?

Answer 1

Your dream suggests something very basic and simple about our dreaming mechanisms - sleep paralysis.

You may not have recalled for certain that the phone really rang or not, but chances are it did.  It likely stirred you from a deep sleep where dreaming was occurring - during 'REM' or rapid eye movement sleep.  In that mode of sleep and dreaming the body does assume a form of paralysis.  If we are forced awake while in that state it may take up to several minutes for the body and mind to fully stir to useful consciousness.

Meanwhile, you experience this semi-lucid state of slowly becoming conscious - and a dawning awareness of the 'dragging' character of this type of paralysis.  Mind and body aren't in synch when this happens, nor is conscious thought reliable or continuous.  Our 'internal timer' is out of whack - seconds can seem as minutes - and vice versa, and hallucinations often go with all of it leaving you to wonder whether anything you saw or heard is real - or convinced that it is, no matter how wild.

This can be a very surreal state for some people - and in your case you are simply left with this confusing, minor mystery - 'did it ring or not, did I answer it or not, was it some sort of 'message' or just me hearing things in my sleep...'.  The dragging feelings can pile up to imply feelings of dying - it can be that shocking as you emerge from sleep into this unexpected state of semi-lucid wakefulness.

And it could have been dreamt, but something stirred you and I'd bet it was an unanswered phone.  But in any case, it is quite normal.  No matter how well we try to guard our sleep at sometime we will be awakened at such a time and find some degree of what you describe afflicting us.  Some are more prone to it than others, but it is 'normal', and 'foggy' is a good way to describe it.  It can be as if another power has hold of you somehow and is dragging you off to some nether-world - it just depends on your personal involuntary responses.

Much of what I've said deals with the idea that this was 'one' dream, if an 'old' one.  If the same thing occurs frequently the answer could be different - the phone could be a product of your dreaming - and that too can awaken into the state I've described.  But you need to do something about that ethereal phone if that is the case.  It does not sound as though it is, really - but you would know.  

Another possibility in a recurring situation, if it is, is that you need to find out who the heck is calling and awakening you and get it stopped... funny, but sometimes happens.

You'll have to decide how this fits your own understanding of your circumstances and the context of the dream, but they are strongly suggested by what you've shared.  Hopefully these points may be of some help to you.

All the best to you.

Answer 2

I had a dream or something like it. i was taking a nap on my bed but when i woke up I was trying to get up but i couldnt. it was like someone or something was holding me down i could barely breath or move my arms. to this day i still think i was just dreaming of my waking up without it actually happening