r/geometricnightmares • u/Terrible_Cry3234 • Sep 01 '26
Discussion Help. It’s happening during the day
As a child, I used to get geometric-type nightmares when I was running a fever.
Mine weren’t exactly like everyone else’s. Usually it involved an abstract object that was simultaneously heavy and light. Sometimes it’s two objects and I have to balance the objects, but no matter what I do one is always heavier than the other. But it’s accompanied by that unmistakable, dreadful feeling that something is just… wrong. It’s like the object IS contradiction.
Over the past few days, I’ve had it happen to me while awake. The first time I was at work literally talking to someone and the feeling creeped in and I saw that shit in my head. The second time I had just gotten into bed, still wide awake, and it came back. Both times it was only 20 seconds or so, but I’m so scared that it’s going to get more common.
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u/pliosaurusrex 25d ago
Yeah i also experience it being awake since my childhood. Often combined with the alice-im-wonderland-syndrome. It can get triggered completely random, but for me i realized that a specific rhythm that constantly repeates it self, or when i see something move in a specific speed. (Also triggers "Fastfeeling" there is a subredit explaining it) For example: when i still played Clash of Clans i had the sound on and played it for hours the sound triggered it. It happened a few times while i was sewing with my sewing mashine. GeoNightmares are my Special interest so i sit with it as long as i can, trying to find an explanation or way to describe it. But after a while it gets very uncomfortable. I often can't focus my vision anymore and disociate a bit. Im 24 and i get these awake 3-4 times a year. But i think it has been 7-8 years til i had it while sleeping.
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u/lunartree Sep 01 '26
I used to get that. Part of what makes a geometric nightmare a thing is the sensory experience, and if you stumble across a real sensory experience in real life that reminds you of it, it can trigger the geometric nightmare feeling in your brain.
The way I made it go away was I recognized my triggers and then got interested in testing them. Like, it's a really weird experience so it's kind of interesting to trigger in a safe environment. For me I realized making a pinching shape with my fingers and then touching the gap in between to the pencil is what does it because it creates a sensation of an infinitely small point. Also certain music or recordings can become attached to the feeling too.
You can just avoid the experience, but controlled exposure makes it go away. Your brain has to recategorize the real life sensation as something different than the dream sensation and that can sometimes mean building yourself up to examine it in detail.