I decided to take a little nap a while ago since I was feeling sleepy, and once I fell asleep and started dreaming, it was normal for a while just like average dream stuff but at a certain point I remembered I was sleeping and tried to wake up.
so I swing myself upright, but then I find that I'm still lying down exactly as I was, but I don't think anything of it because I'm still in my delirious dream brain. this happens a few times before I start to get confused, and I wonder "why the fuck am I still lying down I just got up didn't I" and get frustrated.
after this, my brain starts just throwing dream plotlines at me nonstop to either distract from or explain my immobility, and I even try to engage with them because I yet again have no clue that I'm not awake but even then I get sent right back to bed no matter what.
at one point I tried to like, physically force my eyelids open with as much strength as I could muster and I thought I saw a little light through them, and in that moment my brain tried to pull some kind of plot twist, but the plot it came up with was that I somehow got fnaf'd into a robot ronald mcdonald whom had been disabled, but I couldn't remember, and the real world was actually a dream I had while turned off; the light I was seeing through my eyelids being the eyeholes in ronald's mcdonald's face. this plotline lasted for maybe like 8 seconds before I was just back in my bed again.
after that I tried just constantly swinging my body up but I kept just fading back into the same position in a bizarre cycle where I was constantly accelerating out of the same position like a surreal gif, and I was constantly yelling like I was trying to charge into and break the wall of my dream to wake up.
eventually I finally wake up, I feel the very physical weight of my head as I sit up with a groan, and I breathe a sigh of relief. now that I'm finally awake I don't immediately start moving because oughh that was exhausting and I don't want to get up yet, so I just keep lying down contented that I am awake now. but then it hits me, "didn't I just sit up? I don't remember lying down again.." and guess WHAT it turns out I was STILL DREAMING after all that. some minutes later of the same shenanigans, I do actually finally wake up very relieved to be out of all that, and it's very obvious when I do.
I suppose that must have been some kind of sleep paralysis; I for whatever reason could open my eyes while I was dreaming, and my brain was taking what I was seeing in real life and using that to "correct" my dream position to match what I was seeing. I realized after the fact that the straining motion I did to try to wrench my eyes open actually closes them, which explains why I somehow had one perfect shot of my bedroom better than I could have remembered it, but still saw little glimpses of light when I tried to open them, since I was actually just interrupting my view so only a little light could get through rather than the full view of my room. that also explains why I had a sudden longer plotline that was able to form then, since my eyes were mostly closed and my brain no longer had to update to match what I was seeing, until of course I stopped closing them and got sent right back into it.
very fascinating experience, hope it never happens again. I'm also glad it happened during a nap in a well-lit room, because if it happened in a dark scarey room at night I probably would have seen some beasts and creatures and whatnot.
