4a.m. Terror

4a.m. Terror [+ favourites]

I'd like to explore an unusual phenomenon within my own mind, primarily because I am curious as to whether others have had similar experiences.

It happens between the hours of 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning. Generally I am asleep at this time, but I do suffer from insomnia on a fairly regular basis. When I am awake during these hours my mind seems altered somehow. I feel as though I have a heightened sense of awareness/responsiveness and I become hyper sensitive to my environment. This often results in moments of extreme paranoia and on rare occasion it has created instants of sheer terror, when in reality nothing appears to be abnormal or "wrong" with my surroundings at the time.

What is it about night time that alters my mind and body so much? I've heard that such strong feelings can be created due to repressed memories, but I'm fairly confident in saying this is not the case in my situation (but how would I know for certain?).

Also, this "altered state," for lack of better words seems to be potentially useful. It creates a lot of drive, motivation and creativity for me and when it is over, aside from feeling a little insane I reach some sort of state of tranquility (again for lack of better words).

Perhaps it is a mechanism designed to keep our species on guard for predators at night?

"UNIX is an operating system, OS/2 is half an operating system, Windows is a shell, and DOS is a boot partition virus. ~Peter H. Coffin"

That's really weird that you post this.

It seems that now that I've read this, I'm recalling feeling the exact same way during these hours... (when I'm usually still awake)

I find that during these last few hours I have more motivation and attention than any other part of the day. This is normally when I do all my cleaning, drawing, reading, writing...

It's strange because another part of that post, the fear/terror/paranoia, sometimes makes me jump from my chair for no apparent reason...

I think it's because - since there is almost no sound or hardly any movement at these times - that the slightest shadows, movement, or sounds just freak me out a little bit.


I would love to see if anyone else has thoughts on this... like an explanation I suppose..

I would assume it has something to do with our circadian rhythm or something like that being so used to sleeping at that time, that we're actually consciously experiencing a heightened awareness that usually takes places while we're sleeping.

just a thought

"I'm a human being, God Dammit!! My life has value!!!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witching_hour

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

sooo.... Wyote and I are secretly wizards?

"I'm a human being, God Dammit!! My life has value!!!"

I think I experience the same sense you both feel at this hour. I usually am on my computer and listing to music through head phones and will suddenly be over come by fear. I know nothing is going to harm me but still I feel that I am in danger. I personally think I have this feeling because my mind knows that every one around me is sleeping so it is kind of the fear of being alone along with a state of heighten sense.

""Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -oscar wilde"

Odd. Very odd. I titled this 4a.m. because that is when those instants of terror happen to me most often, where I jump or have the urge to go to a different room. I can see why an observer of this behavior could associate it to black magic.

I've heard of the witching hour before but its been a long time. I didn't associate my own experiences with that term for some reason. Well it's comforting knowing I'm not alone in this, but it would be nice if there was some sort of scientific basis for it. Some sort of social meme perhaps. I shall keep looking. Until then I will assume the role of a wizard.

"UNIX is an operating system, OS/2 is half an operating system, Windows is a shell, and DOS is a boot partition virus. ~Peter H. Coffin"

lol... I know what you mean. some times late at night I swear to see things in the corner of my eye like a black mist or creature moving through my room. It does give a vibe off that resembles magic.

""Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth" -oscar wilde"