the worst night of my life
it was at the end of a week-long stag do, and talking to the other boys after nobody really slept that night, we checked when we got home and we're pretty sure that we were all suffering from moderate to severe physical alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway, was just after we'd agreed to go in to Libya, and the Japan nuclear reactors were also on the news. We'd been watching CNN, having been pretty out of touch for a week (abroad) and was quite surprising seeing how much the world had gone to shit in our absence. Put our hangovers into perspective.

That night, had trouble sleeping. Finally dropped off, and I had the only nightmare I've ever had in my life. I dreamt that I was in the mountains with my family when there was a bright flash on the horizon. A moment of confusion, then absolute panic and disbelief as we realised it was a nuclear bomb. We managed to hide in a house, then somehow nip off to the South Pacific, hiding on an island chain, with bombs going off fairly regularly.

It's hard to explain how we kept surviving, and how with each miraculous survival the fear didn't subside. But it truly didn't. Every time there was the blinding light in sky, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. My blankets were drenched in sweat.

Even though it was my dream I had no idea what was happening. Who was fighting? Why? In our own hideout we had no idea of the rest of the world. Eventually our island was occupied by the Americans, and it transpired that they were fighting the Chinese. I can remember how vivid the soldiers were as they trudged ashore, stooped under their packs, how they were all really young, yet seemed like old men with what was happening, their faces gaunt and pale.

It seems really mundane, compared to R.Jimlad's tale of night terrors, but I'd never had a nightmare of any kind before, and it really really scared me. It seemed SO bloody real. The panic I felt certainly was. Waking up slowly as well meant that for a while I was mostly awake, but still thinking that the end of the world had come. It was horrible.

How the hell did people live through the Cold War? One night of that was more than enough for me. It is not hyperbole to say that that was the worst night of my life. Easily.
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 11:03, 6 replies)

Along those lines...
www.b3ta.com/questions/creepy/post1156563#answers-post-1156653

I had a dream the other week that myself and three friends were walking to a research facility when a nuke went off. Somehow, I was behind a block of concrete, but the other three were incinerated. The culmination of a week of odd dreams, all waking me up at four in the morning.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Fri 8 Apr 2011, 11:13, closed)

*shudders*
Why would they have the test so regulary? Surely after it happens a couple of times they'd review their procedures?

I think what really shit me up is that I have never, ever had bad dreams before (not that I remember, anyway), so to have that bastard out of the blue was terrifying.
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 11:27, closed)

Just to check they work, I guess.
The Swiss sirens were only twice a year, thank fuck.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Fri 8 Apr 2011, 11:31, closed)

welcome to alcoholism
That was alcohol withdrawal. Paralysis, lucid dreaming, sweating - it isn't nice and progressively gets much worse the more you do it.

seriously, a week long stag do is NOT normal. I'd suggest you lay off week long drink binges indefinately or they may become a habit.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 12:23, closed)

mmmm, been taking it pretty easy since.
to be fair, we were snowboarding and skiing as well, it wasn't just wake up, drink, pass out x7
( kappynitty doubled your entendre on, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 14:07, closed)

Probabaly just sleep paralysis then
I used to get them at University. Caused by heavy physical fatigue (snow boarding skiing) and enhanced mental activity (partying or studying a lot). Your body says fuck this I'm going to sleep but your brain is still racing.

The sweating and inability to sleep and mental racing is all signs of alcohol widthdrawal, halucinations and shaking are not uncommon too - can last a day or two.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Fri 8 Apr 2011, 14:24, closed)