Is it normal to wake up with an acute sense of your mortality?

It's literally only for a second, but it feels like time is really short and I'm hyper-aware of my state now and after death. Then it goes away. I still know I'm gonna die but that feeling of impermanence/ panic/ depression is gone. Anyone else experience that specific situation right after waking up?

Voting Results
85% Normal
Based on 26 votes (22 yes)
Help us keep this site organized and clean. Thanks!
[ Report Post ]
Comments ( 3 )
  • FeralDefiance

    It's at it's best when you think about the implausibility of life after death.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • hgjukbjk

    Only if you're a ghost.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
  • rayb12

    I get it at night, I will doze off for maybe 10 minutes, then wake up with that fear, then return to a deep sleep the rest of the night.

    I've chalked it up to anxiety as I see these episodes correlating to distress about other things going on, which makes sense as our mortality is constantly a fact, so it doesn't logically make sense to feel sad/anxious about what will 100% happen.

    the two things I have done to help, is one I've tried to meditate on the thought of death for as long as I needed in one sitting. Not literally meditate, but just let the thought sit in my head, and accept all of the fear and eventually it subsided substantially. Because I realized I always pushed the fear away and never really let it occur.

    The other thing is now, or in a time when it's been happening more frequently I will remind myself before sleeping that this will probably happen so I am emotionally prepared to counter it, and then sometimes when I have braced myself it doesn't even come.

    For me it is brief, but lasts longer than a second so you are different but I hope some of this still transfers.
    Also, totally normal.

    Comment Hidden ( show )