Stomach acid causing weird mental state only when sleeping

[Greg316]

Does anyone else have anxiety and panic tied to stomach acid? I've been suffering from Acid Reflux for many years; but have lost 40 pounds lately and have started only taking my medicine off and on.

The last two nights I have had really bad stomach acid burning my esophagus and refluxing into my mouth. I can handle that but the weirdest thing is how it makes me feel when I sleep.

I get this really odd altered mental state where I feel like i'm going crazy and nothing makes sense. I don't know if I'm half asleep when it happens; but last night when I shut my eyes I thought that the Nazis were blackmailing me by holding my family hostage so that I would help them; but I really didn't want to. My heart rate would beat really fast (120 or so), and I would think things like I was in a prison cell; and trees were talking to me etc. The weird thing is, it was only when my eyes were closed and I was trying to fall asleep. When my eyes were open; I was completely lucid and composed.

I have noticed this in the past where stomach acid has a weird effect on me; and makes me loopy when it occurs at night. I know that some people used to talk of "indigestion dreams" when they ate some weird food; could this be the same?

[ankietyjoe]

I have noticed that if I have a bad stomach, my dreams will be incredibly vivid that night. That often includes that dream state persisting for a while after I wake up (seconds or minutes).

I do know now that your brain and digestive system are so linked that many people consider then to be all part and parcel of the same organ. It has also been suggested that stomach bacteria can effect your mental state/thinking process. Perhaps cessation of the medication is causing changes that are in turn creating odd symptoms.

[Greg316]

i know this is going to sound stupid; but there's no such thing as "conditional craziness" right? If I'm completely normal during the day but only feel like this at night when my stomach acid is acting up; i'm not really losing my mind; right?

[ankietyjoe]

What you're experiencing isn't what being crazy is.

When you're crazy, you don't 'feel' like you're going crazy.