confusing feelings on fingers, "thick" and "thin" at the same time, heart beatin

I also have this, likewise i just experienced this while in bed and almost falling asleep. I remember experiencing this when i was younger, about 5 or 6 and it used to play part in my dreams and id often woken myself up and other family members by my screams but when id awake i couldnt understand why id been so scared. However now im older i only really ever get this when im just about to fall asleep and its really confusing. Ive tried talkibg to a doctor but its often very hard to explain when your not experiencing it at that moment. Thought i was the only one that had this! I find it goes if i stand up and put the light on for a few seconds and then return to bed! Would love an explanation!!

It's 4:00 in the morning and I started experiencing this again so I decided to google it and, too, came across this site. I'm relieved to know I'm not alone. I would describe it as thick and thin as well....thick fingers, usually my left hand, thinness....usually like a needle. It would get eerily quiet making everything magnified. I used to experience this as a child, and I'm now 37 and just had one today. My younger brother knew exactly what I was talking about when I happen to mention it one day. We both said "thick and thin" @ the same time.....and laughed out of relief that we weren't alone. I'm going to check out the Alice in Wonderland theory and see what that's all about. I also hope this ISN'T an alien thing and I find myself abducted since I've admitted this feeling. Lol!

I replied to this site about a year ago and now every time someone else adds to it I get an update mail, its amazing how many there have been, leading me to think that I bet most people must have experienced this, and its only when mentioned it jogs their minds and they suddenly think oh I used to have that when I was a kid!! Still havn't seen an explanation for this apart from it being confused nerve endings sending mixed up messages to your brain at the moment of relaxation or illness.

I heard it can be a side effect of migraines.
In my opinion, all who experience this should also get a brain MRI just to be sure it's not a tumor.

This first happened to me as a young child (about 7 years old) and would happen occasionally throughout my childhood and then much less frequently as an adult. I'm now 63 and the last time I experienced it was about 15 years ago. It only happens when I'm lying down but also fully awake. It starts as a small feeling of conflict in my stomach and I have the feeling that I could stop it at that stage but I never have because it fascinates me even though it is disorienting and a little unpleasant. The sensation happens in my fingers and toes and it feels like they are thick and thin and heavy and light all at the same time. As a child I would also sometimes hear sounds as loud and soft at the same time. I could usually make it go away by standing up and shaking my arms and moving around. It never lasted more than 10 minutes.

I've never had a migraine or any kind of mental illness. I'm a very healthy person. I don't see it as anything to be concerned about because it's never had any effect on me beyond the immediate experience. I just find it interesting. It's kind of comforting to know that others have it too. When I first experienced it as a child I told my parents and they laughed at me!

I've been experiencing this sensation on and off since I was very young but have found it to be increasing over recent years and have gained an ability to control when I evoke it.Only these last few years I've also developed an interest in Synaesthesia and believe the conditions to be similar.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SynesthesiaGivent the increased effort to research and understand synaesthesia in the past couple of decades I think it's important we begin to share our experiences of this condition as well as information and any research projects we may come across.

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I'm so excited to find this thread. I just experienced a familiar feeling last night as I was trying to sleep that I haven't felt for many years (maybe like 12 years--since college). When I'm not feeling it, I can't remember what it felt like so when i was lying awake last night feeling it, I repeated to myself "Look up 'Heavy, yet Light sensation' tomorrow." I, too, felt this quite often as a child (often in conjunction with a fever) but have never brought it up to anyone because when I wasn't experiencing it I had no way to explain it. And as a kid, it was very bewildering. The way it plays out for me, I think (like I said, it's hard to remember when I'm not experiencing it), is that my fingers feel very large, yet light, it feels unbearably strange to touch them together, and it's like I can't stop picturing myself holding something small and shriveled, specifically like a hard raisin, that has an odd weight. This is the best I can describe it, but it still doesn't seem accurate to what it's really like. I don't have any trauma in my childhood past as far as I know, but as it happened last night I had the presence of mind to really try to figure out what it all meant, and one of my instincts was to wonder if it is associated with some childhood trauma that I don't remember (since it started for me as a very young child). But I'm guessing, for me, that it's fever or insomnia induced. I'm also pregnant right now and my sleep and dreams have been whack. I also have never done drugs and haven't had alcohol for months.

You guys know that Pink Floyd song, Comfortably Numb? When I first heard the lyric "When I was a child, I had a fever, my hands felt just like two balloons" that was the first time I was like, oh my god, do other people experience these sensations? It's a real relief to find you all talking about this. makes me feel like maybe it's semi-normal. :)

 

Hey guys, I too have had this sensation since I was a kid (more so then than as an adult) and mine usually came on when I was getting ill. It seemed to start in my head and hands and started as extreme pressure. As though my whole body was numb or had fallen asleep... as though and extreme weight was holding my body down. The sensation that came after that could only be described as feeling big and small at the same time... or thick and thin. The visual I got was something akin to my bones contracting and expanding with the sort of fuzzy haze vibrating all around them. I could see sort of an x-ray version of my body that was impossible to adequately explain. The name I came up with as a kid was the "Fuzzy Man"... haha. I wondered my whole life what this could be and thought I must be alone... I mean, the sensation is just too weird and seemingly unique to who I was that I never dreamt that anyone else was experiencing the same thing. I had tried to explain it to people before but to no avail. I tried searching it online before as well but could not think of adequate search terms and found nothing. I would forget about it for a while and then it would pop up in my mind or I would have a mild case here and there, but mostly I had forgotten about it. Then, for some reason, when I was watching TV today, I thought about it and just decided to Google "when I get sick I have this strange big/small sensation" lol... sure enough a post came up... 

 

Turns out people on this site report the sensation as being something called macrosomatognosia or it's opposite microsomatognosia. Someone on site posted this link as well...

...which gives some really interesting information about macrosomatognosia being related to something called the 'migraine aura'

Really strange and exciting stuff. I was so excited and had to call my father and tell him about it. I also asked if he had it (since people on this thread and the one I posted report sharing the phenomenon with family members) and he said that he hadn't but that my brother used to suffer from migraines. I am going to ask him and try and find out as much about this as I can. I would love to do a survey of people who have or have had this experience and see what similarities lie between all of us. I suspect that we might find out some really useful information. 

If anyone can think of an easy way to conduct this survey, let me know

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I just had chills and a couple silent tears. I googled simultaneous sensation of large and small fingers. Im 22 and ive had it a few times a year or less, but with distinct memories of it as a child. I don't get the mouth sensation anymore but I know I use to. Lips. Childhood trauma? I don't think so... But we were children, I can't be positive. Kinda makes sense if you think about us feeling larger hands or lips against ours as children. I might have to ask around, look under some rocks. Thanks guys.

i'm 26 years old now and i used to have the same feelings between the ages of 6 and 12 and still get them occasionally nowa. it feels like everything the room seems far away and the smallest of noises are really loud. i was just lying in bed and my hands felt massive and it was like i was trying to squeeze something but couldn't. they felt really heavy. when i told the teacher about it, she just told me that i was attention seeking and sent me out the room which made it worse. it scares me half to death even now. i realise that i get the "hallucinations" or "feelings" when i'm tired or just about to got to sleep. i do not know what it is that causes them and if i were to go to my doctor, i think they would call me crazy. would like to know what it is i'm expericencing and how to stop it. i will try meditating to see if it helps. anything right now would help because it scares me and it takes ages to shake the feeling. 

its happening for the first time right now... im freaking out!

I am so so glad I came across this site/thread! I had a very bizarre experience when I was little ... I was half asleep and saw like a tiny speck of something, like a needle or a star, something delicate, and it suddenly changed into something big/massive/thick/chunky. I remember waking up screaming and running to my mum crying who just thought I'd had a bad dream. I don't know how to describe the feeling I get when this happens but it's awful. The best way I can liken it to (as other people have put it) is like my fingers are chunky and rough and my teeth are too large and my mouth's full of saliva. I also get incredibly anxious with palpitations, shaking, nervousness, etc. and it takes a while to calm down.

I'm 21 now and I remembered this experience I had tonight, and when I thought about it hard enough I got the strange sensation again. It completely freaked me out and I haven't been able to sleep all night. If I think about it hard enough I can still get the creepy sensation and it's horrible :(

I had a happy childhood and no trauma/abuse as far as I'm aware, but schizophrenia is in my family. Would love to know exactly what this weird thing is!

I'm glad we're all not alone on this though :)

Johanna,
I have EXACTLY the same sensations as you've been describing, with a thin object like a needle or twig and then suddenly something really chunky, if you read my post above - and also the same reactions to it! I'm so glad that we're both not alone on this!!

I can't believe this, my dad , me, my brother and sister all have this, and thought we were the only ones ever to feel it. And we also called it thick and thin, how we named it I don't know. My grandad also had this but not until he came back from the army he was in the army during the end of the war and for a while afterwards. he was based in India and many other countries., and while their contacted malaria, my dad says fom this malaria something stayed in the blood or geans and is carried on from generation to generation. causing this thick and thin feeling. Has anyone else herd of this. Would also like to say this thick and thin feeling causes non of us any fears or upsets, infact we kind of laugh about it. But that could be something to do with being irish.

Does anyone else get really anxious when these episodes occur? I find that they make me really really nervous, depending on how intense they are, though I'm not sure why. Also, I find that I trigger them myself just by thinking about it.