Suddenly holding a crate!

So, my acquaintance (MA) who gets microsleep with REM episodes (MWR – see here) was on a train recently and had an odd experience. MA looked down and was holding a small plastic crate. What was odd was MA could not remember holding any such thing! The crate suddenly turned into the plastic drinks bottle MA could recall holding. Everything else about the scene was the same.

It was clearly a MWR. However, MA could not recall ever having a held object changing during a MWR before. It should be said, in the vast majority of cases MA was not holding anything during MWR episodes. It is interesting because MA’s brain clearly acknowledged an object was being held but decided it was something quite different!

In another MWR was standing somewhere in the countryside at  night. There were some odd colours in the sky above nearby hills and it felt cold. Suddenly, MA was back sitting in the warm moving train in daytime in reality. While these 'alternate place' MWRs are not unusual, the contrast in this case was unusually dramatic. MA felt no motion in the MWR nor that is warm and daylight.

It is fascinating that the first experience is almost identical to reality, with just one difference. By contrast, the second experience appears to take no elements from MA's real position at all.