Trapped in a Loop: When Déjà Vu Becomes a Nightmare

I absolutely loved Star Trek: The Next Generation. Honestly, a lot of the episodes from that series have blended together for me over the years, but there’s one that always stands out: the one where the crew is playing poker, and the U.S.S. Enterprise ends up being destroyed. Luckily (or maybe unluckily?), they were stuck in a time loop. The day kept repeating itself until they finally figured out what was happening and worked out how to keep the ship from exploding.

The Worst Day to Repeat

After watching that episode, I remember thinking, "Huh, what if I were ever trapped in a time loop?" If that ever did happen, I'd hope to be caught in a day that was either really fun or one where I got to correct some major error. Because here's the absolute worst-case scenario: you get trapped in a boring day. Imagine you just took classes all day, came home, and went straight to bed. That's the day you have to repeat over and over again. How mind-numbingly boring would that be? Honestly, living even one of those days a second time might just be too much.

The Student Who Couldn't Escape His Mind

While my time-loop fantasy is firmly in the realm of science fiction, the reality is that one student was actually forced to drop out of college after a bizarre case of chronic déjà vu that left him unable to lead a normal life. This 23-year-old was so convinced he'd seen it all before that he stopped watching TV, listening to the radio, or even reading newspapers or magazines. He told doctors he was "trapped in a time loop," feeling as if he were reliving the past moment by moment. Details of the case were revealed in a report published by the Journal of Medical Case Reports. What truly baffled the doctors was that the man didn't suffer from any of the neurological conditions usually seen in people who experience frequent déjà vu (which, by the way, is French for "already seen"). Doctors now suspect that his intense panic attacks may have triggered the phenomenon.

Not Your Average Déjà Vu

Dr Christine Wells, a psychology expert from Sheffield Hallam University and the author of the report, said this could be the first documented case of a person experiencing persistent déjà vu stemming purely from anxiety. Most people experience that occasional, fleeting feeling of déjà vu, but more frequent and intense forms are usually only seen in people who have seizures in the temporal lobe, a condition called temporal lobe epilepsy. Here's the thing, though: brain scans showed no signs of seizures or neurological conditions in the student. Psychological evaluations to check his memory also came back normally. The student (who hasn't been named) first complained of the symptoms in 2007, shortly after starting college. He already had a history of anxiety, especially a fear of germs that led him to wash his hands very frequently and shower two to three times a day. His anxiety worsened when he began college, eventually leading him to take a break from his studies, and that's when the déjà vu started. Early episodes sometimes lasted only a few minutes, but other attacks became extremely prolonged. He reported feeling very frightened, describing the sensation as being truly trapped in a time loop. When he returned to college, the episodes became more intense. By 2010, his persistent déjà vu had caused him to completely avoid TV, radio, and reading because he felt he had already encountered the content. This was more than just the unsettling feeling of familiarity. The man complained that it felt like he was actually retrieving previous experiences from memory, not just finding them familiar. Academics from the UK, France, and Canada were called in for the study led by Dr. Wells.

The Real Theory: Psychic or Glitch?

Nobody knows for certain exactly how or why déjà vu happens. We have theories, but no absolute certainty. The mainstream theory is that déjà vu is a phenomenon that arises from activity within the temporal lobe, and a mistimed firing of neurons causes a temporary glitch in the brain's processing of incoming information. Essentially, your brain briefly tags a new experience as an old memory. Then there's the non-mainstream theory: the idea that we are all a little bit psychic, have a certain degree of ESP, and déjà vu happens when we see into the future a little bit. Personally, when I experience déjà vu, I don't feel like I've done something twice. I feel like I've actually had a dream about the thing I’m experiencing. You know, that moment where you're doing something and you're like, "Oh, I had a dream about this before." The feeling is so real to me that I even question myself and try to remember the rest of the dream. I become absolutely certain that, yes, I dreamed about this before. So, that’s my theory about déjà vu: What's your theory about what causes déjà vu? Also, what would you do if you were caught in a time loop?