Woman wakes up thinking it's 1992

A 34-year-old mother has spoken of how she woke up thinking she was 15 years old and living in 1992.

Naomi Jacobs, from Manchester, was convinced she was still a teenager and about to sit her GCSE's. In her mind, John Major was Prime Minister and George Bush Sr. was running the White House.

She also revealed how she screamed when a boy appeared and called her "Mum."

Mobile phones and e-mail were mystifying and Google, Facebook and YouTube sounded like made-up words, she said.

Ms Jacobs, who had no memory of the intervening years, was told by doctors that she had Transient Global Amnesia (TGA). She has now written a book about the experience which happened in 2008.

"I fell asleep in 1992 as a bold, brassy, very confident know-it-all 15 year old, and woke up a 32 year old single mum living in a council house," Ms Jacobs said.

"The last thing I remember was falling asleep in my lower bunk bed, dreaming about a boy in my class.

"When I woke up, I looked in the mirror and had the fright of my life when I saw an old woman with wrinkles staring back at me.

"Then this little boy appeared and started calling me mum. That's when I started to scream.

"I didn't know who he was. I didn't think he was much younger than I was, and I certainly didn't remember giving birth to him.

"I began sobbing uncontrollably.

"To say I was petrified was an understatement. I just wanted my mum. I couldn't get my head around going to bed one night and waking up in a different century."

TGA is a rare type of amnesia which can occur out of the blue, affecting around three people per 100,000 each year.

Fortunately, permanent memory loss is rare. Ms Jacobs' memory started to return after eight weeks.

Triggers for the condition include having sex, heavy physical exertion and stress. Some people who are prone to migraines also appear to be more likely to have a TGA episode.

The cause of TGA is unknown. Some speculate that it may be caused a temporary disruption of blood flow to parts of the brain involved in memory.

This article was published on Fri 29 July 2011