We all have strange memories from childhood, or fantastic recurring dreams that we almost think are real.
But while these memories often vary from person to person, there is one that many seemingly share: floating down the stairs.
And the collective memory has made its way to the British TikTok, where countless videos have been posted of people sharing their experiences of floating as children.
“I have vivid memories of jumping off the stairs at my school and floating gently to the bottom.” someone said. “I even fluttered down.”
Various suggestions have been made as to where the 'memory' might come from, including a confused memory of carrying as a child or sleep paralysis. Here, FEMAIL explores why some people seem to remember floating down the stairs and what this could mean…
As people shared their own 'memories of floating', more and more people came forward to say they had experienced it too.
“People talk about having a collective memory of floating down the stairs as a child and it completely blows my mind because I absolutely have this memory,” one TikTok user said.
'I used to do it down the stairs at school and then I would jump down about fifteen steps in one go and kind of slide to the ground. And I have recurring dreams about it now.'
While another added, “Do you remember floating down the stairs as a kid? It seems to be a large collective memory. I know I remember.
'I remember standing at the top of the stairs and gently floating down horizontally. And I remember it happening so many times. I remember it as if it were real.”
In another clamp, someone appeared as if he were floating. The video was captioned: “I was a six year old stealing candy from my parents room, completely floating down the stairs and not asking any questions about it.”
Under the video, the person wrote: 'Please tell me other people did this as kids and then one day it just stopped? #stairsfloating.'
To elaborate on her experience with floating, a woman inside her said clamp that she doesn't remember dreaming about floating, but actually doing it.
The collective memory of floating down the stairs has made its way to TikTok, where countless videos have been posted of people sharing their experiences of floating as children
In another clip, someone called Bronwen [@ohsh**itsbronwen] showed her pretending to float. The video was captioned: “I was a six year old stealing candy from my parents room, completely floating down the stairs and not asking any questions about it.”
While Josie Conlan [@josiec68], said, “Do you remember floating down the stairs as a child? It seems to be a large collective memory. I know I remember'
“I have vivid memories of jumping off the stairs at my school and gently floating to the bottom,” said one. 'I even fluttered down'
“I remember the feeling in my legs,” she said. “I remember the kind of breathing before I did it, and it was never as super fast as if I had fallen.
“I remember making a decision and thinking, 'I'm going to float down the stairs now,' and I was just going to do it.”
Another woman on TikTok said her son told her he had floated down the stairs, causing her to panic. “My nine-year-old son told me he just floated down the stairs, knowing full well I could do it too as a child,” she said. “But everyone convinced me it was just a distorted memory of being carried as a baby.”
Various suggestions have been made as to what this memory could mean, including astral projection – a term used to describe a spiritual out-of-body experience.
But psychologist and neuroscientist Dr Lindsay Browning said this is likely the result of sleep paralysis.
'Sleep paralysis is a REM disorder in which the person wakes up from dream sleep, but their body is still paralyzed. When a person experiences sleep paralysis, he wakes up but cannot move as if paralyzed.
'People with sleep paralysis around the world report things like seeing an ominous figure at the foot of the bed, such as a witch, a ghost or even a alien while other people report floating out of their bodies and looking at themselves in bed or floating into another room.”
Scientifically, Dr. Browning said this is most likely because when your body is paralyzed, as happens during REM sleep, you lose proprioception – which is the sense of your own body. That's why she said that if you can't feel it, you can feel like you're no longer part of your body and imagine yourself floating outside of it.
Another woman with the username @jessatthosephoenixgirls said her son told her he had floated down the stairs, causing her to panic
“People talk about having a collective memory of floating down the stairs as a kid, and it blows my mind because I definitely have this memory,” said a TikTok user named @sbr_bone_and_star
And while many people associate sleep paralysis with fear of death, Dr. Browning said there is another kind that rarely leads to fear.
“Sleep paralysis usually feels scary when a person feels like they are lying paralyzed on the bed and senses that someone else is in the room with them,” she said.
“The other form of sleep paralysis is the sensation of floating out of their body, and that type of sleep paralysis is rarely frightening.”
Another suggestion as to where this memory comes from is that people misremember being carried as children.
Dr. Browning said: 'There can always be a false memory of being carried by children as another viable explanation for the feeling of floating below.
“When you are not fully awake, you can glimpse memories that are stirred, but you are not fully awake enough to realize that it is your parents who are carrying you.”