OMG I've just googled this because I want to know why I keep counting big numbers in dreams and you've literally described what happens to me !! I've had it for years and it's one of those horrible things that is really hard to explain, I never fully remember it but I remember the frustration and ends in a massive panic !
I also had this when I was a kid, I was maybe 10 years old. I still remember every single thing about it as if it was yesterday. I used to wake up in the middle of night, and count like hell! keep counting and counting, I had that strange feeling that if I stop I will die. something was squeezing my mind and forcing me to count to reach a specific number, but I was just a kid and had no clue why I'm doing this or why this was happening to me. I used to cry hard and scream so my parent can hear me and come to help me. My mom asks me over and over every time this happens to me. Like what's happening to you, and I say, "I have to count I can't stop"!
What a bad memories! But suddenly stopped and I almost forget about it, until I remembered today and googled it!.
I think that it's just some kind of parasomnia. I was asleep, too, and then I suddenly woke up. And I started counting these weird numbers, yeah. I thought if I didn't count these numbers, I'd go to hell or something. This 'attack' was quite long, but then I'm back to normal, stopped counting numbers and fell asleep. The next day, my own mind started to count these numbers again for no reason, but I quickly stopped it. I was ready for this btw. After 6 months, that happened again (yesterday). For 15 minutes I thought about how to realize a very weird idea (I'm not going to write about it, but this idea was really ridiculous) without any reason, logic, facts. The feelings were exactly the same as in the previous attack. The mind then is like disconnected 12 'channels' out of 13. Only one 'channel' of the mind worked, and it felt very terrible. So I think IT is a parasomnia because it can't be anything else. Hope this helps.
The most important thing was not to panic.
If you try to stop it by your will, it will pass, the main thing is to realize that you are only half awake (try it like in lucid dream).
I agree. There are dozens of these weird parasomnias out there. I suffer from quite a few of them myself - some inherited from my father's side of the family.
It is true that some of them can be a sign of neurological disease, but only on very rare occasions. (I'm a former neuro nurse.) In most cases, the only danger they present is if one starts getting unduly worried about, or fixated on, them. That can produce extreme anxiety, which will then feed back into the parasomnia, making it much worse.
If these phenomena suddenly start getting worse with no obvious reason (e.g. stress, recreational drugs etc.) or if you suddenly start getting other new symptoms like abnormally prolonged headaches, visual or balance problems, marked weakness on one side of the body etc., then it's a good idea to get yourself checked out by a doctor. Otherwise, I think one's nocturnal aberrations are best kept to oneself. Most doctors - including, sadly, some sleep specialists - have very little knowledge of parasomnias. When confronted with stories like this, they may either become uncomfortable, which can manifest as anger, or assume it's down to mental illness and immediately prescribe antidepressants.
Most parasomnias tend to decline with age. This has certainly been true for me. That being said, even though I'm now in my 70s I still occasionally awake to the terrifying hallucinations of sleep paralysis, or obsessed with composing an impossibly intricate piece of music, which it takes me half a day to shake off. I don't read music or play any instrument and have never composed anything in waking life by the way!
None of my parasomnias have ever harmed me, and I've grown to love them in a weird kind of way. I just treat them as a gift. If you can keep up your sensible approach, I'm sure you'll learn to live with your brain glitches too.
I have has this issue twice in my whole life if I remember correctly. Even though I am 18, I am left in question of what I felt. The last time was maybe five years ago. To this day i never talked about it. I woke up in the middle of the night and went into the living room where my grandma was. Feeling as if a number I had to reach a number that kept growing away by the millions but I couldn’t say anything physically. Seeming nearly impossible to reach or comprehend I’d nearly cry before returning to bed after being told everything is ok. The odds of me using this sight ever again is very likely. Reply to me at 419-607-0375
We have desame sleeping problems. Im still searching on what it’s called but i can not find any results because its very hard to explain it 
. I experienced that when i was 10 years old until but now im 12 but im still experiencing it at least once a year or after 9 months like that but i dint know why it happens to me . Thank God I’m not alone, i thought i was the only person who was experiencing it.
Hi ace,
I’m glad you’ve found some reassurance on this thread. There are so many different kinds of parasomnias (you can google it) that practically everyone is bound to have at least one of them. Most of us don’t talk about them, except on forums like this one, because we’re afraid people might think we’re a bit weird, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I’m not sure what your particular parasomnia is called either, but it doesn’t really matter. None of these little glitches are signs that anything is wrong with you.
Finaly someone with a same situation
I can 100% assure you i have experienced the same post-dream state 3-5 times throughout my life, one time i was watching myself sleep above myself and then entered the post-dream state but every other time i woke up normally. As if everywhere you look, the center of your FOV / POV, it will start counting to a new infinitely high number. If you move the center of your FOV / POV a new infinitely high number will start counting infinitely fast. Mirrors helped a little to ground myself but getting in the shower and hearing the hundreds of water dropplets helped me slowly get out of it, the hot water + noise almost filters out the counting. I’m 21 now, haven’t had this dream in years. Probably since christmas of my sophomore year of highschool. Crazy to see someone has experienced the same thing lol. This post was made in 2015 so i hope you get to see this reply!
OMG I have had that type of dream like 4 times in a year and I have never heard of anyone who experienced this too, everyone with whom I have talked abt this had me like if I were crazy