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Sub_Umbra said:
I also often have recall of hypnogogic halucinations, which I've been told is uncommon.
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Hey!!! I have that!!! I didn't know it had a name. I have had numerous occasions where I was awake and fully seeing things. It always happens at night around when I am or am supposed to be sleeping. I probably could have been convinced it was all a dream but my parents (when I was living with them) and wife has caught me and interacted with me during several episodes. One that comes to mind (this happened recently) was one night I was standing up on the bed with my hands over my wife as if I was keeping something from falling on her. She woke up and asked me what I was doing so I told her it's nothing (as in nothing is really happening), but I see stuff falling and have to protect you. We talked about it the next day, she still brings it up on occasion.
Other episodes were:
I remember when I was a kid (less than 10 years old), I woke up and went into their room to find their bedroom window was a portal to space. It looked just like you were looking into space. I then turned around to see a reflection of myself in their dresser droors, that's when they woke up and saw me then escorted me back to my room asking what I was doing.
I remember in that same house going into the living room and staring out the windows seeing very strange things. My parents told me the curtains stayed shut, but I was seeing all kinds of things. They told me they remember me walking around the house a lot at night, but I never got into trouble. Mostly I would be sitting looking at things. My parents said I didn't sleep through the night until I was 4 or 5. I guess I still didn't sleep through the night I just stopped crying for them and was able to handle things on my own.
Once I had a bat in my room. It was very vivid and flying over my bed. I had my parents and older brother trying to swat this "imaginary" bat away for quite a while.
Back in college I woke up to all the doors in my room opening and slamming shut repeatedly.
Another time in college, I saw my wife (then girlfriend) in a hallway looking and moving like a medusa like creature. She was sleeping in the room next to the hallway at the time.
Within the last 10 years I have woken up many time to find my alarm clock is a: tree, cloud, building, monkey, statue, and many other weird objects. And for the life of me I can't figure how to make it stop beeping!!! This stopped, by the way, when I started using the radio instead of a beep to wake me up.
My wife has caught me many times sitting up in bed, she'll ask "are you seeing stuff again" I'll answer yup, and she will go back to sleep.
WOW Some of those things I haven't thought about in many years. There are many, many other episodes, but I won't bore you with all of them. Some I can remember vividly, some not so good. Luckily, unlike my actual dreams, these haven't been to horrifying (except for that bat one and a few others I haven't mentioned).
Thanks for bringing that up!!! Hypnagogic hallucinations, Hmmm... Now I have something to research!!!
Edit:
Oh and another thing. When I am trying to go to sleep and I hear a noise (dosen't matter if my eyes are open or shut), I see bright colors and shapes. It envelopes all of my visual range. When this happens I also hear a sound. This is harder to describe, sometimes it is a loud deep buzzing, sometimes it kind of sounds like a pluck from one of those mouth harps. Both are for a split second but it's very vivid and sometimes alarming if I am not expecting it. If you have ever been shocked by 110volts it is very close to that kind of feeling except it's more audio/visual then painfull.
Anybody else have it this much? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif
I found this:
Hypnagogic hallucinations can occur at sleep onset, either during daytime sleep episodes or at night. They are usually quite vivid, and often involve vision. The visual hallucinations usually consist of simple forms – colored circles or parts of objects – that are constant or changing in size. People may also see the image of an animal or a person, and are more often in color. Auditory hallucinations are also common, but other senses are seldom involved. The auditory hallucinations can range from a collection of sounds to an elaborate melody. Threatening sentences or harsh criticism might also menace the person. Another common and interesting type of hallucination that is sometimes reported at sleep onset involves elementary cenesthopathic feelings (like experiencing picking, rubbing, or light touching), changes in location of body parts (like an arm or a leg), or feelings of levitation or extracorporeal experiences (like moving the body in space or floating above the bed) that may be quite elaborate. The association of sleep paralysis has led researchers to think that maybe there was gamma loop involvement in some of these hallucinations. The abrupt motor inhibition that involves the spinal cord motoneurons may lead to a significant decrease in the feedback of information normally used by the central nervous system to gauge the position of the body and the relation of the limb segments to each other (this information is called proprioception).
If anyone is interested
this web site has a really good explanation of Hypnagogic hallucinations.
Ok, I'll stop adding to this post. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
