Hypnagogic or Hypnopompic Hallucinations

[Arg9]

Who else has had hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations? I'm curious who else has experienced them and perhaps the conditions (fatigue, sick, etc). If you happened to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol withdrawal - please don't post unless you note it.

I've only experienced hypnogogic. They don't happen that often but I have noticed that they've always occurred when I take a nap; never at night when I'm too tired to slowly drift into sleep. The last two are within the past 2 years.

1) Felt my legs raising up (OH NO! ABDUCTION!!). Once the rest of my body started moving I snapped out of it. I was working night shift at the time and sleep deprivation was kicking in.

2) Almost complete paralysis - felt the typical presence next to my bed and heard mechanical clicking sounds. Aggravatingly slow, I was able to pull my eyelids open enough to see light and a blur of the room. I snapped out of it. The interesting thing about this experience was that I felt nauseous and was going to call in sick for work. After snapping out of it, I immediately felt great.

3) Heard a noise under the bed, then a calm voice (can't remember what was said). Didn't open my eyes but saw a shadow of a head looking down on me and then a light tap on my forehead, just above the nose. That was it - but was a rather tranquil experience.

4) Heard a noise under the bed (again), I reflexively opened my eyes and saw a brown, translucent spider (about 8") crawling in the air near the ceiling and fade away as I became more cognizant.

I'd like to hear if anyone else have had similar experiences. Or if you even know of reliable links for more info. Since then, I've experimented with it - like after a stressful day of work, come home, relax - take a nap and can usually hear (subtle) random voices - sentences right before I feel like I'm going to sleep. I need to start writing them down in hope to find a pattern or theme...if there is one.

[Ysidro]

Occasionally hypnogogic auditory hallucinations. It would be like a voice on the radio or TV.

More commonly, hypnopompic experiences of paralysis and a sense of something evil or deadly behind me (I usually sleep on my side).

The hypnogogic stuff I only recall from my twenties living with my grandma. The hypnopompic I've experienced since childhood. No drug use, not specific reason for onset. Both disappeared when I started sleeping on a Tempur-Pedic mattress.

Apparently the night hags don't like NASA designed Swedish foam beds. :p

[ponderingturtle]

I sometimes have auditory hallucinations when I am having difficulty falling asleep. For me they make no sense in that they are random words strung together and they don't sound like I am hearing them with my ears.

I usualy fall asleep to the radio or some such to help prevent this situation.

[Dancing David]

Um, I have had too many strange sleep related events to count.

Some very fearful ones, afraid of the dark corner on the ceiling, afraid of strange figures in the mirror, partly lucid dreams.

Now a lot of this is related to multiple causes of brain imbalace: self occuring, serotonergic substance induced and sleep apnea. I don't have them as much now that i treat my depression and sleep apnea, i have avoided those substance for a long time.

The best was probably the glowing demon door.

[edd]

I have hypnopompics all the time, but they're rarely episodes of sleep paralysis (I have those, just much less frequently).

[JHGRedekop]

Who else has had hypnogogic or hypnopompic hallucinations? I'm curious who else has experienced them and perhaps the conditions (fatigue, sick, etc). If you happened to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol withdrawal - please don't post unless you note it.

I've had them, without any odd conditions, though usually without anything fancy like aliens or the Night Hag appearing.

The most memorable one was a few years ago, when I was sleeping on my side, paralyzed and "awake" facing a book-shelf. Out of curiousity, I decided to memorized what was on the shelf so I could compare it with what I would see when I woke up. I made a careful note of all the books on the shelf and where they were, and when I woke up...

...I remembered that we'd dismantled that shelf and moved most of the books to another room. In actual fact, there was just blank wall where I "saw" the shelves in vivid detail.

[Denver]

I experience hypnagogia fairly often: talking, music, images. Actually, it seems you can move in and out of this state on your way to sleep, or on your way to lucid dreaming (which I also occasionally practice). This is just during normal health: no substances, no illnesses.

Much more rarely do I experience hypnopompic sensations: it's been many years since an episode of sleep paralysis. A couple I times I can remember waking suddenly and seeing the current dream imagery superimposed with the bedroom, but again, nothing like that for long time.

[PixyMisa]

When I'm stressed, I tend to have hypnagogic auditory hallucinations - most often of phones ringing. Since I do tech support work (system, database and application admin stuff) that stress tends to be caused by late-night support calls in the first place, so being kept from sleep by hallucinatory support calls really doesn't help!

I've had a couple of striking hypnopompic hallucinations, one complete with visual effects and sleep paralysis when I was 12 or 13 - scared the daylights out of me.

[pannarrans]

When I lived in a sort of dorm (very small apartment with communal hallway and kitchen) I remember waking up while hearing someone coming in my room and pinning me to the bed. Of course nothing like that really happened, it was probably triggered by people talking in the hallway close to my door. this happened twice

Waking up while paralyzed happened more often but without an accompanying "story".

Waking up in the middle of the night trying to eplain stuff to my girlfriend happens sometimes too. Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend as I'm capable to turn around and fall asleep again while she usually lies awake for more than 30 minutes before being able to slip away again. Cursing the dream that made me wake her up to tell her to:"mind the trains because of the cats".

I used to have it very difficult at monday morning workseminars and literaturediscussions. I remember many times falling half asleep with my eyes open and starting dreaming almost instantly, incorporating the seminar into the hallucinations until it got too weird to snap out of it again. I don't know whether this counts too.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Wah! I never have any of these cool experiences.

Well, maybe some of them aren't so cool.

~~ Paul

[Dogdoctor]

I have had a couple episodes of sleep paralysis. I would awake and find myself unable to move and feeling like the atmosphere is heavy and pushing me down keeping me from being able to move but having been a lucid dreamer I realized I was likely still asleep and gradually came out of that state till I was awake completely. I used to also have a dream where I awoke and thought I was awake but was still sleeping only to wake up for real shortly after like a deja vu (didn't I just do this?). The only awake hallucinations I had that I know of were related to taking mind altering substances.

[Vortigern99]

My wife cannot sleep on her back because if she does she increases her chances of having a hypnagogic hallucination. Apparently for her, these consist of seeing the classical "shadowy figure" loom over her in the night, accompanied by sleep paralysis.

I've experienced the phenomenon at various times in my life, but with me I tend to weave visible and auditory elements of the room I'm in into a real-seeming dream. For example a curtain may take on the semblance of a man's cloak, or the bamboo cords of an armchair may look like writhing serpents. Paralysis has never been a feature of these hallucinations.

[Pedantic spelling note: Hypnagogia, hypnagogic are the correct spellings, not hypnogogic as the thread title and OP have them.

Hypnopompia and hypnopompic are correct as the OP has spelled them.]

[Dogdoctor]

Oh wait. I remember having visual hallucinations without drugs. I was kicked by a donkey once and I saw a brownish blackish atmosphere with swirling bright spots. This lasted for several seconds. I believe it's what you call "seeing stars."

[AliasN]

I'm not sure which my experience would be classified as, as it seemed to happen in the middle of my sleep. And yes, I had just been ridiculously sick that morning from food poisoning and was probably completely dehydrated.

I heard someone climbing slowly up our stairs, creaks and everything, and come into the room. I felt the bed move with the weight of a body, then hands pressing down on my head and chest. I could even look up and see the tips of the fingers above my eyes. I tried to move but couldn't. Then I told myself to calm down and relax. When I did, it slowly faded away and I was able to drift back to sleep.

When I woke up later I was blown away by how vivid and terrifying it had been. I don't think I had fully believed accounts of these things until it happened to me. Thankfully, I knew about sleep paralysis, etc. and it didn't attibute anything supernatural to it. It has never happened to me again since then. Then again, I've not been that sick again, either!

[Arg9]

[Pedantic spelling note: Hypnagogia, hypnagogic are the correct spellings, not hypnogogic as the thread title and OP have them.

Hypnopompia and hypnopompic are correct as the OP has spelled them.]

DOWH! Thanks for the correction - I could swear I had the spelling correct...

Hypnagogic. Hypnagogic. Hypnagogic. Hypnagogia. Hypnagogia. Hypnagogia.

I think I got it now :blush:

[Whiplash]

One of the OP's examples reminds me of something similar that happened to me when I was probably 17 or so.

I was sleeping and I awoke to feel that there was some kind of "presence" around me. Suddenly I felt as though everything went to a shade of red, and I heard the sound of demonic laughter. I closed my eyes, and sort of "pushed" myself out of it, and opened my eyes to my normal room. But it spooked the hell out of me for a little while.

I do think I was awake and hallucinating in some way, as opposed to sleeping/dreaming and then awaking out of it.

ETA: Remembered another from when I was very young. I'm sure many people have had experiences in their youth where they wake up, and then think there is something crawling around in their room at the foot of their bed. Either hearing shuffling sounds, or even perhaps seeing a shadow of movement.

One time I was sleeping with my arm hanging off the edge of the bed so that my forearm and hand were out in mid air. At the time I awoke, I heard the distinct sound of something shuffling on the carpet. But for some reason, I told myself it was nothing and didn't move or get scared. Then I remember feeling as those something was touching my hand and fingers, and I pulled my hand back quickly and shot up in the bed.. I don't remember much beyond that, I think it was probably a dream however.

[Arg9]

Wow, these are all excellent. Thanks everyone – some pretty wacky experiences! I've heard they're pretty common but I think a lot of people are afraid to share them out of fear for being interpreted as a crazy. Which reminds me (this is why I appreciate this forum so much):

Quick true story:
I was out drinking with about 6 of my co-workers and they were all talking about ghosts and hearing them,etc. They were speaking as it was a FACT. Not even excepting other explanations (imagine that). So I told them about my spider hallucination - explained it as a hypnagogic hallucination – and the entire table got silent and they looked at me like I was crazy. :jaw-dropp They switched subjects.

I decided at that point conversing with them was hopeless. Should've fired at them but I wanted to enjoy my beer. Damn!

[Arg9]

...and sleep apnea. I don't have them as much now that i treat my depression and sleep apnea, i have avoided those substance for a long time...

My dad has sleep apnea. He forewarned me that I might have it as well or eventually. I sleep pretty solid as of now but my past girlfriends have commented on me snoring from time to time. I wonder if it'll develop.

[edd]

Just to really freak you out - I know a guy who woke up and saw a tarantula right in front of his face on the pillow next to him.

Turned out there was a tarantula right in front of his face on the pillow next to him.

[edd]

OK, I thought hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations were distinguished just by whether you had them waking up or falling asleep, but it seems it's a little bit more complicated than that (so sayeth Wikipedia).

What's the deal there?

[not daSkeptic]

I've had a couple of cases where I woke up and things weren't quite right. In one case, I felt as though the blankets were stretched down tight against me, pinning me to the bed. It subsided after a bit and I found the blankets were fine.

[Dogdoctor]

Just to really freak you out - I know a guy who woke up and saw a tarantula right in front of his face on the pillow next to him.

Turned out there was a tarantula right in front of his face on the pillow next to him.

I woke up once thinking there was a centipede crawling in my hair. As I became fully awake I realized I wasn't dreaming. A more interesting sleep associated centipede encounter was when I awoke grabing my jeans leg right below my crotch. I had been up late fishing and got home laid down on the bed with my jeans still on and fell asleep. Since it seemed there was a reason I was grabbing my jeans and I knew it was likely another centipede, I woke my wife up and said "Honey, quick, take off my pants." She said "Now?" LOL anyway she helped me remove my pants without letting go of the centipede I had trapped in my pants leg right next to my crotch. Once it was safely removed from the critical area I let it go and killed it. So sometimes your dreams are just a version of reality.

[epeos76]

These used to terrify me as a kid. There was a period when I was 5 or 6 where I would feel the bed lifting up and spinning around as I feel asleep almost every night. I remember struggling to open my eyes to check whether it was really spinning.
I'd also find the "speed" of speech in my thoughts sloooowiiing way down, or speeding up, seemingly beyond my control. Hated it.

[Arg9]

OK, I thought hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations were distinguished just by whether you had them waking up or falling asleep, but it seems it's a little bit more complicated than that (so sayeth Wikipedia).

What's the deal there?

That's what I've always thought as well. Here's a link that explains hypnopompic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic

If I'm understanding correctly (in my regurgitated interpretation), hypnagogia is a more "rational" cognizant state. Even though hallucinations occur, our perception is adequate enough to process it, and think more clearly. Where a hypnopompic state would be where we are just flat-out confused; talking jibberish, etc. Which then makes me think that when people are said to wake out of sleep and supposedly "speak ancient tongues" - it would be a hypnopompic state; they aren't speaking ancient tongues, they're just confused beyond belief.

So maybe that's why hypnagogia is associated with going into sleep - because we haven't made it to a deep sleep yet and haven't completely lost the "awareness". Once in a deep sleep, our brains are off and away to nowhere zone, and therefore harder to think "rationally".

How's that for a pure scientific definition :D

That's how I'm making sense of the difference. Please, correct me if I'm misunderstanding.

[Arg9]

"Honey, quick, take off my pants." She said "Now?" LOL anyway she helped me remove my pants...

Thanks Dogdoctor, I'll keep this maneuver in mind for future use!

[whatthebutlersaw]

While still in my teens I would often experience floating up a few decimeters from my bed and hang in mid air for a while a little while after laying down. I wasn't scared and when I woke up I always found it kind of cool. As I recall it, this was more likely to happen if I took a nap, or relaxed during daytime than when I went to bed to have a full night of sleep. No medication, never touched drugs.

Plenty of sleep paralysis too. That on the other hand is decidedly unpleasant. I seem to have grown completely out of floating, and the last time I experienced sleep paralysis I was on heavy duty migraine medication, so that was likely the cause.

Funny aside: I used to dream about losing teeth so often that it actually triggered lucid dreaming. Whenever my teeth started to feel loose, I knew I was dreaming and consciousness kickstarted.

[edd]

That's what I've always thought as well. Here's a link that explains hypnopompic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompic

If I'm understanding correctly (in my regurgitated interpretation), hypnagogia is a more "rational" cognizant state. Even though hallucinations occur, our perception is adequate enough to process it, and think more clearly. Where a hypnopompic state would be where we are just flat-out confused; talking jibberish, etc. Which then makes me think that when people are said to wake out of sleep and supposedly "speak ancient tongues" - it would be a hypnopompic state; they aren't speaking ancient tongues, they're just confused beyond belief.

So maybe that's why hypnagogia is associated with going into sleep - because we haven't made it to a deep sleep yet and haven't completely lost the "awareness". Once in a deep sleep, our brains are off and away to nowhere zone, and therefore harder to think "rationally".

How's that for a pure scientific definition :D

That's how I'm making sense of the difference. Please, correct me if I'm misunderstanding.

In that case I only get hypnagogia when I'm waking up, and I've been known to talk gibberish or get confused as I've been falling asleep...

[Arg9]

While still in my teens I would often experience floating up a few decimeters from my bed and hang in mid air for a while a little while after laying down. I wasn't scared and when I woke up I always found it kind of cool. As I recall it, this was more likely to happen if I took a nap, or relaxed during daytime than when I went to bed to have a full night of sleep. No medication, never touched drugs.

Plenty of sleep paralysis too. That on the other hand is decidedly unpleasant. I seem to have grown completely out of floating, and the last time I experienced sleep paralysis I was on heavy duty migraine medication, so that was likely the cause.

Funny aside: I used to dream about losing teeth so often that it actually triggered lucid dreaming. Whenever my teeth started to feel loose, I knew I was dreaming and consciousness kickstarted.

the floating would be cool to experience this way. I've only had the floating/flying in just regular dreams.

The teeth issue is...a nasty one. I occassionally realize I'm grinding my teeth while dreaming and every grind, crunch is amplified in my head. it feels like I'm just grinding them out of my gums.

[Arg9]

In that case I only get hypnagogia when I'm waking up, and I've been known to talk gibberish or get confused as I've been falling asleep...

You got me. I'm still uncertain of the differences. It just happened last night I had just dozed off and my mom called. I picked up the phone in my half-in-half-out state and couldn't understand anything she was saying and I was having trouble talking. Took me a few minutes to gather myself.

[whatthebutlersaw]

the floating would be cool to experience this way. I've only had the floating/flying in just regular dreams.

The teeth issue is...a nasty one. I occassionally realize I'm grinding my teeth while dreaming and every grind, crunch is amplified in my head. it feels like I'm just grinding them out of my gums.

I had plenty of regular flying dreams as well, and they were very different in regards to setting, physical sensation, narrative etc. The levitation-dream was very illusory in a more mundane way than the full on traditional dreams. When I wake up from a regular flying dream I can not recall the physical sensation of flying, while the other kind comes with a sleep paralysisy sense of being awake, and it makes a very vivid memory.

My sleep paralysis experiences almost always come with me trying to call out for help and discovering my voice isn't working, and noone is hearing me.

Probably, because I read this discussion yesterday, or because we just changed sleeping arrangements for the winter, (Coolest room in summer, warmest room in winter) I actually had one this morning. It wasn't too bad - a four on a scale of ten in scariness, perhaps.

[Roma]

I need to have the radio on and a nightlight when I go to sleep or else my imagination will go crazy.

Last week I wasn't feeling well so I decided to go to bed and have a nap in the afternoon. I woke up about an hour later not breathing well, turned over and saw the Grim Reaper standing beside my bed. I swear the actual Grim Reaper with the black hood and everything! It scared me so badly that I laid in bed for another hour just trying to calm myself down.

[Whiplash]

I hate teeth dreams, I have them too. Especially ones where I feel like my mouth is crooked or out of sorts in some manner.. my teeth don't line up right, and I'm unable to straighten it out.. the teeth rubbing against either other oddly, out of line. I don't know how to describe, or exactly what is really going on when it's happening. Probably laying with my face buried in the pillow and mouth is crooked and I'm trying to interpret that as the normal position in my dream.

[shandyjan]

I thought I had some symptom of future problems, I asked everyone I knew an no one knew what I was experiencing. Then I spotted an article on sleep paralysis in Swift and I was so relieved!
I never had the feeling of any hag or spirits, but it is very unpleasant. A few weeks ago I thought my partner had lain on top of me pressing in a kiss, and I couldnt breathe or move to stop him. Then the pressure lifted and I realised it was sleep paralysis, the forst presence, but my partner not a ghost! Very scary.
I had a couple of levitating dreams as a child, and one flying dream, they were enjoyable, would swap them for the paralysis anytime!

[Roma]

... I used to dream about losing teeth...

I used to have that problem too until I got a really good mouth guard to wear at night

[Whiplash]

I may have to try that, I have teeth loss dreams far more often than I'd like.

[Peter@Beoworld]

I almost always get hypnagogic visual hallucinations when going to sleep. The walls and ceiling become patterned with rapidly moving geometric shapes - first noticed it about 5 years ago - I am awake and have asked my wife if she can see the same - needless to say, she cannot! Varies from what I would describe as an Aztec type design to Paisley at times! The wall and ceiling become almost liquid in appearance - monochromatic on the whole and turning the light on gets rid of them. No longer bother me and I actually find them quite fascinating and enjoy watching them. No drugs or alcohol! I originally thought it was something to do with my eyes as I have epithelial basement membrane corneal dystrophy.

[ExMinister]

Here is a quote from an article I found helpful when I was researching this a few years ago. Link: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225731.300-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel.html?full=true

REM intrusion is a common feature of narcolepsy - a neurological disorder characterised by uncontrollable bouts of sleep that can cause elaborate hallucinations and, sometimes, out-of-body experiences. But REM intrusion can affect anyone, and frequently does. Recent estimates suggest that up to 40 per cent of people have experienced "sleep paralysis", a form of REM intrusion in which you awaken with part of your brain still in REM sleep and your body paralysed. Often the result is a terrifying feeling of being unable to move, accompanied by visual or auditory hallucinations and pressure on the chest. Sleep paralysis has been offered as a rational explanation for many apparently supernatural phenomena, including witch attacks, visitations by the dead, and more recently alien abductions.

I had these kinds of experiences frequently for several years, meaning up to several times a week, which is definitely not normal. Mine were mostly scary and made my life miserable for a long time. They stopped when I went on seizure medication last October. My doctor attributed this to "brain static" that was also controlled by the meds.

I almost always get hypnagogic visual hallucinations when going to sleep. The walls and ceiling become patterned with rapidly moving geometric shapes - first noticed it about 5 years ago - I am awake and have asked my wife if she can see the same - needless to say, she cannot! Varies from what I would describe as an Aztec type design to Paisley at times! The wall and ceiling become almost liquid in appearance - monochromatic on the whole and turning the light on gets rid of them. No longer bother me and I actually find them quite fascinating and enjoy watching them. No drugs or alcohol! I originally thought it was something to do with my eyes as I have epithelial basement membrane corneal dystrophy.

Interesting. Susan Blackmore had a theory that the tunnel seen in the NDE, which often has kaleidoscope elements to it, or designs such as those you describe, could be a phenomenon related to the eyes. Not sure how that might apply to your condition (I'm not an MD), but still it's interesting that you report this along with issues with your eyes. Here's all I could find on it:

Psychologist Susan Blackmore has proposed a more believable scenario: That lack of oxygen to the brain prior to death causes interference with the neural firing in the visual cortex, producing a sort of receding stripe or spiral pattern that the brain may interpret as a tunnel. In various lab tests, subjects who took hallucinogens reported seeing similar patterns and tunnel-like images. From http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/explaining_the_near_death_experience

At any rate, there might be more on her web site if you happen to be interested. She does discuss it in her book on near-death experiences. I also have experienced strange kaleidoscope tunnels with intricate geometrical patterns while "out of body" during the years I was suffering from the frequent weird nighttime experiences. Who knows, maybe it's all related and we will understand how it's all linked up in the brain one day.

[Miss_Kitt]

I need to have the radio on and a nightlight when I go to sleep or else my imagination will go crazy.

Last week I wasn't feeling well so I decided to go to bed and have a nap in the afternoon. I woke up about an hour later not breathing well, turned over and saw the Grim Reaper standing beside my bed. I swear the actual Grim Reaper with the black hood and everything! It scared me so badly that I laid in bed for another hour just trying to calm myself down.

Wow! I remember one like that, and it was awful. I 'awakened' to find a hooded, robed figure standing next to my bed. But while it seemed to be solid and opaque, I could also quite clearly see the outlines of my closet door through it...it reached out a skeletal hand, bony fingers stretched out like a grotesque catcher's mask, and started to lay it on my face!

I woke up screaming bloody murder, and shook for minutes afterwards; stayed awake, reading very mundane stuff, talking to my (then) husband for about 2 hours. Scared to go back to sleep, and too adrenaline-pumped to do so for at least an hour anyway.

Yech. I don't have them too often, but I truly truly can vouch for their apparent reality at the moment you're trapped in them. It is easy to understand how people from a more ignorant time / culture could readily believe in demons or evil spirits.

Regards, Miss_Kitt


ETA: One comment on the 'tunnels' or patterns in movement, I am a migrainer and I get 'fortification' patterns in my field of vision as part of the prodrome (pre-headache event). I also have a history of passing out / nearly passing out due, we eventually learned, to spasms of the colon. I experience 'tunnel vision' only when I'm going to pass out, but the texture/movement thing can happen both overlaid on normal vision in the prodrome, and almost anytime I have either a lowlight or extremely overbright lighting condition and a nonfeatured visual field: fog, a distant unlit ceiling, a bright summer sky. I think both higher neural and eye-related physiology is involved.

[Soapy Sam]

There have been several threads on this subject here in the past.
I'm personally convinced these phenomena are the single source of the majority of ghost stories.
I've had the full-blown "Evil presence" & paralysis thing a few times now. Very scary- but less so when you know what's going on. Very common. I think most folk have the experience once or twice, others far more often.

The hallucinations for me are always auditory. Sounds of doors closing, footsteps, whispers. This tells me it happens when I'm awake- in the sense that when awake, I have no ability to visualise, but I dream visually when asleep. Whatever brain module processes pictures internally appears to be involved with something else- possibly verbal - when I'm awake.

[CelticRose]

While still in my teens I would often experience floating up a few decimeters from my bed and hang in mid air for a while a little while after laying down. I wasn't scared and when I woke up I always found it kind of cool.
I used to experience this too when I was a child and into my teens. I would be floating, and when I woke up I would "fall" and "hit" the bed. Not scary at all. I actually used to believe I had telekinetic powers. Like you, I seem to have grown out of it.

I get the "monsters in the room" thing, sometimes bad enough I have to turn on a light and/or play music to be able to go back to sleep.

I also get hypnic jerks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk). I'll be almost asleep when suddenly my whole body convulses and wakes me up.

Occasionally, I'll hear someone speak my name.

I also experience exploding head syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome). That one used to really freak me out. I would "hear" a loud noise that would jerk me out of sleep with my heart pounding. I would be so freaked out that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep for hours. I always attributed it to hearing an actual noise that scared the carp out of me since I was so sound asleep. Then, someone mentioned it on a forum, and upon looking it up, I realized what had been happening. Now when it happens, I just think "Oh, it's just the exploding head thingie" and go right back to sleep. :)

Thanks for this thread, btw. Now when these things happen to me, hopefully I can just think "Oh, it's just the hypnagogic hallucination thingie" and go right back to sleep. :D

[Arg9]

Thanks for this thread, btw. Now when these things happen to me, hopefully I can just think "Oh, it's just the hypnagogic hallucination thingie" and go right back to sleep. :D

You're welcome. I was curious how common it was and other experiences. I'm relieved myself. Of course we always think something's very wrong with us; nervous system, etc. But it seems way more common than I imagined...or we're all "screwed up" - so we can take comfort in that.

What's crazy though, is how many people are still convinced it's related to a supernatural or alien encounter. Like my hallucination I mentioned at the beginning of this thread about feeling sick, having sleep paralysis, presence next to me in bed, and then waking up and feeling great. It can be more wishful thinking to assume it was some sort of supernatural healer or angelic entity but it's more rational to assume it was my body in a state of relaxation/winding down that allowed me to feel better.

[Sunstar]

Auditory hallucinations are much more common than visual ones. These things happen in a lighter sleep state. In a deeper sleep state the visuals are clearer because the conscious mind is submerged.

I think sleep paralysis is linked with REM. If you stay up long and have a busy life and therefore don't get sound enough sleep you get REM atonia. The brain tries to make up for lack of REM later on.

What is interesting to me is how meditation is linked here. Lots of meditators believe that the OM sound is an internal vibration that is heard mentally. In fact, it may just be the strangeness of hypnagogia. People hear a humming vibrating noise that gets louder and louder. Some liken it to an airplane thundering close by. Some here bell sounds.

In the past when i meditated i would achieve a very light hypnagogic state and would hear my name internally. This is a strange experience. Also, if there was a sudden loud noise out on the street on within the house somewhere, i would suddenly seem to get some kind of electric shock in my brain. And the outside noises don't have to be very loud for this to happen either.

Some people deliberately try to induce sleep paralysis to have an out of body experience. Why some succeed in this and others don't i do not know but i feel it has to do with intention. And meditating regularly seems to increase the chances of having sleep paralysis occur more and more. It is due to the level of relaxation you can achieve cumulatively. I think therefore, that one of the solutions to the anxiety and fear that accompanies sleep paralysis is to familiarise yourself with that state by meditating in some way. Meditation isn't for everybody so you need to find out your own suitableness to it. But once the paralysis kicks in, if you remain calm and relaxed, less adrenaline will be released and you shouldn't feel fearful any more.