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Sleep state issue

ponderingturtle

Orthogonal Vector
ponderingturtle
Joined
Jul 11, 2006
Messages
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Sometimes when I am having trouble falling asleep I hear voices, now they are not talking to me and don't really make sense, they are just randomly assorted words part of my brain throws out. I figure this is a slightly odd abnormal sleep state issue. I was just wondering if this happens to anyone else here.
 
I generally see weird images (still images), but it could be the same sort of thing. I've been operating under the assumption that this happens to everyone, but I could be wrong.
 
I get the hypnagogic images most nights. I've had voices, but they're pretty infrequent. It's the shadowy hooded figures that stayed for a few seconds even when I opened my eyes that used to spook me, but they're pretty much old friends now. Doesn't bother me I think of it as organically grown virtual reality.
 
I sometimes hear a very high-pitched singing. I can't make out any words. I never researched how common this is, but it seems to be pretty harmless.
 
I've heard voices before. I was falling asleep in a car and it suddenly sounded like I was in the middle of a crowded auditorium. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I only experienced it for a fraction of second because it woke me up.

That was a year or so ago and it hasn't happened since.
 
I’ve had sleep paralysis, the type some would probably mistake for alien abduction, ghosts, etc.... I woke from a deep sleep to a darkened room with what appeared to be a dark, hazy, evil presence looming in the corner up toward the ceiling. I judged it responsible for paralyzing me at the time. It seemed more demonic than alien. What a relief it was to finally snap out of it and realize all was well with the world. This has only occurred two, maybe three times in my life. Never heard voices though except for the two times I was administered morphine.
 
I know some people who had similar experiences and were greatly relieved when they found out that these phenomena were common and they really weren't crazy.
 
Also, once when I getting close to waking up I heard the doorbell ring. It was very loud and clear. So I forced myself up, threw on a robe and staggered downstairs to answer it. There was no one there.

My hubby was awake and he told me that the doorbell did NOT ring.
 
Sleep paralysis and related hypnogogic / hypnopompic phenomena have been discussed here before. Turns out to be very common. The majority of posters to the relevant threads have experienced them . (Me too).
Can be very disturbing, especially first time around. If it happens when you are in the dark, alone and about thirteen I don't doubt it could convince you it was a real paranormal event.
There's an interesting item in the Bronte museum at Haworth, describing something very like Serenity's experience which happened to one of the sisters (Charlotte I think, but not sure). The pattern is so classic there really must be an explanation in neurophysiology.
HCN's doorbell experience is also very common in various forms- knocking, voices, telephone etc, unheard by people sitting beside the sleeper. The brain generates signals all the time, which it then interprets- which is why the whole "dream interpretation" notion is deeply flawed.
 
Oddly enough, I was considering starting a thread about sleep paralysis tonight.

The first time I experienced it I was about 16 or 17. I was napping on the couch in the sort of deep sleep best attained by a teenager. I remember 'waking' and being aware of my surroundings and yet I was completely unable to move. I felt like I do when I wake suddenly from a deep sleep, that groggy, heavy sort of slow-motion feeling. I tried to roll over and get up but I just couldn't. I wasn't what I would call totally lucid though. I felt as though I was in the very last stage of the transition from sleep to awake. But as I lay there on my side facing the back of the couch I began to feel as though there was a malevolent presence, some 'person' for lack of a better description, approaching me from behind. I began to get quite panicky and was finally able to arch my spine and flip myself over with my neck muscles. I really did a number on my neck, it was sore for a couple of days. Then I seemed to finally break through the last barriers of consciousness and I was able to sit up. Once fully awake the 'malevolent presence' evaporated and I saw it as simply a product of my mind. The whole experience was quite frightening while it lasted though. A year or two later I heard of the sleep paralysis phenomenon and the motor inhibition mechanisms in the nervous system and was a bit relieved to learn that it was a common experience. I also found it fascinating though.

I've experienced it again four or five times in the last twenty years and each time I feel that fear of someone malevolent approaching me and my brain shouts MOVE at me. I wonder if the sense of an "evil presence" that is often reported might be a common neurological response to one's feelings of complete vulnerability.

Steven
 
Foster- your experience very closely resembles mine, except that I sometimes feel the "evil presence" has just left my room before I awoke.

Interesting study page about this here- http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html

The coping section makes the interesting point that sleep paralysis is strongly associated with sleeping on your back.

Also there is a suggested link between SP and out-of-body / astral travel experiences.
 
ponderingturtle said:
Sometimes when I am having trouble falling asleep I hear voices, now they are not talking to me and don't really make sense, they are just randomly assorted words part of my brain throws out. I figure this is a slightly odd abnormal sleep state issue. I was just wondering if this happens to anyone else here.
Click to expand...

The voices are real - they are coming from inside your pillow- don't let them know you know or it will all be up for you - just go to sleep normally tonight and if you don't hear them when you wake up tomorrow, grab a baseball bat and beat the crap out of the pillow before they can get awake and out. Don't panic!!:jaw-dropp :jaw-dropp :jaw-dropp
 
I've noticed that I'm in a much more irrational frame of mind -- prone to bizarre phobias and flights of fancy -- when going to sleep, or when I've just woken up. For example, when I wake up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom, sometimes I'm terrified to look in the mirror because I'm afraid my reflection will either not be there or do something I didn't. Completely silly of course, and I don't usually feel that way during the day, but it still freaks me out.

I remember Carl Sagan wrote that, in dreams, we're essentially living in the emotional, "animal" part of our brain (the limbic system), and the part responsible for logic and rational thought (the prefrontal cortex) is more or less shut down. If that's true, I wonder if maybe it takes the rational parts a little while to come back online after you wake up.
 
fuelair said:
The voices are real - they are coming from inside your pillow- don't let them know you know or it will all be up for you - just go to sleep normally tonight and if you don't hear them when you wake up tomorrow, grab a baseball bat and beat the crap out of the pillow before they can get awake and out. Don't panic!!:jaw-dropp :jaw-dropp :jaw-dropp
Click to expand...

That is silly as it doesn't sound like I hear them with my ears. It sounds like my thoughts, only I didn't think them. If they where dirrected at me it would be stranger.
 
ponderingturtle said:
Sometimes when I am having trouble falling asleep I hear voices, now they are not talking to me and don't really make sense, they are just randomly assorted words part of my brain throws out. I figure this is a slightly odd abnormal sleep state issue. I was just wondering if this happens to anyone else here.
Click to expand...


I believe the word is hypnagogia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

PS Pardon my posting before reading, whoops.
 
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I was well into my thirties before I shared my experiences with anyone (even my several shrinks over the years) as I was convinced that I was truly crazy or, at the least, had some sort of epilepsy.
Imagine my relief when, in the 1970s, more literature was avaliable on this phenomenon.WHEW!!
 
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