20 replies to this topic

[Kori]

I've noticed something lately when I try WBTB dreaming. After being awake for two hours or so in the middle of the night, my head feels heavy and drowsy of course. The fun begins when I go back to sleep!

I'm lying there telling myself to remember the dream, and I feel the onset of deep sleep. Just before losing consciousness, I actually hear things! Voices and noises, and they don't come from my active imagination. Maybe my mind's playing tricks with me, or it's something like a dreamsign.. I'd rather not think I'm going crazy! XD;

Anyway, it's made me wonder if anyone else notices anything just before entering deep deep sleep. Do you get a floating sensation? See bright lights in your mind's eye? Take a deep breath and let it out? Or am I just going crazy? LOL

[Loren]

All the time! I refer to them as minidreams. If I startle awake right after entering sleep, I can even remember patches of these 'dreams,' which are really just random sounds and images. Usually they have nothing to do with my thoughts before I go to sleep. Though, this happens to me whenever I'm dropping into sleep, not when I'm attempting to control the dream.

[Huruyami]

actually in my half lucidity i can tell im waking up and i subconsciously push myself back in.

also, 200th post!

[Ashashi]

Sweet transition experience. ^^ I only once experienced a transition before and it was the other way around. I was coming out of a dream that I didn't really want to leave and I guess I sorta got caught in between. It was like, I was awake but everything still seemed like I was in the dream. I even had my eyes open for a minute and saw I was back in my living room on my couch but I wasn't entirely back in reality. In fact, it took a good five minutes before everything stopped being dream-like and i was completely awake. But during the entire thing I just felt sorta heavy instead of the floating feeling you got and everything was actually slightly dull around me. Not hazy, but dull.

[Kori]

Oh thank heaven, I'm not insane! XD I guess I was worried this pursuit of lucidity would turn me nutty - moreso than usual anyway. LOL

Ah Loren, I wish I could experience "minidreams" as consistently as you! If only to better understand them! What do you think causes them?

You've a great skill, Huruyami, resuming a dream even though you're waking up. The alarm eggs wouldn't affect you one iota! And congrats on the 200th post!

I know the feeling Ashashi - one of my more vivid lucid dreams began that way. I thought I was awake, and I felt heavy as you described. I was trying to stay asleep too! It could be considered a sort of dreamsign to begin lucidity, eh? :3

[Louis]

It's called 'hypnagogic imagery'.

[animejosse]

I had something like that when I was horrible ill, to the point where the only food I could keep was a barely buttered toast and tea. Falling asleep like that was... interesting to say the least. I heard voices sounding like they were having conversations, and I could vaguely see shapes of people in my (tiny) room.

[NNR07]

I often get that, but I always end up breaking my concentration and losing the voices ;-;!

And, I tend to get a lot of flashing lights and a small amount of hypnagogic imagery every now and then around that stage......

[Chan Kaylore]

If I startle awake right after entering sleep, I can even remember patches of these 'dreams,' which are really just random sounds and images. Usually they have nothing to do with my thoughts before I go to sleep.

Seconded. It's an odd sort of feeling whenever I snap back awake; I feel really drained and incredibly tired, as if I'd been asleep for hours (when in reality it's hardly been a matter of minutes).

[Louis]

Okey dokey, so you want a scientific explanation simplyfied? Well here you go!

What was it?

It was called Hypnagogic Imagery.

What does that mean?

Essentialy it means that at the start of an REM period (the bit where you dream), your mind creates these intense dreams sections before everything settles into a real dream.

I heard voices, are these ghosts?

No, quite a lot of people believe Hypnagogia is a state wherein you can contact the dead, you can't. It's more a 'whisper of a dream' if you will.

Fun Facts

- Concentrate hard enough on an item/taste/smell etc during hypnagogia and it's likely to apear in the visions.
- Hypnagogia is a key part of the WILD method, where it is used to help you get lucid.
- By following the hynagogia, many find themselves simply falling asleep, but if you keep your mind active and logical though it, you can experience the dream forming from scratch. This is a WILD

There you go, all explained for you!

Edited by animejosse, 22 May 2007 - 10:51 PM.
Thank you for this info. However, there's no need to imply people are idiots for not doing enough research. This is for discussion of those things so people can learn.

[Aeonic Butterfly]

I tend to get black and red patterns and random images, usually of food, and most the time combined in bizarre ways. The patterns also tend to be random, scattered lines that have fuzz that looks like the CT warp effect, seriously. I also hae a horrible tendency to play puzzle games in my head or think about my life and get off imagining about stories, which tend to flow into my dreams that night. Its weird at times, but I love it.

[Kijuna]

If you let it progress far enough without falling asleep, you can actually have a dream while awake and it's pretty much guranteed lucid. The trick is to make them dominant over your waking senses.

I've done it, it's eally neat.

[Kori]

Wow, thanks for your replies everyone! I guess hypnagogic imagery is unique to every dreamer. Heh, maybe I want to believe in a dream world too much..? ;

I must agree though, using it to attain some form of lucidity is very handy! If I could see AND hear something too, that'd make it so much easier. I'll take what I can get!

I just have one last little question: does anyone hear music? I think that'd be so freaking cool!

[Louis]

It's random, it's not 'unique to the dreamer', just random sensory imagery. So yeah, hearing music is just as likely as tasting ice cream or seeing a chair during it.

[Alanora]

Oh man, I never knew what that particular horror was called. Seems it doesn't bother the rest of you, but for some reason, that hallucination thing scares me silly. I dread it often, because it happens every so often. Usually when it does, I see random odd creatures, or various other oddities. All completely random. It always gives me a really bad scare, enough to give me insomnia for days. When it happens I'll sit awake with all the lights on for the rest of the night, because it requires a lot of concentrating to keep it from coming back those NiGHTS. And it often repeats the night after or so, too. I hate it. A lot.

I always called those night terrors, because I didn't know what it was, or what caused it. But knowing does help. Thanks.

[NNR07]

Wow, thanks for your replies everyone! I guess hypnagogic imagery is unique to every dreamer. Heh, maybe I want to believe in a dream world too much..? ;

I must agree though, using it to attain some form of lucidity is very handy! If I could see AND hear something too, that'd make it so much easier. I'll take what I can get!

I just have one last little question: does anyone hear music? I think that'd be so freaking cool!

I vaguely remember hearing music while going to the hypnagogic imagery stage. Once, I think. I know most things that tend to wake people in their dreams (music, getting lucid/excited, sounds from outside) don't wake me as easily. Like, I once heard a NiD song playing in my dream, from my subconscious, and recognized it and everything..

[Lavos]

I will almost always smell buttered popcorn in hypnagogia. XD

I once heard a really neat trance track, too.

It can be pretty fun sometimes, yes.

[Huruyami]

Thanks for the comment Kori! Also, Im not able to do it everytime. Ive done it once or twice, but now that Im somewhat half lucid in nearly every dream, I can have semi-control and sometimes push myself back in.

[Tangocat777]

actually in my half lucidity i can tell im waking up and i subconsciously push myself back in.

also, 200th post!

*Claps*
You've come a long way.

[viperxmns]

When I'm about to fall asleep my thoughts get all twisted up. Its hard to explain but, I usually start to get random thoughts that I cant control. Like it just pops up with out me thinking of anything related to it. Very weird too.

Yeah! It's as if in those sleepy moments my mind is just writing stories without me even thinking about it.. and I must say, they're usually better than anything I can come up with while I'm conscious.. I wish I could record them.. but then I'd have to become to aware to remember any of them. Even as I'm having them if I start to actually 'think', it kida fades away.