Posted by Navihawk on September 04, 2007 at 17:58:44:In Reply to: hypnagogic hallucinations posted by night-time nutter on August 30, 2007 at 00:16:05:
For years now, I’ve been having experiences like yours. Not exactly the same, but close. I, too, have had hallucinations, usually when I’m waking up from a dream. I’ve done a little bit of searching online, and I’ve found out that it has a name: hypnopompic hallucinations. That’s more of what I’ve experienced: the hallucinations on waking, where yours, hypnagogic, seems to be associated with vivid dreams and/or hallucinations when falling asleep. Of course, we both seem to have had a lot of similar experiences.
This first started about 15 years ago, I guess. I was living with my dad in an apartment; my parents had divorced (looking back, that may have been a factor in all this; some of the things I’ve read have indicated that stress can contribute to these types of things), and I remember some of my first waking hallucinations were bugs on the walls. I’d “see” them crawl up the wall behind a poster hung above my bed; and before I knew what I was doing, I had jumped out of bed in a panic, turned on the light, and pulled the poster halfway up...only to see that there was nothing there. I think the action of jumping out of bed was enough to wake me up, so by the time I was standing up, I was fully awake. Then I’d usually get back in bed and fall asleep again fairly quickly. Other times, I thought there were bugs or snakes in my bed, and I’d do the same thing as the poster, only with the covers on the bed.
I got married about 10 years ago, and that ended in divorce pretty quickly; so I moved back in with my dad. He had turned my old room into an office, with a daybed that became my bed (my furniture was in storage). He had a big antique mirror on the wall above the bed, and I remember more than one morning waking up and finding the mirror on the floor; then I’d vaguely remember the night before taking the mirror off the wall – it was pretty heavy – because something in the dream/hallucination I was having would compel me to do so. I did the same thing a few times with my clock radio and my bedside light.
I began dating my current wife in early 2000 (we were married in ’05), and spent weekends with her for a couple of years, while still having the dreams/hallucinations at home. It wasn’t until I moved in with her in early ’02 that I started having them in her house (which we both still live in); I guess I was used to sleeping in her bed every night, instead of just weekends, by then. And I have woken her up many, many times with these hallucinations.
We have a ceiling fan above the bed; and for a while my most common hallucination was that our female cat was on the fan blades – while the fan was moving! I’d end up waking up my wife because I’d start to react to the hallucination, and I would try to tell her that the cat was on the fan. After a few minutes of her telling me I was seeing things, I’d eventually wake up enough to know what was going on. Then I’d go back to sleep. This happened quite a few times; and it wasn’t limited to the fan. I’d see her on the dresser, on top of the TV, on my nightstand...everywhere. I haven’t had one like that in a while. Sometimes I’d think I’d see someone in the room or in the hall outside the bedroom. That makes sense after what I’ve read; often people see things with a sense of danger or they’re scared by their hallucinations, much like what you described.
The “best” one of these I’ve had was a few years ago: I dreamed that a “mini flying saucer” (the closest thing I can think of to describe it is a flying Roomba, the robotic vacuum) was in the room and was about to attack me. I jumped up and ran around the bed, with the thing “chasing” me. My wife had woken up, and started yelling my name to wake ME up (I do remember that). When I got around to her side of the bed, I dove on the floor, and the “saucer” “flew” over my head and disappeared. I was almost awake by then, but had still been just enough in the dream to do what I did. But I did finally wake up, on the floor, and realized what had happened. There have been many others, but I can’t remember the details of most of them; but I do have enough vague memories to know it’s happened a lot. But since it has happened so much, I’ve started to realize more quickly when it’s happening, and I wake up enough to make the hallucination go away.
But all this has started to get to me. I get mad when I wake up and realize it’s happened again, especially when I wake my wife up (she’s been great through it all, only getting irritated – rightfully so – a few times). Last night, it was spears or something going into the wall opposite my side of the bed. It was the same; I reacted, woke her up, woke myself up, and was mad at myself about it. I asked my wife if, from now on when I did that, if she’d smack me in the face to wake me up; but she said she wouldn’t. I don’t know any other way to wake up enough to stop it. I’m reluctant to see a doctor, because I don’t want to go on any medication. I’m not sure what to do.
But it is a huge relief to know I’m not the only one. There have been some posts on this forum about this; but they’re all pretty old, and yours, nutter, was the most recent. I hope that I’ve helped in some small way; and know that you are certainly not alone either.