Posted by Blue Lalita on September 18, 2007 at 11:54:47:In Reply to: hypnagogic hallucinations posted by night-time nutter on August 30, 2007 at 00:16:05:
I have had similar episodes to what you described. I have two really vivid memories from my childhood where I could see what was obviously a hallucination (a man dressed in a pink bunny suit and a man's face in a mylar balloon outside my bedroom door), and then I started having them periodically in college, usually related to stress. They seem to happen soon after falling asleep. I also have night terrors, and the hallucinations are frequently accompanied by screaming and jumping out of bed or lashing about. Mine never last as long as yours seem to, but they are so much scarier than regular dreams because I can see the hallucination (usually a giant bug or a male intruder) as well as my room around me, which makes them seem real, no matter how ridiculous. When they aren't very scary, I will usually slowly wake up while still in bed, but I often leap out of bed, turn on the light, and either stare at a spot on the wall or floor or bolt through the house, sometimes having conversations with my roommates or boyfriend while still asleep, trying to explain what I'm seeing and that it's real. Within a few minutes, I wake up all the way and realize that I'm hallucinating, and then almost pass out, I fall asleep again so fast. The weirdest thing is that I usually remember the hallucinations quite clearly, which doesn't seem to be the norm, and am even aware of what I'm doing at the time, even though my actions and words don't make any sense in retrospect.