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Ed Hypnagogic or Hypnopompic Hallucinations

Arg9

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Arg9
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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.
 
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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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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I have hypnopompics all the time, but they're rarely episodes of sleep paralysis (I have those, just much less frequently).
 
Arg9 said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.]
 
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."
 
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!
 
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Vortigern99 said:
[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.]
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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:
 
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.
 
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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!
 
Dancing David said:
...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...
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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.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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