Why do we always see bodies/figures during sleep deprivation?

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: game over man

Dunno can we make sense of our brains when put under stress like lack of sleep?.
Are you saying the figures you see are real in some dimension or something?.
I think not and it is just the brain acting on the lack of sleep.

I agree with you, but do you think and intelligent entity like that could exist?

a reply to: game over man

Nope not in my experience and I have taken just about everything to see one.
I had sleep paralysis for the first time a couple of months ago and felt something behind me but I know our brains play tricks on us and will not jump to the conclusion it is an actual being.

a reply to: game over man

What you are doing is arguing something isn't true while you have never experienced it.

You really aren't understanding what I am trying to say.......I am not saying that seeing "shadow people" isn't true.....I am saying that it doesn't always happen!......you said that.

a reply to: game over man

Its probably just what your expecting to see man, so your brain creates it.

Personally 24 hours without sleep is just normal for me, never been a good sleeper. But after 2 days I'll start seeing tiny shooting stars in the corner of my eye. Then after 3 days without sleep objects sometimes seem to move from the corner of eye. But I've never personally hallucinated anything more than a quick flicker from the corner of my eye.

Maybe your body just doesn't handle lack of sleep well.

originally posted by: Argyll
a reply to: game over man

Ok, buddy, excuse the title with "Always" so sorry, I was trying to emphasize something more mysterious going on.
Prove to me hallucinations don't happen at all during sleep deprivation.
Prove to me I just made that up, back it up with scientific evidence.

There's nothing mysterious going on!......people don't always hallucinate about "bodies/figures" after going 24+ hours without sleep....this is your thread not mine!....I didn't say that people couldn't hallucinate after going without sleep....but you said that they always do!

How about, as it's your thread, you back your claims up with scientific evidence that we always hallucinate about "figures/bodies" due to sleep deprivation?

If all you are doing is making a big deal about the Always part, you aren't really participating in anything thought inducing. I already mentioned I put it in the title to hype up the thread. However, I also didn't know that people never experience shadow people when they are experiencing sleep deprivation. However I do know that lots of people who experience sleep deprivation also hallucinate someone in the room, and those "someones" are referred to as shadow people. You also quoted the wiki that there is a logical explanation for it.

I know all of that already, trust me. When I experienced sleep deprivation recently and noticed my mind playing tricks on me, it occurred to me I consistently observe shadow people during sleep deprivation. I was surprised and intrigued that this always happens. What are the odds? You don't have the same dreams every night? Up until now I didn't know others absolutely do not experience shadow people.

I do know there is so much reading on ATS and the web on sleep paralysis, sleep deprivation, and shadow people, because this is the scientific explanation for the alien abduction phenomenon. If this is your first time hearing about this, I apologize I thought it was common knowledge between fellow conspiracy theorists. I have been reading on the UFO/Alien phenomenon for a long time now, and the amount of threads and info in relation to sleep paralysis, shadow people, parallel dimensions, etc...it iss so overwhelming I opted out of including it in the thread.

This thread isn't intended to educate ATS about shadow people.

I actually want to know why "some" people's minds hallucinate shadow people. If anyone can post a link or chime in on that, then let's get started.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: game over man

Nope not in my experience and I have taken just about everything to see one.
I had sleep paralysis for the first time a couple of months ago and felt something behind me but I know our brains play tricks on us and will not jump to the conclusion it is an actual being.

You don't think it is possible our brain slips into a realm where we can observe these beings?

a reply to: game over man

Nope.
Believe me I attempted to do so in many ways when younger and I didn't understand our brain as much.
I have seen how the brain can lie to their owners and have come to the conclusion much of it is mental unwellness.
(lack of sleep is being mentally unwell).

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: game over man

Its probably just what your expecting to see man, so your brain creates it.

Personally 24 hours without sleep is just normal for me, never been a good sleeper. But after 2 days I'll start seeing tiny shooting stars in the corner of my eye. Then after 3 days without sleep objects sometimes seem to move from the corner of eye. But I've never personally hallucinated anything more than a quick flicker from the corner of my eye.

Maybe your body just doesn't handle lack of sleep well.

Well I agree with you because this is sound medical answer. Totally true.

However when I have sleep deprivation, I'm tossing and turning and can't sleep, and keep thinking, "I can't sleep!" So it's not on my mind...I'm not thinking of aliens, shadow people, or demons what have you. So why does the mind "sometimes" form figures? And why do they induce fear and seem intelligent?

Do you believe our conscious is connected to the Universe? Do you think our conscious connects via membranes to other dimensions? Do you believe in string theory? Could we slip into a dream state where an intelligent being can share our consciousness with us and form right before our eyes?

originally posted by: boymonkey74
a reply to: game over man

Nope.
Believe me I attempted to do so in many ways when younger and I didn't understand our brain as much.
I have seen how the brain can lie to their owners and have come to the conclusion much of it is mental unwellness.
(lack of sleep is being mentally unwell).

Of course our mind can play tricks on us, we have many examples, one being optical illusions. I on the other hand do not rule out the possibility of an intelligence existing that plays tricks on our minds. Is this not possible in nature?

a reply to: game over man

Show me evidence of such and I will tell you If it can happen in nature.

a reply to: game over man

If all you are doing is making a big deal about the Always part, you aren't really participating in anything thought inducing. I already mentioned I put it in the title to hype up the thread

So you put a line in the title of the thread that you knew was false just to "hype" up your OP?

Stay classy matey!

originally posted by: game over man
I recently experienced sleep deprivation and when I started hallucinating and seeing bodies form in front of my eyes, it dawned upon me, why does this happen?

The way the hallucination works is that any light or shadow in your room forms into a body/figure, if you have been up for over 24 hours and are awake staring around the room, at night. In the day time during sleep deprivation you may see little black spots and feel really jittery. During my recent experience my hallucinations never formed into anything extreme or remotely dramatic because I would just re-adjust my eyes and focus.

However I wondered, why does it form into a body/figure? Isn't that interesting? Then if you let the hallucination take it's course and not try and focus your eyes, the shadows will undoubtedly form into bodies/figures, spark fear, and who knows what next.

Why does our mind hallucinate specifically bodies/figures when we have not had any sleep? Do these things exist all the time and we only experience them when we are in a state of sleep deprivation? Or is the simplest explanation that during sleep deprivation our mind always defaults to thinking it's looking at bodies/figures but really its just the light/shadow casted from, i.e. the window?


Why are bodies/figures the default hallucination during sleep deprivation?

Ok you struck a chord. On a couple levels. I'll tell a story. Coming shortly. Preview: I was drugged in a club in mexico. Also I routinely skip sleep for days on end. I have played poker for over 50 hours straight.

a reply to: game over man

No I don't personally believe in any of that, just known far to many people that end up going down the deep end by making to much of simple hallucinations and not looking at it in a rational manner. The mind is very powerful and we're all looking for something higher in this life.

I should say, I have dreams where the same people constantly pop up and I certainly wasn't thinking about them before I went to sleep. Its just the subconscious I think.

Anyway.......... How do these "shadow people" try to induce fair or seem intelligent? Do they disappear once you focus your eyes? I think personally if you just get up and focus your eyes and try to remember its just your eyes playing games (rationalize and don't be scared), it might help and you'll probably stop seeing it.

But that's just my personal opinion.

I had to be on 24 hour call for the past 4 years and just recently got relief with a job where I am still on call, but I hardly ever get paged now. I don't handle sleep deprivation and interrupted sleep well either! During the worst of it, I sleep walked into a full length mirror and knocked it over on myself. Luckily it did not break, so no cuts, just tons of bruises. Then walked into the closet, turned the light on and back off again, then went back to bed. My husband was completely freaked out. I haven't hallucinated, per se, but when sleep deprived, I definitely notice an increase in heavy vibrations during the in between awake and asleep stages, and I tend to "see" lots of interesting things as I am drifting off, where normally, when not sleep deprived, I just fall asleep and don't notice the transition. I have a better shot at lucid dreaming when exhausted, as well. May be it is because when you are constantly being sleep deprived you start to fear not getting enough sleep and then it feeds itself by keeping you too alert due to that anxiety, subconsciously, thereby making you more conscious of the transition phase while you are still actually awake?

Ok, I'll admit it...I'm the crazy one!

More seriously, I do have what is catergorised as "hallucinations" auditory, visual and now thank to Friday night aroma!

Auditory: Snippets of conversation, sometimes a shouted command, all "heard" without the use of my ears.

Visual: images of people I don't believe I have ever met, just pop in and out again.

Both of the above happen to me very rarely and infrequently, there is only a couple of times where I think I have had auditory and visual simultaneously.

My last auditory was September last year....see, not often.

They happen to me just before I go to sleep, I am still awake and aware and am often having a daydream, which these events just cut in, no rhyme, no reason.

I wouldn't say it was sleep deprivation, I know I have mentioned them on the boards here before, so sorry to repeat myself, but hey, I gotta get my thery somehow.

Now for the aroma...this was interesting, as I have never experienced this before, being a smoker there are times where I will get back up and check I haven't left a ciggie burning, it's a pain, but potentially lifesaving, as usual I did my check.

On this occaision, I would say I was 90% off to the land of nod, if not more, out of the blue, I genuinely thought I could smell burning.

Imeadiately I shot up, ran to the itchen to check the ashtray/cooker...no burning, no fire, by this time no smell either.

What I found interesting was the next day at work, there was a fire in the car park at work, which we had to be evacuated for.

I'm not saying it was pre-cognitive necessarily, just that it is the first time I've had one of those sensations with smell and co-incidently the next day found myself within nose shot of a real bruning smell.

For the record, I know nothing of shadow people.

originally posted by: Argyll
a reply to: game over man

If all you are doing is making a big deal about the Always part, you aren't really participating in anything thought inducing. I already mentioned I put it in the title to hype up the thread

So you put a line in the title of the thread that you knew was false just to "hype" up your OP?

Stay classy matey!

Sorry that made me chuckle, yes I did, but at the same time I didn't know some people experience sleep deprivation but never encounter hallucinations of shadow people. So I'm glad this worked out! More information!

originally posted by: Subaeruginosa
a reply to: game over man

No I don't personally believe in any of that, just known far to many people that end up going down the deep end by making to much of simple hallucinations and not looking at it in a rational manner. The mind is very powerful and we're all looking for something higher in this life.

I should say, I have dreams where the same people constantly pop up and I certainly wasn't thinking about them before I went to sleep. Its just the subconscious I think.

Anyway.......... How do these "shadow people" try to induce fair or seem intelligent? Do they disappear once you focus your eyes? I think personally if you just get up and focus your eyes and try to remember its just your eyes playing games (rationalize and don't be scared), it might help and you'll probably stop seeing it.

But that's just my personal opinion.

Right! But that last part you said is what intrigues me! That is how those beings work? It's some different form of physics and nature we are not too familiar with??

Ok this is what I think:

We hallucinate shadow beings, or some people hallucinate shadow beings

We know from our science that the shadow beings are all a figment of our imagination

How do we truly know that these shadow beings don't have their own consciousness that we are unaware of when they appear?

ETA:

What I also think is that these beings are really just a singular form of nature that can form into the beings we see. This is why an entire place could induce fear...think of it as spirit of the forest, but possibly the size of the whole planet. That is why people from all over the world, for centuries have described this encounter.

So since every method to detect this presence has failed to produce evidence, we need to try a new approach. We need reproduce the sensations we feel in our brain, without a brain, but using some type of computer or device to record it.

a reply to: game over man

Well you will never truly know if they are just hallucinations, awaking dreams or real entities. So why do your head in worrying about it?

imho, you were just still half dreaming. But your story kind of intrigued me, I must admit. Purely because I did witness something similar not but two weeks ago, after doing my own head in by reading all that religious nonsense on this site.

Firstly, I had had one two many bourbons and was very tired, went to bed with the tv still on (bad habit of mine). Then as I had just drifted off (or on the verge of) the TV audio went into a deep demon type voice and sparked me up again. Was interesting, but whatever.

Then in the middle of the night I woke up and there was one of your "shadow fingers" across my wall staring down at me. Though, there's a few reasons I know I was dreaming, but half conscious. Firstly, it didn't really worry me in the slightest, I was far more concerned in just rolling over and going back to sleep. Secondly, in my mind the shadowy figure was actually myself just staring over, well myself, lol. Thirdly, I was lucid dreaming about all kinds of crazy things that whole night. Lastly, I'd had probably far to much Wild Turkey.

It was crazy. But like I said, I'm still positive I was just half a sleep and dreaming, induced by reading to much of this christian voodoo, which I was indoctrinated with as a child.

Well, either that or I got evil spirits coming for me

Went three days and saw an entire crew of shadow people just wandering around. I also saw ghosty white people dancing on the deck outside. Then there was the old hag zombie woman behind me trying to kill me in my reflection. Oh ya and every solid structure turned to a colorful oily liquid if I stared at it for more than a few seconds.

It was really freaking weird and I wonder the same things.

I lean towards the idea that there are things around us at all times and we get to see them from time to time under certain conditions.

a reply to: game over man. I don't think we hallucinate them. I told my sleep deprivation story above. I have not connected that state specifically to shadow people. That said, I have had multiple experiences with shadow people, but all when I have been dreaming or nearly asleep. I made a very loose connection based on that transitional state between sleeping and waking and how being sleep deprived makes you more aware (in my experience) of that transitional state. I didn't draw the line well, at all, except in my own mind, since I didn't mention my other shadow person experiences.

At any rate, I think that, at least the ones I have encountered, act as "watchers at the gate" - the gate being that between the physical and non physical worlds. I think they have a purpose we don't understand, probably relating to the dying process.

When I have encountered shadow people, in what I think is their natural environment, which I usually only enter through dreams or near-dreaming states, they have very clearly communicated a highly amused but focused "you don't belong here" intent, and tried to bump me out of their environment. I couldn't maintain my lucidity in the situation long, and woke up shortly thereafter. I think their job is to shock and surprise us, to keep us away from where we do not naturally belong. They do seem to have a sense of humor, at least in my case.