Bobbing head theory, version 0.1

The more time I spend on ATS the more I keep getting back to that sighting I had one year and 3 months ago. Last night I was going over it again and I thought 'What might've triggered such a fantasy if it wasn't real?'. So I played the scene over again and realized I actually bobbed my head a good couple of times just before the sighting, as I was drinking a can of soda.

Now, I'm no scientist, I'm not even gonna pretend to know what I'm talking about here, but logically, wouldn't your mind work, you know, 'better' when it's still, and not bobbing back and forth or maybe just shaking really hard?

Think about it, when you dream your head is not in an vertical position, it is almost always in a horizontal position. Considering humans have been sleeping and thus dreaming in this position for god knows how many years, couldn't we create a theory surrounding that? That is the possibilty that we might trigger some kind of dream inducing / fantasy spurt state of mind when we have our heads in a horizontal position? I think it sound plausible, do you?

It's just a thougt, but I though it could be worth finding out more about it, so that's why I made this thread, to ask you about it.

Try to remember; Did your sighting / sightings have anything to do with rapid head bobbing or maybe even lying on the ground looking straight up? I know probably a lot of sightings require some form of head bobbing as you have to look up (haha) but usually we spot UFOs in our daily life hence without having to look up.

Logical dreaming has to do with the state of sleep that a person is in, not the position of their head. If you induced that state (REM) spontaneously, you would also lose all muscle tone and you’d collapse. There are people that do have this problem, it’s called cataplexy, and is related to narcolepsy.

[edit on 7/16/2005 by defcon5]

So people with cataplexy would just collapse in the street yes? Because that would be hilarious.

Told you I wasn't a scientist. But hasn't there have to be a state of dreaming between when you go to bed and you fall asleep? What I'm thinking about is that there has to be something triggering this, and maybe you don't have to be asleep to have some kind of fantasy spurt going on?


[edit on 16-7-2005 by Drexon]

Originally posted by Zanzibar
So people with cataplexy would just collapse in the street yes? Because that would be hilarious.

Yes, actually they would. They have their drivers licenses revoked so they will not pass out while driving. Cataplexy is usually provoked by an emotional response, such as laughing or anger.

[edit on 7/16/2005 by defcon5]

Did you mean "Logically, dreaming has to do..." or did you say 'Logical dreaming', because I don't think there's such a thing as logical dreaming.

However, I'm enclined to believe that we have something happen to us when we go to bed and are relaxed. I always have great ideas and/or inventions when I'm laying in bed, unable to sleep, but tired. Can't that be connected to this? The brain releasing some kind of chemical into the brain to induce sleeping that is. Or maybe we just haven't researched that aspect of sleep that much so far? DO we know what triggers sleep?

Originally posted by Drexon
a state of dreaming between when you go to bed and you fall asleep?

You need to look into what type of dreams can occur in stage 1 sleep then, which would be the closest state to being awake. Generally what most people think of as dreams only occur in stage REM sleep. These would be the logical, story-like dreams.

I guess I needed to be more detailed, but that's not what I meant. I didn't mean the full fledged story like dream state, where you reenact things that've happened during the day and so on, but the feeling you get when you go to sleep. I'm pretty sure it has to do with a chemical or something of the like that our brain produces when it senses we're tired and should go to sleep, making us feel hazy and start having dreams. The reason I'm leaning towards a chemical release in the brain is because I've felt such a thing a couple of times, maybe 5-10 times in my life.

You don't feel the brain relesing it per se, but you sense the effects of it. The times I've actually felt it, it feels like you feel when you wake up too early, you're mentally dead tired and you just want to go to sleep again. It feels just like this only you get a burst of it, it's really quite a nice effect. Is this something that is documented to happen, or am I just speaking out of experience on somthing that can't be scientifically mapped, atleast yet? Though I have to say you'd have to be depriced of sleep to trigger such an event. The times I've felt this, let's just call it dream chemical, is when I've been up for many, many hours and suddenly decided to go to sleep, the brain then releases the chemical in a burst because it senses you've been up for way too long and thusly you can conciously feel the effects of it because it's in too big a dose.

Consequently I've fallen asleep within minutes of having such a burst though.

I know what your saying I've felt that too. I think its melatonin, but I could be wrong.

It feels like a shocking sensation.

I'm pretty sure it has to do with a chemical or something of the like that our brain produces when it senses we're tired and should go to sleep, making us feel hazy and start having dreams. The reason I'm leaning towards a chemical release in the brain is because I've felt such a thing a couple of times, maybe 5-10 times in my life.

The Chemical you are referring to is called Melatonin

Melatonin

Melatonin helps regulate sleep-wake or circadian rhythms. Normally, production of melatonin by the pineal gland is stimulated by darkness and inhibited by light. Melatonin can suppress libido by inhibiting secretion of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) from the anterior pituitary gland -- especially in mammals that have a breeding season when daylight hours are long, such as sheep. Nobel Prize laureate Julius Axelrod performed many of the seminal experiments elucidating the role of melatonin and the pineal gland in circadian rhythms. Beta blockers decrease nocturnal melatonin release.

Yeah, I did a little research and I found this:

Although many brain chemicals are involved in sleep and dreaming, two very important ones are the neurotransmitter serotonin and a brain hormone called melatonin. Both are produced by the pineal gland of the brain" (1). Melatonin is meant to calm the brain and induce sleep. Serotonin on the other hand triggers the brain to dream.

So that most likely fits into what I just described. Wich leads me to this theory that has now developed into "Does bobbing / shaking your head release melatonin / seratonin?".

So what I really want to know is: Did you who have seen a UFO bob your head backwards or shake it just before you saw it? That's what this thread is for, atleast from now on.

I think that bobbing your head , and or bouncing or jumping increases dopamine production , not seritonin or melatonin release. But again I could be wrong about that.

Ever seen tribal peoples kinda bouncing in place ?