HH Hallucinations. Ever had one of these?

Most people might put this in the "Paranormal" section, but seeing that it has a medical term, I figured this might be the best place for it.

The proper term is Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. The reason I'm posting this here is, because I wanted to share what I found out. I'm sure there are people out there who have experienced this, but have no idea what to think of it, or what might be the cause of it.

Wikipedia: Hypnagogia

Here's another good link: Relationship between the hypnagogic/hypnopompic states and reports of anomalous experiences

I have been having these as long as I can remember, and up until last night I had no idea they had a proper term for them. I took it upon myself to do some research after having posted this thread, and not receiving sufficient explanations: A question for all of you. You may view it if you'd like to see examples of what I'm talking about.

HH hallucinations

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are common in narcolepsy. However, the prevalence of these phenomena in the general population is uncertain. METHOD: A representative community sample of 4972 people in the UK, aged 15-100, was interviewed by telephone (79.6% of those contacted). Interviews were performed by lay interviewers using a computerised system that guided the interviewer through the interview process. RESULTS: Thirty-seven per cent of the sample reported experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations and 12.5% reported hypnopompic hallucinations. Both types of hallucinations were significantly more common among subjects with symptoms of insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness or mental disorders. According to this study, the prevalence of narcolepsy in the UK is 0.04%.

I don't have insomnia, no excessive daytime sleepiness,...I'm not stressed,... but I'm not 100% sure about the mental disorder. Most of mine are hypnopompic (which means they appear right as I'm waking up). I've had fewer hypnogogic (as I'm going to sleep) hallucinations. I have experienced them visually, I've physically felt them, and I've heard them as well. No taste or smell thus far. I've been having wide-awake experiences as well, but I'm not sure they are covered under the same name.

There is also this interesting study I found: The Ganzfeld Project

Anyone here with the same "problem"?

I wouldn't concern yourself too much. Everyone has had an episode due to too much caffeine, lack of sleep, or talking about someone and developing false suspicions backed by "seeing" things.
Treatment options might include, totally, what you are doing. Discussion. It actually is clinically proven more effective than medication 80% of the time.
Good luck.

Originally posted by bothered
I wouldn't concern yourself too much. Everyone has had an episode due to too much caffeine, lack of sleep, or talking about someone and developing false suspicions backed by "seeing" things.

Thanks for the reassurance. It does make me feel better finding out that it isn't all that uncommon. I've never really talked about them until recently. It wouldn't really concern me if it were just one or two instances,.. but these are fairly frequent. They don't happen on a regular basis (they're unpredictable), but within the past 30 days for instance, I've had them at least five times (two were while being wide awake, walking around the house).

Treatment options might include, totally, what you are doing. Discussion. It actually is clinically proven more effective than medication 80% of the time.
Good luck.

That's exactly why I'm talking about it. Thanks again.

Try a cognitive approach. Tell yourself that the experiences are not real, and that you can "control" them.
Try to relax, and say things like: "They will diminish." "They are not a part of my experience."

i have had this happen to me only a few times and it was scary as hell. I could not move, felt a presence in the room with me and hear a weird whooshing sound by my ears. Gives me the chills just thinking about it.

I had sleep paralysis after waking up from a nightmare.
In my dream, I was frozen stiff. When I woke up, I couldn't move for about 1 and 1/2 minutes. It is pretty terrifying.

Jesus christ. Funny I should stumble upon this topic today. I was having hardcore HH hallucinations last night and the night before. Weird because I havent had them in months.

Last night I woke up 15 times because of it. What happens to me is im falling asleep and I feel shocks going through my body, I hear this high pitched ringing sound and I see these black shadows flying around the room and flying into me. Usually it scares me so I wake myself up.

Never up until last night have I felt these things physically touch me. Last night the first thing I felt was like someone grabbing my balls so I woke up. As embarrasing as it is the second time it felt like someone poking me in the ass so I woke up screaming. You cant blame me for being scared of that one though. Third time I felt the most pressure I actually felt hands grabbing my feet and moving them around. It scared me #less admittadly. This happened about 15 times every time I was falling asleep this weird shuit happened and it scared me enough that I pulled myself outta the sleep.

My curiosity outweighed my fear though so I let myself fall into the trance again and didnt pull myself out. It really did feel like a ghost was trying to get inside me. A few times the dreams started and obviously they were lucid because I could see myself falling asleep. The very last one I remember was the scariest outta them all. It was like I was struggling with a black ghost that was half inside me and it was making these high pitched screeching sounds. This kinda thing only really happens every few months but when it does it usually happens all night until I just drop the fear and stop pulling myself outta my sleep.

Its funny becuase it scares the crap outta me when im in the sleep trance but the minute I wake up I lose all fear.

Originally posted by bothered
Try a cognitive approach. Tell yourself that the experiences are not real, and that you can "control" them.
Try to relax, and say things like: "They will diminish." "They are not a part of my experience."

These are my step-by-step reactions after I open my eyes:

#1.) "Hmm... that looks like,.........WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!?!"
#2.) "Wait a minute,.... it can't possibly be real. Let me reach out and touch it. "
#3.) "Holy #@$*!!!
#4.) Five seconds later: "O.K. it dissolved/disappeared into the darkness. It's O.K., you're just out of your mind. Go back to sleep."

[edit on 21-8-2006 by 2manyquestions]

Originally posted by Pirate_Pimp
Jesus christ. Funny I should stumble upon this topic today. I was having hardcore HH hallucinations last night and the night before. Weird because I havent had them in months.

They seem so unpredictable to me. Do you see any pattern in your experiences? Some people claim it happens if they fall asleep on their back. Some claim it may be caffeine related, I've even read that it might be triggered by low geomagnetic activity. I'm assuming you've never used any hallucinogenic drugs that might give you random flashbacks.

Last night I woke up 15 times because of it. What happens to me is im falling asleep and I feel shocks going through my body, I hear this high pitched ringing sound and I see these black shadows flying around the room and flying into me. Usually it scares me so I wake myself up.

Wow... that sounds pretty frightening. 15 times?!? I'm fortunate enough to have had these twice in the same night at the most. They also have absolutely nothing to do with whatever I was dreaming while I was asleep. I remember most of my dreams, so that's one reason 'seeing' these things will shock me. Just so unrelated.

Never up until last night have I felt these things physically touch me. Last night the first thing I felt was like someone grabbing my balls so I woke up. As embarrasing as it is the second time it felt like someone poking me in the ass so I woke up screaming. You cant blame me for being scared of that one though.

I'm sorry, but your description sounds hillarious. Of course I can understand how scary that must feel. Fortunately the things I see are usually not directly threatening me in any way. That only happened once, and it literally sent me running out of the room, and turning on every single light I could find. I couldn't sleep in peace for two weeks after that, and at least one light stayed on thereafter.

The very last one I remember was the scariest outta them all. It was like I was struggling with a black ghost that was half inside me and it was making these high pitched screeching sounds. This kinda thing only really happens every few months but when it does it usually happens all night until I just drop the fear and stop pulling myself outta my sleep. Its funny becuase it scares the crap outta me when im in the sleep trance but the minute I wake up I lose all fear.

So when you say "sleep trance" are you having lucid dreams (while you're sleeping), or are your eyes wide open, and you're conscious of the fact that you've woken up? These hallucinations are supposed to happen after you wake up (night or day), so your eyes are wide open, but you see things in your room that don't belong there (i.e. strange people, smoky outlines, maybe an animal, etc.)

Do you see any pattern in your experiences? Some people claim it happens if they fall asleep on their back. Some claim it may be caffeine related, I've even read that it might be triggered by low geomagnetic activity. I'm assuming you've never used any hallucinogenic drugs that might give you random flashbacks.

Yeah theres a good few patterns. It happens no matter what position I sleep in but seems to happen more when I sleep on my back. I notice it happens alot a few days after I quit smoking. I dont drink coffee and it has been happening since I was about 12 before I'd ever taken psychedelics so I wouldnt say either of the two have much to do with it in my case. In fact I remember I used to get twice the amount of sleep paralasys and related things when I was younger.

They also have absolutely nothing to do with whatever I was dreaming while I was asleep. I remember most of my dreams, so that's one reason 'seeing' these things will shock me. Just so unrelated.

Yeah its as if these things drag you into the dreams.

So when you say "sleep trance" are you having lucid dreams (while you're sleeping), or are your eyes wide open, and you're conscious of the fact that you've woken up? These hallucinations are supposed to happen after you wake up (night or day), so your eyes are wide open, but you see things in your room that don't belong there (i.e. strange people, smoky outlines, maybe an animal, etc.)

For example id be lying in bed thinking and I know im about to fall asleep then I feel these vibrations going through my body like electricity. I keep my eyes open and notice the transition from my ordinary waking state into sleep and I see and feel these black shadow things around my sometimes they fly all around the room and I feel like these black things are entering my body. The idea of me falling asleep with these black things in my body usually scares me so I wake myself up. I used to struggle like mad to pull myself out of sleep paralysis but I can do it with ease nowadays.

[edit on 22-8-2006 by sanctum]

Originally posted by Pirate_Pimp
Yeah theres a good few patterns. It happens no matter what position I sleep in but seems to happen more when I sleep on my back. I notice it happens alot a few days after I quit smoking. I dont drink coffee and it has been happening since I was about 12 before I'd ever taken psychedelics so I wouldnt say either of the two have much to do with it in my case. In fact I remember I used to get twice the amount of sleep paralasys and related things when I was younger.

Since you do smoke, it is difficult to tell, but since you've had these when you were younger (smoke-free I'm assuming), then they may be genuine. I can't say what kind of effect smoking and quitting would have on these. I've been drug/alcohol-free all my life, so I can't relate.

For example id be lying in bed thinking and I know im about to fall asleep then I feel these vibrations going through my body like electricity. I keep my eyes open and notice the transition from my ordinary waking state into sleep and I see and feel these black shadow things around my sometimes they fly all around the room and I feel like these black things are entering my body. The idea of me falling asleep with these black things in my body usually scares me so I wake myself up. I used to struggle like mad to pull myself out of sleep paralysis but I can do it with ease nowadays.

I've read at least one person's experience where they felt like they were being electrocuted by their own bed. From their description, it felt pretty severe. I believe this same person mentioned sleeping on his/her back. Your experience sounds pretty frightening, though the frequency at which it happens must have conditioned you to feel less fearful. Crazy stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[edit on 22-8-2006 by sanctum]

I would just like to link to another thread here on ATS that seems quite relevant, and makes for VERY interesting reading:

Tryptamines and God

Yea its great to see I am not the pnly one who experiences these things, just knowing that their are others who are going through and experiencing the same things is very assuring and relaxing.

I have felt and experienced justabout everything mentioned thus far including the feeling of being electrocuted feelinga ghostly spirit trying to enter my body from the throat, heart or ears and smelling and tasting things though I just put those off because I sleep with my window open. Not on the order of daily or nightly but id say about 5-8 times every month. I mean for the most part I enjoy them but there are times especially sometimes with the sleep parylisis and really being frightened that there is a wicked presence over me that leaves me not wanting to go back to sleep that night.

Good Topic 2ManyQuestions, Thanks

Very interesting.

And I must say I've experienced it as a kid - the lucid dreaming thing and many symptoms - including uncommon ones - of hypnagogia. Later on too, though, I had lucid dreams and could totally control a dream, so a lot better than before.
Even when awake and not in bed but waiting outside or something or walking somewhere I could enter some kind of strange state of being of which that lucid dream thing is the only description I know that comes close to it. It's like you're awake and asleep at the same time, and you have an unusual powerful control over your being and senses, and everything around you.

Probably has to do with the artistic background, too, mentioned on Wikipedia to which your link leads - I was composing music in my head as I "slept" (by that I mean actually "sleeping" in my bed, but also when "awake" wherever I might be), getting great creative ideas constantly.


I can tell anybody interested in it that it's truly a beautiful experience.

Originally posted by Desolate Cancer
Yea its great to see I am not the pnly one who experiences these things, just knowing that their are others who are going through and experiencing the same things is very assuring and relaxing.

Thanks for sharing, Desolate Cancer. I too am glad to have found other people who experience this. It makes me feel more sane. After having read that thread I linked in my post above yours, it just opened up an entirely new level to understanding these "visions". Hours after they've passed, they're kind of fun to think about. I always try to figure out what my subconscious (or whatever is responsible for them) might be trying to tell me. Some of the fear-based visions are fairly obvious to me. No one enjoys having spiders in their bed.

Originally posted by Bijo
Later on too, though, I had lucid dreams and could totally control a dream, so a lot better than before.

I've had these lucid dreams before as well. It only happened a couple of times. I went along with what was happening in one of them, and I tried to control the other. It took a lot of concentration to get anything done. Eventually I unintentionally caused myself to wake from it.

Probably has to do with the artistic background, too, mentioned on Wikipedia to which your link leads - I was composing music in my head as I "slept" (by that I mean actually "sleeping" in my bed, but also when "awake" wherever I might be), getting great creative ideas constantly.

I'm an artist (drawer/painter), so that's always possible. I too read that the more artistic people tend to have these more often. I suppose that would make sense.

I can tell anybody interested in it that it's truly a beautiful experience.

It definitely can be great, but also very terrifying while it is happening.

I have had three hypnopompic hallucinations. Not sleep paralysis, just hallucinations. My experiences as I had them were like this:

One (the first) was nine years ago. At seven o'clock I woke up from the bed in a like "familial" and kind of friendly way nudging me awake. First the whole bed contracted slightly so that some pressure was applied from the foot end, on my feet. It seemed oddly natural, as a way for someone to wake you up if they were a bed. :-) Then the mattress was lifted up a little more insistently at about the middle, under my back approximately, by the boards in the bed, that the mattress lay on. I remember the feeling, and especially how the sound of the boards "clanking" was exactly "right". By the way, this all seemed entire realistic, and strangely normal. I'd sort of woken up by the nudging against my feet, but was sort of sleepy and didn't care much. The mattress lifting me up, got my attention somewhat more properly, and I sat slightly up and told my bed to calm down, like "alright, alright, I'm awake." Perhaps the strangest thing to me is how I took this as though it were quite normal. Remember this didn't at all feel like a dream, but seemed like it was happening. :-) The mattress came down after having "heaved" up a couple of times to like shake me awake. I lay back and relaxed for a moment. Then I closed my eyes for a moment, and then opened them. When I opened them, the room looked exactly, precisely as when I'd had them open a moment earlier, except there was like slightly more contrast and perhaps some more saturation to the image. Otherwise it looked exactly the same as in the dream. The difference was like I had removed a vaguely opaque sheet of plastic from over a picture. So perhaps what seems the most strange to me is how I was able to dream this with perfect memory of the room. When I dreamt and then closed my eyes in the dream, and then opened my eyes for real (from then on the I was awake and started my day), what I saw was perfectly the same as far as how the room looked, shapes and sizes, and point of view.

The second time was one or perhaps two years ago. I awoke at seven o'clock from knocking directly under my pillow, like on the boards under the mattress. It was odd, and for a couple of minutes I tried to twist and turn in my bed, to try and recreate that knocking sound, assuming I had to have made that sound myself my moving in my bed. After some attempts I gave it up. Nothing I did sounded like what I heard, and so I count this my second hypnopompic hallucination, that is knocking on the boards under my mattress, directly under my pillow. The knocking was casual and normal, and didn't scare me or seem odd or strange when it happened. It felt again like "familial", like some family member might knock friendlyly (is it spelled that way? :-) on your door or something to wake you up. Again it's a bit strange how normal it seemed when it happened.

Third time was yesterday. I was sitting in front of the computer screen watching some speech on YouTube. I'd thought about getting an afternoon nap, some minutes earlier, laying down and taking a proper nap, but as it turned out I didn't bother. As I sat watching I kind of dozed off. Not sure how long, perhaps a minute or something, perhaps just a couple of seconds. As I woke up, I saw a nice, woman's face that seemed really big, like it was really close up to mine, and she seemed to be like studying me with interest. The face was already slightly seethrough when I opened my eyes, and then quickly faded and was gone in perhaps one second, I don't think any longer than two seconds. As I woke up, it didn't scare me at all, but again seemed strangely normal. :-) She was sort of just there with this facial expression of curiosity and "studying". For whatever reason she looked, I'd say, a bit like Cate Blanchett and with a hint of Bridget Fonda (I suppose some of the more "pure" or such faces I've seen...) with light hair back, and some sort of white "net" or something either over her hair and/or as part of her clothes.

On the first one, like I said I sort of fell asleep for a second or less, then woke up for real, between the hallucination and being awake. On the two others the hallucinations happened after I'd woken up for real, as it seemed to me. And, again, no sleep paralysis, just being plain awake (as it felt to me) and seeing (third case), hearing (second case) and hearing, seeing and physically experiencing (first case).

Anyway, this is sort of weird stuff, and so I guess I felt the need to put it out there, and then this board is of course the perfect place. :-)

Lastly, I just want to admit I haven't read all of this thread, yet.


edit: spelling

edit: noticed another misspelling, apologies about that


edit: some more typos, sorry

this is like when youve been at the beach all day, and when you go to sleep you feel like your floating in the waves?