Hi all,

I have had a lot of dreams in my life, pretty much at least one every night. Some nights when I don't sleep well, I might wake up every hour or so, but I will still wake up with an interesting dream each. I heard from somewhere that if you sleep facing the ceiling, you will dream easily, which is what I've been doing. I tend to forget most dreams by the afternoon though, so that is why I keep a dream diary which I write in every morning. However I've stopped doing that now but I must make it a resolution to start writing again in the new year. When I'm stressed out in the day due to relationships or heavy workload, I sometimes will have this same dream. I call it a dream, but really I don't know what it is called and would like someone to tell me?

I fall asleep facing the ceiling, and within seconds, I know that I'm dreaming. I know when I fall into sleep because I can feel a rush in my eyes, a rush that looks like the static noise you get on an untuned TV channel, and then I would black out to unconciousness. These dreams happen as soon as I sleep. I dream (or can actually see) that I'm lying on my bed sleeping. This feeling was scary the first time I had it, but after that I just found it annoying. I try to get up but I cannot move a muscle except my toes. The only way that I can get myself up was to wiggle my toes, and try to turn myself over. After much effort, I do manage to turn myself over and I wake up feeling a bit heated up. The annoying thing about this "dream" is that it will happen if I go back to sleep. What I have found out is that I can overcome this by sleeping with the light on.

Has anyone had this kind of "dream" before, and what it is called? In Chinese, this experience is roughly translated as "a ghost sitting on the chest", which is quite a scary thing to know! I'm a believer in ghosts and spirits, and would just like to know more about this experience.

Thanks for reading =)
Samo

Hi, Samo8.

There's a lot going on in your post.

The impression that you see your own body is often called an out-of-body experience, or OBE. Sensations that tell you you are dreaming are called dream signs. That you are aware you are dreaming is called lucid dreaming.

The inability to make voluntary movement while dreaming is called sleep paralysis. It is a normal part of the physiology of sleep. Some people also use the same term for the experience of waking up without the paralysis having been released. Many find this frightening, but it is usually no more than that.

I don't know any special term for awareness of normal sleep paralysis while still asleep.

Finally, you are the second person lately to associate body position with dreaming. Compare

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...t&p=1944260

where the poster reports alternating between two different dreams, depending on which side the poster was lying.

I have the same exact thing happen to me OFTEN. I notice that my position of sleep has a large impact on my dreams. I can wake from these dreams where I'm floating and know that I can go back to sleep and pick up where my dream has left off. My bed is also right next to a wall and I notice that sometimes if I fall asleep with my hand touching the wall I have extremely bizarre dreams. By the way, I live in an old house.

Another thing, you mention static like a TV that isn't tuned in. How about a loud ringing in your ears? I get that sometimes when I have a hard time waking from these dreams.

Thanks for reading and replying.

Eight bits, thank you for the many terms you have given me. I'm not so afraid of it anymore, I just find it rather annoying now because I just want to have a good night's sleep but my mind doesn't let me. However, it's not happened for years now. Yes I do agree that the position you sleep in can affect if you have a dream, but I don't really know if it affects the TYPE of dream you will have. I know for a fact that if you sleep on your back and facing up, you are more likely to snore than if you were sleeping on your side. Isn't snoring a part of REM sleep or something, and which is a state that you are more likely to have dreams? My guesses are something on the lines of that, and it seems to be working for me anyway. I enjoy my dreams, but when I'm stressed or my body is ill, they are usually nightmares. Strange that eh?

Biff, no I don't hear a loud ringing, my dreams are all silent. I'm just talking about the point I'm just about to fall into deep sleep, something rushes over my eyes. It's like you close your eyes to sleep, and you can see your eyelids, but then it slowly fades away to a static view like from an untuned TV, as if your eyes are untuning themselves and switching off. I've had it so many times that now I can control this static view and can usually sleep within a minute. When I sleep over at a friend's place they are quite suprised at the speed in which I sleep, but I don't tell them how I do it though.

Samo =)

The weight on your chest is known as "The Old Hag Syndrome" ....

Old Hag Syndrome

Thanks lotus flower, I went to read about that and came across this Sleep Paralysis article, and all the symptoms do match what I'm talking about! So thanks again