Half awake half asleep

[irken_dreamer]

Does anyone else ever see things, hear things, or feel things while they're half awake half asleep? Sometimes I'll also see the stuff that's in my room while I'm dreaming (I think because my eyes start to open sometimes after I fall asleep ) It has to be because my eyes are open a little because I'll see the stuff that's in my room from the same view as I would have when I'm laying on the bed. That's been happening for a while though, and doesn't really bother me.

A few times though I've been in a state where I'm half awake half asleep. I'll see the room completely but I also see stuff that isn't there. It's kind of like sleep paralysis(sp?) but it's more dreamlike (I had one experience of sleep paralysis so I know this isn't exactly the same). One thing that I saw was really cool looking: I was looking at a chair and purple sparkles appeared on it. Last night I saw something really weird and scary. There were these creatures (I was still kind of dreaming and I thought they were aliens) that were really tall, kind of tan colored, really skinny and they didn't have any clothes on. But the weirdest thing about them was that they didn't have any facial features other than a really long nose. I don't remember what their arms, hands, legs, or feet looked like because I was pretty freaked out by them and didn't really want to look at them much. They kept rushing (they kind of glided really fast, or at least it seemed that way) through the doorway and into my room. Right before I completly woke up one of them rushed in and ran into the bed making it shake (I think that's what made me wake up).

That same night (or day really, it's summer and I'm usually sleeping during the day) before that happened I was in a kind of half awake half asleep state, but I was more awake during this one and I didn't see anything. I could hear myself talking in my sleep (I think when I was talking in my sleep it woke me up a little bit.) and I remember saying the word "no" and trying to explain something or figure something out but I can't remember what.

Stuff like this hasn't really bothered me before. As long as there just halucinations(sp?) I'm ok with it, even though the last one was really creepy. If I keep experiencing stuff like this how can I tell if its a halucination or some kind of ghost or something like that? I was also wondering if this kind of thing happens to anyone else, and if they could explain it any, tell what kinds of things they've saw, or offer any advice.

Edited July 27, 2008 by irken_dreamer

[sumthingnice60]

This hasn't ever happened to me, but I do know that hallucinations are common when you get sleep paralysis. The hallucinations, which usually look human-like, are a result of suddenly waking up from a dream state.

[eight bits]

It comes up a lot, irken, that people wrongly lump together the not-so-normal awareness of the normal paralysis that accompanies rapid-eye-movement sleep along with the hallucinations which are common whenever we are "half awake, half asleep."

They are two separate things. People have the hallucinations without the paralysis, or have the paralysis without the hallucinations, or have both together, or have neither of them.

Hallucinations, by their nature, convince. We see through them by challenging them. It is inevitable that we all will credit some hallucinations as real, and dismiss some real experiences as hallucinations.

There is nothing about an experience itself that tells us "this is real" or "this is unreal." We each have to get in there and do the work. We can compare notes, help each other out, but in the end, each of us must work it out for ourselves.

[Elite]

ive said it once and ill say it again

sounds like sleep paralysis

[sweetn_low]

This happened to me for the first time last week. It was so strange, like nothing I have experienced before. I was dreaming of a large object over my bed. I think it was a big wooden box or a brown piano and it was going to fall on me. I woke up, opened my eyes and I still saw the box above my bed. I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Thats when I really woke up and thought to myself "what am I doing here?" I thought maybe I was sleep walking. I have heard of sleep paralysis before but I thought you were frozen and couldn't move. I jumped up and ran while half awake. Is this still considered sleep paralysis?

[eight bits]

Hi, married chick.

No, that's a straightforward hypnopompic hallucination (searchable, also spelled hypna-).

As you say, you weren't paralyzed, so not sleep paralyzed. Sleep walking (also searchable, of course) is a different phenomenon altogether, generally associated with deeper sleep stages, and typically without narrative or image-type dreams.

[Nessieman23]

It's called Hypnagogia. Completely normal, from what I read.

[eight bits]

Just for clarity's sake:

A distinction is made between events that occur when waking up (hypnopompic) as opposed to when going to sleep (hypnogogic). The events themselves are often similar.

As to the claim that all of this is "completely normal:"

Any misadventure that occurs during or surrounding sleep which disturbs you, or which interferes with your normal functioning, is a candidate medical condition, for which you should seek professional healthcare advice promptly. Avoidable suffering is not "completely normal."

[h3x4g0n]

It has to be because my eyes are open a little because I'll see the stuff that's in my room from the same view as I would have when I'm laying on the bed.

Not necessarely, i had this experience alot when i practiced obe's and astral travels.

From my experience it seems to me that the body is asleep and the eyes ARE closed BUT the lets say Mental body or consciousness separated from the physical one thus makes you able to see the room even if you are'nt awake but half alseep (body sleeping but mind is awake).

I for example started to experience this effect alot as i states before and it began with only flashes of my room ( as quick as a photo flash), as if i was out of body for just a piece of a second and then back in.

Then after a few flashes of the room i was in, it stopped flashing and became a clear fixed image like i was really viewing through my closed eyelids and thats when i usually completely was out of my body.

Sleep paralisys surely comes with it u loose the awareness of your physical body and your body is shutting down its senses for the sleeping state disconnecting the i dont remember right but its disconnects the control of your muscles to prevent you motioning the movements that u make in your dream while in bed and to prevent you from waking up and hurting yourself while asleep, e.g. if you dream you are running and without sleep paralisys u would move your legs as if you were running( just remember those dreams where u are going to grab something and wake up with your hand in the air).

And to the hallucination thing i gotta say yes hallucinations may occur when you are AWAKE body and mind BUT if you are sleeping you usually dream wich means this is not a hallucination bc a hallucination is something you see hear or smell or whatever that isnt really there, only in your mind thus making it be a hallucination but if you are dreaming then its a dream in a scene that your mind created or an astral plane so i think its more like a shifting state between dreaming and the state of your body asleep and your mind awake/out of body and that could be why you see things that arent there BUT it could also just be some kind of energy that you see, i for example saw a pair of blue cylinder like sticks with a short yellow end wich looked like light sticks to me and when i woke up i realised that my remote control was in that same place holding the batteries so i thought i maybe saw the energy that the batteries contain.

Hope i didnt offend anyone and that i could help.

A hint to breaking the sleep paralisys: i often encountert situations of sleep paralisys that scared the crap out of me and i figured out a way to wake up and break the paralisys by concentrating my will and enraging myself like the way you are when really fast running as fast as u can like woahhhhhhhh!!!!!, with the will to move and it works so just try it next time you want to break the paralisys.

Greetings

Edited July 31, 2008 by h3x4g0n

[EyeWonder]

This happens to me quite often as I basically live in a half-awake/half-asleep state! I often see things that I'm afraid of, like roaches crawling up the walls or moths flying around my head. One time I saw something that really scared me - a giraffe head growing from the speaker of my stereo! It's horrible, but serves me right for depriving myself of sleep.

[saturnrings]

you are between planes if you keep your cool you will be able to get lots of info for the day ahead or the future/ past

*keep your cool means dont try to wake up just accept the state you in