Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Hypnopompic and Hypnagogic Hallucinations

Hypnagogic imagery (-hallucinations) - Vivid sensory images occurring at sleep onset but particularly vivid with sleep-onset REM periods;�feature of narcoleptic REM naps.


You've probably done this at some dome during you're life. You're just about to fall asleep (but not quite "there") and you get a flash of a dream, either with or without sounds. But it's just a flash. You might hear a voice (often I get a voice that yells my name) or someone screaming, or a dog bark or something like that.  It might bring you bake to "awake" or you might keep going into real sleep.

These are called Hymnagogic hallucinations. I had forgotten there was a name for it. In the first two naps today I've had them. On the sleep study monitors it will show that I'm in stage 4 (REM) sleep, but I'm very much aware of what is going on, and feel like I'm kind of still awake. You might term this "just drifting off".  That's because only PART of my brain has gone to sleep, and another part is still trying to get there. (In re-reading this last sentence, it sounds an awful lot like I'm describing something else! But that's another post...ok an entirely different blog. One not written by me! LOL)

Hypnopompic hallucinations are just the opposite, happening as a person is waking up. This is when episodes of sleep paralysis happen, which can be really scary. Thankfully I haven't had an episode in years, at least not that I can remember.

Most people only have these episodes once in awhile. I have them every time I fall asleep. They're kind of annoying, really. Sometimes I think there is someone in the room with me. Sometimes it feels dangerous. Did you know there are people who are able to manipulate these sensations into lucid dreams, and actually control their dream state with them? Freaky!

Ok, two naps down, three more to go. The tech did say that based on my first two naps I will probably be here for all five. (Honey, that means I won't be home until around 9:00 tonight. Just in time for bed. LOL) Eventually I'll be done with this test and can get on to posting about other things. YAY!

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