Pre-sleep hallucinations

[HolySmoke]

Most of you have probably had an experience of hallucination in the moments before you fall asleep. Especially when sleep deprived or very tired. I am not really talking about sleep paralysis here, I have had hallucinations with that too, but a few times I seem to be able to relax into a trance-state, and hear and see things that are not "real".

In my most extreme case of pre-sleep visual hallucination, I had worked in field all day (biology) for 12+ hours. Right before bed, I smoked a small joint. I fell into this state, laying down in bed eyes closed. Without knowing my body was still laying down, eyes closed, I had the experience of sitting up and opening my eyes. In my lap and on the side of my bed were 3 to 5 snakes. They looked like Vipera borus, a common viper around these parts.

I knew they were harmless if I didn't agitate them, and just let them crawl on top of me and on my bed, still in a very relaxed state. One of them fell down from the bed. They looked photorealistic. Around this point, I realized I was "dreaming"/still laying down, opened my eyes and sat up. The snakes were still there, and I lay down again and relaxed. This might just have been a very vivid dream, but it felt qualitatively different from a dream.

The past few weeks, I have also been able to "conjure" visions when falling asleep. These have partly looked photorealistic, but also sometimes have contained an essence of tryptamine visuals. Over half the time these visions start up, I would see very vague shapes behind my mostly black eyelids. If I relax enough, and focus my eyes on one particular spot, I can see a shape becoming more and more apparent. When it has reached a certain threshold, I can ask it to turn around. Almost always, it listens, and a face/entity will turn around and look me directly into the eyes. We can look at each other for maybe 10-15 seconds, before the visions change.

I have to continually keep myself in a very relaxed state, similar to meditation, but meanwhile also be very focused, or else the visions will disappear. Some of the faces are vague and feminine, while one almost looked like the Grinch (but with more purple-ish tryptamine details). Once, I saw photorealistic smoke/vapour gliding from right to left, with very realistic physics, for over 30 seconds. In contrast to the snake-hallucination, this has always been completely sober, and I am absolutely not asleep during these. It takes continual effort to maintain these visuals over time.


Last night, I was also very tired, lacking in sleep from a mescaline experience the day before that. Earlier in life, I have sometimes heard familiar voices before falling asleep, such as from my brother, or near friends. They usually last only a split-second, and will only say my name. Last night was a bit different. I had put in my earplugs, and had again relaxed into a state of no thoughts, but still not asleep. I began hearing a faint sound of pages being turned. This sound increased in frequency and volume rather quickly, accompanied by two or three voices asking things like "Is this boring?!" [while they were apparently turning pages and looking into books]. The voices were a bit synthetic, and while high-pitched, did not sound feminine.

I have a nightstand with books behind my bed, around 40 centimeters from my head. The paper-turning sounds and voices came from that exact direction. I quickly discovered I had an ability to answer them, but only tried yes/no answers.

This level of auditory pre-sleep hallucination was completely new to me, and as the sound of the pages turning was becoming rather intense, I began to feel a bit uncomfortable. Seeing as I was not sleep paralyzed or anything like that, I removed my earplugs, and then there was silence again. Relieved that I had not finally gone insane, I decided to plug my ears again, and ask the voices, were they still there, a question about who they were. But I never heard them again that night.



Have you had experiences with (sober) visual and auditory hallucinations right before sleep? Did you feel they were part of the dream-state, or something separate? Were you aware they were hallucinations? What visual and auditory quality did they have, i.e. did they seem realistic, or more fantastical?


-HS


Edit: Corrected grammar.

 

[DmnStr8]

Your post reminds me of shamanic journey. I practice shamanic journey fairly regularly. Allowing the mind to create and bring me places. I don't call it hallucinations but imagination. The mind can create so many things if allowed. The right brain engages in some pretty wild things when let loose. The key to letting it loose is trance. Trance out and allow it do go where it wants, create what it wants and direct it when you the visions come easier. Try shamanic journey sometime. It is pretty cool!

 

[DmtProphecy]

When I used to mediate more I had visions often with eyes closed. It hadn't happened in a, while until yesterday. I was wondering if the DMT could have effected my mind so I closed my eyes while laying in bed to get some meditation in before I went to sleep. I saw faces, eyes and the silloette of a body. Because it's been so long since I've been able to do this and I don't meditate often anymore except sometimes before bed, I do think it's the dmt. This isn't the only reason I think it's the dmt. The last time I smoked dmt, I didn't have any open eyes visuals or anything... There weren't really signs of me having inhaled a big enough dose to have any significant experience but upon closing my eyes I did. This experience was different than my typical dmt visions. Instead of the bright colors and instead of getting as I was in an unearthly environment, the world and vision I experienced was more similar to meditation visions than dmt visions. I think the dose of dmt have me a boost and that it's changing my brain to make it easier to see visions in general.

 

[JP]

I have also been able to "conjure" visions when falling asleep

This happens to me all the time when I am trying to fall sleep after smoking cannabis, this may not make sense but the visions I have during this time are like "Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy" scenes in that strange British comedy film way.

I have also read multiple places that Edison would sit in a chair over a metal disc holding two metal balls and start to fall asleep. Before he could fully fall asleep he would lose muscle rigidity and drop the balls, which would wake him up. He would then write whatever thoughts he had dreamed up in a journal.

 

[I]

I have only recently (last few months) been able to have coerced pre-sleep hallucinations, and find the more often I do it, the easier it becomes... I also find that working with them has helped with navigating hyperspace as well... it's a will, not a force... A request of sorts, and not a demand... balance between (as was implied by the OP) meditation and focus, relaxation and intent. I thought I was the only one, interesting

 

[HolySmoke]

I have only recently (last few months) been able to have coerced pre-sleep hallucinations, and find the more often I do it, the easier it becomes... I also find that working with them has helped with navigating hyperspace as well... it's a will, not a force... A request of sorts, and not a demand... balance between (as was implied by the OP) meditation and focus, relaxation and intent. I thought I was the only one, interesting

It is only in the past few months for me as well. It seemed to have happened after I had a (for me) rather special DMT experience, where instead of being subject to the experience, I was the being that created it, including creating an entity. During that experience, I "used" the same sort of focus that I have been able to use before sleep. After that, I can often let this focus-state take place, but before, I had never felt it. I suspect it always existed though, just that I only recently became aware of it.

It is difficult to describe this mind-state, I think your description "A request of sorts, and not a demand" is a good one. It feels like stepping aside, and letting forth a mind-state that always is there in the background. During the DMT experience, this focus was infinitely stronger, and felt distinctly reptilian. It felt as though this exact focus (during the DMT experience) is the focus that a snake or crocodile laying in ambush is experiencing.

 

[Sakkadelic]

It is only in the past few months for me as well. It seemed to have happened after I had a (for me) rather special DMT experience, where instead of being subject to the experience, I was the being that created it, including creating an entity. During that experience, I "used" the same sort of focus that I have been able to use before sleep. After that, I can often let this focus-state take place, but before, I had never felt it. I suspect it always existed though, just that I only recently became aware of it.

It is difficult to describe this mind-state, I think your description "A request of sorts, and not a demand" is a good one. It feels like stepping aside, and letting forth a mind-state that always is there in the background. During the DMT experience, this focus was infinitely stronger, and felt distinctly reptilian. It felt as though this exact focus (during the DMT experience) is the focus that a snake or crocodile laying in ambush is experiencing.

Can you please if possible explaim more about the "sort of focus" you use before sleep. Thank you

I only experience weird and random auditory hallucinations before falling asleep, and my dreams are becoming very strange lately, i would like to go farther with this.

 

[HolySmoke]

Can you please if possible explaim more about the "sort of focus" you use before sleep. Thank you

I only experience weird and random auditory hallucinations before falling asleep, and my dreams are becoming very strange lately, i would like to go farther with this.

I can try, but I don't really understand it myself. Do you have experience with reaching peaceful states of non-thinking in meditation? If we liken that state with a circle, or an infinite expansion of awareness, the "focus" is a point of non-thinking. There is an awareness, the Observer, but not in a non-differentiated way. With closed eyes, I look around and focus on a point that is near me and straight ahead. There are no thoughts, but I am still my human. It feels like a communion of sorts. Like inviting the Other to a very small and casual dance.

I am the observer of the point of focus, but I also am that point. As "I" put it nicely, there is a feeling of request, not demand. A focus on this point, and a silent, humble but still determined request for "it" to show itself. As I said in the OP, this "it" often is an entity-like shape that, after the request, will turn around and show itself, looking me directly in the eyes/soul. After this, the entity will give way to further visions, but the focused request-focus-meditative-feeling has to be maintained throughout.


What sort of auditory hallucinations and dreams have you had?

 

[Sakkadelic]

I used to listen to guided meditations for lucid dreaming focus on the guidance and go on a journey so i think i can try and focus on what you nicely explained, it sounds very interesting and reasonable. Thank you

While tired and hanging between awake and asleep i start to hear random words that make no meaning and the voice keeps changing between voices of people i know, the voices come with faint imagery of what feels like memories.

My dreams are lately taking just 2 forms, crazy magical and sometimes mystical vivid dreams or almost alien scenarios that triger the feeling of remembering, so they feel like genuine memories and i feel terrified of how i forgot about them how my whole life doesn't make sense anymore bcz these memories are very bizare and surreal, then i wake up very confused of what is true and what is not. The feeling is trippy and i like it, i jokingly say that the walls between my memory and imagination are melting.

 

[I]

It's almost like dancing, but you're the follower... it's give and take, use the other's rhythm to navigate: rather like swimming in waves... it's a balance between sleep and cognition... it's almost like 2 (seemingly) conflicting forces oscillating control over consciousness... Shut down all of the brain except the observer, and add back more and more direct intent the deeper you go... it's weird, I typically don't dream, but once you figure it out, it gets easier... At least IME

None of it's "real": we're each just another perspective of the same thing; whatever it is

 

[exquisitus]

yeah, i had similar experiences.
yours is hypnogogia, mine is mostly hypnopompia.
very very very interesting. imho.
randomly. i don't have a reliable technique, or even any technique.
i wish somebody could come up with a reliable technique that wrks for me.

 

[I]

yeah, i had similar experiences.
yours is hypnogogia, mine is mostly hypnopompia.
very very very interesting. imho.
randomly. i don't have a reliable technique, or even any technique.
i wish somebody could come up with a reliable technique that wrks for me.

This is interesting, I wonder if it would help if you brought your focus closer to meditation, or maybe even trying to "stay asleep"... is it bright in your room when you rise? Maybe take this into consideration: complete darkness is important (for me)... I can (lately (since using the spice actually)) meditate and bring on hallucinations by fixating on what I feel to be my pineal, and it kind of "grows" until my forehead is warm (feeling, I don't actually touch it)and then shift my attention to the back of my eyelids... I find it easier at night, and outside (field behind my house) helps sometimes... keep us updated and good luck!

 

[CraniumCandy]

Hypnogogia is the photos and shapes you begin to see before you fall asleep, I’d say you had a wake induced lucid dream and also may have been stuck in a half lucid state. I do it all the time, just wait till you have a false awakening like 10 times in a row. Scary shit.

 

[I]

Hypnogogia is the photos and shapes you begin to see before you fall asleep, I’d say you had a wake induced lucid dream and also may have been stuck in a half lucid state. I do it all the time, just wait till you have a false awakening like 10 times in a row. Scary shit.

This is rather freaky: I've actually gotten up, dressed, and left for work only to rise from sleep turning tho back out... strange, and repetitive... almost like my body had to catch up.