Half-dreaming

[Ocofan]

Hey guys,
Noticed for a while now that as I lay down to go to sleep, sometimes 5-30 minutes before I drift off my mind starts to quiet down, my inner voice slows and random images or sounds can sometimes drift in a realistic manner. For instance this first started off as a piano playing a random song in my head before I went to sleep, then it progressed into songs i'd heard the day before etc; however it seemed as if I was hearing these tunes as if they were being played right next to me. However when i realise whats going on it quickly disappears.

Just wondering what you guys think. Do you reckon it could be me entering some minor version of sleep where i'm partially dreaming things may seem 'real' until my inner voice starts to override them? Or maybe its something that can be trained; to lower your thoughts so that you could listen to 'realistic' music whenever you want in your head? It has started to sometimes happen when i'm awake too now as well. Whenever my thoughts begin to quiet down, my subconscious can bring up clear images/scenes/voices/music of interest. But when my conscious mind becomes aware it will quickly cancel them out. Is this a normal thing/ something that people have experience with? My main curiosity is can it be trained to be able to control it.
Thanks for your input, even if it is to tell me its a ridiculous post :P

 

[systembust]

Yes, I believe what you're describing is the experience of your brain entering theta wave production.

Do some googling. There are different methods out there of increasing this type of wave production, practically 'at will', as well as types of music and sounds that are produced to aid in this.

 

[Yet]

YEP I know that experience, rarely have it though ... weird hey, on the 'brim' of consciousness

It's the drifting into sleep (or out) ... actually officially that is the first stage of sleep when people sometimes 'think' they are still awake, sleep-paralysis might be experienced as well. Instead of explaining I post a link ok:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I've had that, can be a touch scary, but is harmless. When it happens I force myself up to more waking state to be able to move.
I read a lot about sleep a while ago when I did a paper on it. There's a mechanism that prevents you acting out dreams, I looked it up just in case someone is interested:

Neural activities producing generalized muscle atonia in REM sleep originate mainly in dorsolateral portions of the pontine reticular formation, descend through the medulla and spinal cord, and inhibit the motoneurons in the brainstem and spinal cord, bringing about postural atonia.

 

[Aramea]

I dream the minute I enter stage one sleep. I had a sleep study to determine if it was narcolepsy and fortunately it wasn't, however I never entered stages 3 or 4. It would appear that I am still "thinking" in stage one but brain functions are closing down for the night. This accounts for the distortion in my thoughts but not entering REM sleep. I DO enter REM sleep often enough, and I experience sleep paralysis as Yet described above. Apparently, your brain sometimes wakes you up too much so you can dream and sometimes you can feel that you aren't breathing. It feels a bit like I can't breathe due to a large obstruction. It also may account for my night terrors, where I think something I can't see is after me and I can't run away.

 

[Wahrheitsliebe]

I had thought that was because of alpha-waves in the brain right in the initiation of the sleep cycle.

I experience it too, mostly snippets of fake conversations that never existed in random voices, sometimes ones I know, sometimes ones I don't. Occasionally there's music or sounds like gunshots too. The gunshots freak me out, because I wake up out of pseudo-sleep and think I'm back in my old neighborhood and never went to college.

 

[Aramea]

Yes Wahrheitsliebe, I think they call them 'alpha brain waves' or something like it. Alpha sleep is not deep. You can still hear background noise. I often dream the television, lol ..

 

[systembust]

Initially I believed this was alpha as well, but after re-reading the OP and a few links online, what is described seems more similar to theta to me... here's one link I came across, not very academic, but I'm pressed for time at the moment.

from http://isochronic-tones.blogspot.com/2009/01/theta-waves.html :

Theta waves occurs before deep sleep (delta waves) and you are actually semi-conscious in this state. Our conscious mind can examine our subconscious mind in this state but has little influence over what transpires. Vivid imagery can be experienced in this state. Have you experienced seeing vivid mental pictures when you are almost asleep? See clear images of people whom you have never seen before?

I'd say the OP is somewhere b/w alpha and mid-theta, from the description given.

 

[systembust]

To me the OP sounds b/w alpha and theta. Theta isn't necessarily an unconscious state, but is the threshold between the conscious and subconscious. Both alpha and theta states are characterized by some of the things in the OP, and both can be experienced consciously; theta is just a bit "deeper," and less controlled.

 

[Dimensional Transition]

Phew, glad I hear something like this. I have it quite often, makes me feel afraid I'm going crazy sometimes. Like... hearing conversations and stuff you never had or will have as you're falling asleep, they get quite bizarre haha. It's really entertaining every now and then.
Sometimes it still continues for a little while when I open my eyes in that stage, and I'll see stuff in the corner in my eye(like some quick movement or so, no real hallucinations) but quickly realize I probably just 'half-dreamt' it.
You're still quite awake, but also dreaming. I have it in the morning occasionally, too. I won't really realize what I'm saying and stuff for a few minutes after waking up. It's quite a trippy thing actually.

I also sometimes(very rarely, but still) have some weird scare-reflex when I'm about to fall asleep. It's different from that feeling you're falling to the ground and get awaken by the shock, it'll just happen without any fantasy about falling/dying whatever. My muscles will just... twitch or so and get me completely out of my sleep. Sucks a lot :c

 

[Yet]

hey DT ... the 'twitches' are very normal phenomenon as well, I know what you mean. It happens when the muscle atonia is not set yet and you still have a muscle reflex ('kinda have a reaction to a bit of dreamlike experience')

b.t.w. half sleep/ dream experiences may seem like halucinations but they are not at all (it is a totally different thing)

 

[grey matters]

Multi unit dwellings built in the 70's and 80's often had thin walls. This made it easy for your neighbors pot smoke to drift through the walls and cracks thereof. If you live in one of these dwellings Ocofan, perhaps this is a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon. I used to have very realistic dreams that I could fly, I could really feel the sensation, and I'm not too sure I was actually asleep at the time...can't remember much from that time period though.

 

[JoeJoe]

I sometimes experience something similar before I fall asleep. A few times I've had music playing in my head that I've never heard before and very realistic and with multiple voices. Once it was even accompanied by images of objects moving in the rhythm of the music. Another time I had the feeling as if I had 2 earworms at once. Two songs I had heard just before kept alternating.
A different but probably related phenomena is, that when I listen to music while lying in bed I would have mental images fitting to the music (this is probably the reason why I like the PotC soundtrack so much).

So yeah, I always assumed it was my brain slipping into alpha wavelength state. Afaik there are several methods to induce the alpha state. But I reckon the results won't always be identical.

 

[The Gopher]

Yeah I kind of have those type of hallucinations. So.... I am not mad?

 

[Iuanes]

Yeah. I love that stage. In can be really enjoyable. Sort of like creating and observing at the same time. You KNOW the sensations are coming from you, but you don't have any conscious control over it. Occurs to me mostly in forms of music. If I do sports that day, then I'll 'kick' sometimes based on some semi-realistic scenario.

Sleep paralysis is a bitch though. I don't get it anymore, I tried to 'use' it to get some lucidity, but its more annoying than useful, or scary. (very scary when I first started having it)