Hearing voices before sleep?

[Pizzabeak]

Anyone familiar? While getting ready to sleep, in bed with blankets and lights off, I'll start to hear voices and something that sounds oddly similar to laughing. Sometimes you can even "see" stuff.
I figured it was related to the dream state. Since one is getting ready to sleep and dreaming is something that apparently happens, it could just be an early stage of that. It seems to happen rather quickly, though. I can be conscious enough of it to be thinking about it and choose to wake up, but at the same time it seems to occur when I'm really tired. Hence, it could simply be dreams getting ready to kick in. Will have to play with this more, however, I just tried but nothing happened probably because I was trying too hard. However, the reason this thread is being made is because it occurred prior to the attempt just mentioned so I woke up (I sorta passed out) and began the inquiry... It also happened last night and a thread was going to be made but I decided to hold off and see if it would happen again. I'm sure similar incidents have been experienced in the past... Might have something to do with apple juice?

This was last night, looks like I fell asleep before getting a chance to hit submit.

 

[just george]

Voices calling your name, or saying things to you directly? Then images of things as if you get a glimpse through someone elses eyes sort of thing?

 

[Beat Mango]

I sometimes get mini-dreams as I'm lying in bed. That's when I know I'm starting to fall asleep. Maybe I'm entering REM too quickly.

 

[nanook]

complex soundcapes or music is more common for me, but random voices happen too. when i fall asleep consciously visuals will often appear before any sound, but i often have the sound experience in the many breaks within the night, wherein one is almost awake.

 

[The Gopher]

I sometimes get mini-dreams as I'm lying in bed. That's when I know I'm starting to fall asleep. Maybe I'm entering REM too quickly.

Yeah this happens a lot. It's probably due to lack of sleep and making up for it in naps(?)

But when I'm sick I hallucinate a lot if that counts, seeing spiders that aren't there and the like.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Yes. I can recall some of the things the voices say.

Once I heard a voice say "There's nothing to worry about, but you're running out of time"

I once heard a girls voice speaking to a male one about someone, maybe me, I don't know. In any case they were just saying weird stuff, repeating words a lot.

"He has no clue at all, he's all lost"
"Yes, he can't picture it at all"
"At all, at all"
"No clue at all, all lost"

It was all in Swedish though so I took the liberty of translating it.

 

[Pyropyro]

Hmmm... Troxler's fading may explain the seeing stuff phenomenon (the same mechanism causes the bloody mary dare).

I also experience auditory hallucination before sleeping especially if there a little sound stimulus. Mine sounds like a talk show is on a TV or radio somewhere. Sometimes it's more simple, as if a washing machine is working somewhere.

 

[RubberDucky451]

Sometimes I'll hear whispering if I keep my fan on. It's almost as if the sound of the fan is suggesting the sound of voices and the mind is filling in the blanks. Just like if I was faintly hearing a song and my mind was filling in the portions I couldn't hear as well. Is this considered a hallucination?

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Anyone familiar? While getting ready to sleep, in bed with blankets and lights off, I'll start to hear voices and something that sounds oddly similar to laughing. Sometimes you can even "see" stuff.

This was last night, looks like I fell asleep before getting a chance to hit submit.

You're experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations. I do as well. It's fucking godly.

My most recent experience.

You can induce them by sleeping when you're not all that tired, and passively staring at one thing (or with your eyes closed, one spot) until you're immersed. And I'm in the same boat as nanook: visuals before sound (but when sound is present it's orgasmic). Staring at grass during a rainfall or as the wind blows can have a similar visual effect, but I haven't moved to sound after that point. I assume this is because it's a real visual stimulus as opposed to my mind's projection.

Also, if you've been stressed/sleep-deprived as of late, take some time off.

 

[Rook]

I do hear voices just when I am fading towards sleep, but these are rather voices of people I know. They do not talk to me, but within my brain I distintcly hear voices with the exact tone of voice of a spesific person. They just pop up, and their content is coherrent speech, not random mumblings.

 

[ProxyAmenRa]

It could be just sensory deprivation.

 

[BigApplePi]

Sometimes I think I hear voices under those circumstances only to discover the cats are meowing because I forgot to feed them.

I recommend the next time you hear voices to make a recording and transcribe what you heard the best you can and post it here.

I'm going to hit "submit" now.

 

[GodOfOrder]

I have, for the past few nights, heard the first two measures of Air on the G string cycling continuously. I put it down to fatigue.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

G string

Spoiler

Yeah, probably fatigue. Any unusual dreams as accompaniment?

 

[GodOfOrder]

No. It is more of a pre-sleep thing. It contributes to insomnia. When I do finally get to sleep, dreams are dreams.

 

[Pizzabeak]

The dreams are apparently more lucid. I actually fell asleep for a few hours then woke up with vague recollections of dreaming, couldn't remember much. When I actually fell asleep later on that night (with some apple juice before hand) the dreams were much more vivid (lucid?) and I could remember them... Some of the subject matter included stuff I was thinking about early that day and what not, of course. I wasn't sure, however, whether this was because the time and manner in which I fell asleep, or because of the apple juice and 'hypnagogic' phenomena.
Never really heard anything call my name, just stuff... Most recently, possibly because of stuff read here, I specifically heard "the doctor said..." and something else I can't remember but made out at the time. Sometimes I heard noises, like something brushing against metal. The fan was on, which I believe I was going to mention in a manner somewhat similar to rubbberducky I guess. As far as seeing stuff, it was like a cartoony image suspended in space. It was in a square border and seemed to be a headshot portrait of some character, for some reason it reminded me of my sister. The colors green, purple, and white were particularly present... The image was there and then it just disappeared. Most recently when my eyes were shut there were like blobs of colors "fluctuating", but at this point I was wondering if it was related or if I was trying to hard to notice stuff since those weren't as intense as the portrait thing appearing. I did however manage to hear those voices after a while... It could just be a lack of sleep thing, sure.
But all the while I found it interesting to try and differentiate between thoughts and the actual phenomena. Sometimes it seemed as if certain thoughts turned into voices or sounds that would "leave" the head and sound like they were coming from elsewhere.. I do, I believe, remember seeing a classroom image with desks and green chalkboard somewhat as if through the eyes of another person but once I realized it it left. Considering a couple things, being too aware prevents sleep and you could be laying there for a while and being not enough aware you could just fall asleep normally... I'd have to play around with this more.
The dreams were interesting and I was sorely disappointed when it was realized they were only dreams which forced a wake-up reaction. Oh, there were those "mini dreams" beat mango mentioned too. I had a bag of cheesy poof cheetos and could taste them, but then I realized that couldn't possibly be which forced the taste and image of cheetos bag to go away, poof. Found it interesting. In a previous dream a few days ago I had a weird set of shark teeth which had to be contained with a braces container and the front piece of a football helmet... Looking in the mirror was interesting and the teeth could be felt in the mouth as they would move around and stuff... At one point I had normal teeth but there was something stuck inside so a weird toothpick was acquired, and jabbed at the teeth to get the thing out which broke two of my teeth like chalk and bleeding commence, all of this could be felt which could get frightening. It should be mentioned I've had some teeth break irl but fixed via dental work, and used to have braces for ~5 years... Traumatizing?
So if anything, this seems to be for fun... It's interesting... Probably beats a normal nights sleep anyday. I'll try and get to bed earlier perhaps and see. Maybe transcribe any voices and see if any significance can be extracted. I know some people will chalk it up to regular brain/dream behaviour, spouting out random things because that's how it supposedly functions (more or less).

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Most recently, possibly because of stuff read here, I specifically heard "the doctor said..." and something else I can't remember but made out at the time.

it was like a cartoony image suspended in space. It was in a square border and seemed to be a headshot portrait of some character, for some reason it reminded me of my sister. The colors green, purple, and white were particularly present...

But all the while I found it interesting to try and differentiate between thoughts and the actual phenomena. Sometimes it seemed as if certain thoughts turned into voices or sounds that would "leave" the head and sound like they were coming from elsewhere..

I do, I believe, remember seeing a classroom image with desks and green chalkboard somewhat as if through the eyes of another person but once I realized it it left.

So astral travel, union with a greater consciousness, Cheetos, and a dose of demonic self-awareness. Not bad.

Maybe transcribe any voices and see if any significance can be extracted.

Not a bad idea, sharkie.

Spoiler

 

[Thurlor]

Most people will experience an hallucination at some stage of their lives. They can be enjoyable or scary but I doubt they ever really mean much. Most people don't make a lot of sense when awake so I can't imagine they'll make any more sense when asleep.

The biggest trap to fall into is to assume that these hallucinations come from any-where other than your own brain. They are an internal phenomenon and definitely don't come from any external sources (god, spirits, etc).

 

[Cherry Cola]

I don't know, weren't we kinda made to think of them, these apparitions or hallucinations, as if though were they spirits? I feel as if though they may have been a, if not the, natural mediator between the conscious and the subconscious. Cut of by the rapid onset of modern thought and civilization with humanity herself having a chance to adjust owing to the slow spinning of evolutions cogwheels.

Cutting them off may have been necessary though, but there must certainly have been a price to pay for it. I'm almost certain something in the morphology of the soul collapsed following this unnatural bifurcation; the balance of the duality lost; vein shrunk and non functional; pressure mounting perpetually in the chamber, the engine can but push the fluids into the remaining vessel in disproportion.

Imagine the human phenomenology of bygone days. They were ignorant surely, but did they not in a sense experience and understand more nevertheless? That their holism had not been cut into and dug out of.

 

[Brontosaurie]

not sober, no

you must be a lunatic bro

me jelly

 

[just george]

Sometimes I'll hear whispering if I keep my fan on. It's almost as if the sound of the fan is suggesting the sound of voices and the mind is filling in the blanks. Just like if I was faintly hearing a song and my mind was filling in the portions I couldn't hear as well. Is this considered a hallucination?

I also hear music in fans - been doing so since childhood.

 

[Pizzabeak]

So astral travel, union with a greater consciousness, Cheetos, and a dose of demonic self-awareness. Not bad.


Not a bad idea, sharkie.

Spoiler

Ha..

Most people will experience an hallucination at some stage of their lives. Chances are

They can be enjoyable or scary but I doubt they ever really mean much. Most people don't make a lot of sense when awake so I can't imagine they'll make any more sense when asleep. That was just a poke..

The biggest trap to fall into is to assume that these hallucinations come from any-where other than your own brain. They are an internal phenomenon and definitely don't come from any external sources (god, spirits, etc).

Well that's good advice... I never claimed to have been receiving special messages from radio free albemuth, however, to anyone just beginning to look into hallucinatory related phenomena I suggest you take heed and listen to Thurlor's message.
Well, anything like that definitely would be coming from one's own brain even if some alien or God were transmitting signals to the subject's head. I found it interesting as far as perception goes. I wasn't sure if one should be satisfied with the answer that it comes from your own brain because it obviously does, but are there any implications? As far as I'm aware certain aspects regarding dreaming and stuff aren't completely understood... Not that I'm hoping for anything supernatural, I don't think, but surely certain perception related phenomena could shed some light on the nature of everyday reality - maybe. I found it interesting how one could feel things they aren't currently actually feeling, apparently that's already a well known thing in its respective field & mechanisms explaining how that can be exist.
So yes, they can be fun I suppose because they are more out of the ordinary. We're dealing with things outside the system... Apparently it's frowned upon to interpret them as some type of message, from a spirit nonetheless, and it's acceptable to hold steady with the understanding that it's just you talking to yourself so to speak. Well, what? Just enjoy it? Most people seemingly do, I can see some other people being afraid of them though. Is it futile to do anything else? Is the matter settled? As far as things containing meaning different people could probably interpret experiences differently, so. Unless some universal standard could be unanimously agreed upon as to what certain experiences 'mean' and could be verified at that. It would seem things like 'free will' and what not would have to be considered - a dream telling you you must do something, someone would have it interpret it that way for some reason. In most cases it's probably some desire or idea that person harbours. Could even be an idea they have never even conceived of before, although I'm partially not sure how they extract something like from a dream. Apparently could be some 'positive' 'advantages' to dreaming.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Well, anything like that definitely would be coming from one's own brain even if some alien or God were transmitting signals to the subject's head.

I found it interesting how one could feel things they aren't currently actually feeling, apparently that's already a well known thing in its respective field & mechanisms explaining how that can be exist.

Basic question: Is there a difference between the two (one's brain and an alien)? If the answer is no, then extrapolation leads to everything you experience, the entirety of your reality including other people, being part of you.

 

[Marshall]

Before I go to sleep or when I don't get enough sleep, there will usually be a couple background voices making comments about my adventures. Only when I'm alone though, or else I just listen to the actual people around me. However, when I keep my mind occupied the hallucinations dissipate, unless I listen.

 

[inhibitions]

I get this all of the time. They're the same voices. I'll hear other stuff too. I can never hear what they're saying. Sounds like Arabic or something.

If I'm alone for an extended period of time and I have remained utterly silent, I will start to hear voices as well. I've never let them stick around long enough to see if they became threatening. In one hand, my curiosity tells me to try it out once; In the other, I know that very bad things could happen.

The mind is a very powerful thing-- the fact that it can analyze and understand what is there and make up material that is not there.

 

[Epicure]

When I'm ill and feverish I have these dreams in which it seems like huge amounts of lists of gibberish information are coursing through my brain too fast to make any sense of. Even after I wake up in a sweat I remember it and my sense of experiencing time is accelerated. I'm anxious and exhausted.

 

[deephuggin]

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are a pretty normal occurrence. I have regular sleep paralysis in which I see and hear/see/feel terrible things. I heard a voice once but it was from within my head so I can't be sure it wasn't just my imagination but it told me to "Read what is given to me", and that "A decision will soon be made." (?!?)

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are a pretty normal occurrence. I have regular sleep paralysis in which I see and hear/see/feel terrible things. I heard a voice once but it was from within my head so I can't be sure it wasn't just my imagination but it told me to "Read what is given to me", and that "A decision will soon be made." (?!?)

So did you read it?

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

Yeah, weird shit happens to me.

I heard a voice speaking to me one morning after waking up in sleep paralysis. It told me that the December 21, 2012 apocalypse wasn't going to happen (I had a nightmare about it earlier that night). The voice seemed to originate from a shadow behind my head, just barely within my peripheral sight. I snapped out of sleep paralysis and continued my day as normal.

A couple of years before that I also seemed to have an OOBE one morning. I was laying there in bed trying to move but unable. My wall clock read approximately 8:15. After some effort I eventually rolled (out of my body?) to my left and fell right through my bed to see the carpet underneath. After wriggling around for a bit on the carpet, I snapped back to my body, still paralyzed. Maybe half a minute passed on the clock. I tried to snap out of sleep paralysis but just ended up falling through my bed again and wriggling around on the carpet. It happened many times (6,7?) with consistent passing of time from the wall clock. Eventually I snapped out of it and got out of bed. It freaked me out quite a bit. Oh yeah, the wall clock showed that only like a minute passed and that I was seeing the actual time.

Another time, a few months ago, I had sleep paralysis again after waking from a short nap and I felt some pretty strong vibrations throughout my body although my body wasn't actually moving. It really scared me so I managed to snap out of it pretty fast.

So yeah, it would be cool if these turn out to not be hallucinations but I'd need some more evidential OOBEs to prove it to myself. Either way, sleep paralysis seems to be the key to it all.

 

[not]

I experience it when I am waking up. When I am crossing through the void from the 'dream state' to the 'waking state' in that moment, or split second before I am 'back' I experience many different things. I sometimes 'download' new information out of no where like in the Matrix movies. I'll wake up hearing strange language or words, or see something, a picture, a shape, a painting, etc... Often it is the first time I have ever seen or heard the object or words. I keep a journal. - When I saw the film Source Code, the film freaked me out a bit. Whenever the character 'died' in his 'flashback' images and shapes flashed before his eyes before he 'woke' back up in his tank, and it freaked me out because it is very much what I experience when I wake up every morning. I live for the experience. I often try to prolong that not asleep not yet awake state.

 

[ℜεмїηїs¢εη¢ε]

I experience it when I am waking up. When I am crossing through the void from the 'dream state' to the 'waking state' in that moment, or split second before I am 'back' I experience many different things. I sometimes 'download' new information out of no where like in the Matrix movies. I'll wake up hearing strange language or words, or see something, a picture, a shape, a painting, etc... Often it is the first time I have ever seen or heard the object or words. I keep a journal. - When I saw the film Source Code, the film freaked me out a bit. Whenever the character 'died' in his 'flashback' images and shapes flashed before his eyes before he 'woke' back up in his tank, and it freaked me out because it is very much what I experience when I wake up every morning. I live for the experience. I often try to prolong that not asleep not yet awake state.

Apparently, some people can induce it at will (making their body fall asleep but keeping their mind awake).

 

[deephuggin]

So did you read it?

I'm still waiting for it! That was about two weeks ago.

 

[not]

Are you sure you didn't already 'receive' it?

 

[not]

Speaking of books, the last thing I heard before I woke up this morning was the phrase, "The First Book" over and over. Maybe you will get a copy of "The First Book." (Whatever that references)

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

I'm still waiting for it! That was about two weeks ago.

Are you sure you didn't already 'receive' it?

Maybe you're reading it now...

 

[redbaron]

They tell me to start arguments on the internet.

 

[Pizzabeak]

Haven't had anything like this in ~2 weeks, as far as I can remember.

 

[not]

@deephuggin

Any word on that book?

 

[Grayman]

They tell me to start arguments on the internet.

It all makes sense now. You are asleep while you argue here. That explains the quality of your posts.

Just helping you start your argument while you are sleeping....

 

[Pizzabeak]

I've only had sleep paralysis once and I just let it pass because I had heard some testimony not too long prior, and sort of recognized what it was. It was kind of weird and it woke me up fairly earlier than usual. Hence, whenever I get hypnagogia it's just prior to falling asleep, sometimes it sets in rather quickly, but it's mostly just laughing or chattering voices. The more I wake up the more it fades. So it goes both ways, falling asleep and waking up - transitory. OOBEs appear to be similar to false awakenings. The aspect of being able to reconstruct environments is, I dunno, pretty interesting at this point. I have only had one FA and no as far as I can recall OOBEs though. Maybe I would have had more by now if I didn't smoke pot?

Basic question: Is there a difference between the two (one's brain and an alien)? If the answer is no, then extrapolation leads to everything you experience, the entirety of your reality including other people, being part of you.

Is biocentrism an idea worthy of consideration? There has been some negative feedback on it in the peer reviews. It comes off as a remotely interesting alternative to our traditional viewpoints but some aspects of it have always seemed too strange & normal (at the same time) to me, if that's a good way to describe it. For starters everyone must be doing the same thing - or of course no one actually exists and are just projections. Are the projections also projecting? Or are they shells? Where is everyone else located?

Time and space wouldn't really that much of an overhaul for that viewpoint but in practice we don't really have access to the implications, it's similar to a what if scenario fleshed out by reason.

 

[XUD9]

I hear voices before I fall asleep most nights. This one time I was falling asleep lying on my side and I heard this demonic whisper "Maybe you should turn around". Other times I hear my name being called out or hear bits of conversations between two people but can't make it out. This one time I also heard like really loud jiberish whispering in both my ears really loudly and it was creepy as hell! I have night terror's most nights causing me to wake up in the middle of the night a lot and I have really vivid abstract crazy dreams.

 

[Yellow]

I'll imagine that I hear creepy things when short on sleep, but that's just sleep deprivation. Beyond that, I'm losing my hearing, I've developing mild auditory hallucinations as a result, and they most often occur just before sleep.

 

[Ex-User (5841)]

Is biocentrism an idea worthy of consideration? There has been some negative feedback on it in the peer reviews. It comes off as a remotely interesting alternative to our traditional viewpoints but some aspects of it have always seemed too strange & normal (at the same time) to me, if that's a good way to describe it. For starters everyone must be doing the same thing - or of course no one actually exists and are just projections. Are the projections also projecting? Or are they shells? Where is everyone else located?

Time and space wouldn't really that much of an overhaul for that viewpoint but in practice we don't really have access to the implications, it's similar to a what if scenario fleshed out by reason.

Yo, that response was like 2 years old. I ain't back to that level yet.

 

[J-man]

I've noticed an interesting pattern. When I've spent a day being really social, that night I tend to have a lot of that random chatter floating around in my head. It's like my brain is organizing what I learned that day. It's kind of disturbing when you think about it.

Reminds me how when I'm feeling pretty lazy and I go to take a pee, sometimes my brain interprets the sound of the pee hitting the water as words. One time it invited me to a party.

 

[ma(dy)ma(dx)]

Cool cool cool - so when I first noticed it, it kind of creeped me out, because of mental illnesses in my family I thought I was turning schizophrenic- but after figuring out that I was just turning a hypochondriac fool, I relaxed and started to enjoy the sounds.
It's called hypnagogia.

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

sometimes my brain interprets the sound of the pee hitting the water as words. One time it invited me to a party.

cool!

did you go?

 

[Architect]

Anyone familiar? While getting ready to sleep, in bed with blankets and lights off, I'll start to hear voices and something that sounds oddly similar to laughing. Sometimes you can even "see" stuff.

It's probably in your head.

 

[logical-dreamer]

Yes, almost every night. It's a very loud whisper but just out of my hearing range. I choose not to tune in, and cover my ears with my blanket/turn music on. Over the years it has gotten louder. It is a female and male voice at the moment. Disturbing to say the least.

Have had paranormal experiences in the past. I believe it is called 'clairaudience'

 

[J-man]

cool!

did you go?

Ba-dum tssssss

 

[Pyropyro]

I've noticed an interesting pattern. When I've spent a day being really social, that night I tend to have a lot of that random chatter floating around in my head. It's like my brain is organizing what I learned that day. It's kind of disturbing when you think about it.

Tetris effect?