[TrailRunner14]

*** This could possibly be triggering ***

This may not be the place to put this, but I didn't really know where else to put it.

If it needs to be moved, that's fine, I understand.

Has anyone experienced a somatic hypnagogia experience?

I may be totally off base with this, but it seems to be what I'm experiencing and I'm just curious if anyone else has.

Example:

Sometimes I'm lucky enough to catch a cat nap, during the day while I have a break. There are times that I just sit and clear my mind and not think about anything and breathe deeply.

I have experienced, several times during these breaks, the feeling that someone is popping/hitting my head. It truly feels real. It snaps me back to reality and I can still feel the feeling on my head. One time I remember putting my hand on the spot and it was hot.

It didn't really start until I started working through all of this with my counselor. Working back through trauma issues/events maybe have brought this to me in some way?

I have also had some very vivid dreams when I sit and clear my mind, or am on the borderline of being asleep.

They mostly happen during the day, when I am not really in REM sleep just cat napping.

I have had a couple of experiences when I was really going to sleep at night, but they were different. They were more sound things. I've heard the sound of a very big door being closed with "force" and that snapped me awake. I've also been snapped back by hearing a male person whistling for his dog. Now don't ask me how I know he was a male or what he was whistling for. I don't know for sure, but a part of me does.

This sounds out there I know, but I just wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this.

Here's the wikipedia definition of it, if you don't have knowledge of it. I didn't until something brought it to my attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

I've read a lot about it today. It's a very curious subject.

[finding_my_way]

yeah. i have had that kind of thing a lot, both when falling asleep or waking up. i will be half awake (waking up usually) and will think i see someone standing near the bedroom door or beside the bed. twice, there was a person beside the bed, and i remember thinking it was the others messing with me cuz i said inside something about that before falling back asleep.

sometimes while asleep, i will be awakened by a very loud noise that will fill me with terror. that is different and is called exploding head syndrome and is usually linked to anxiety and a different type of dream than a nightmare where something scary happens in it that wakes you up.

i have also had it while falling asleep where it's almost like a flashback, twice where it was a similar one of a small girl (a younger part) going through a trauma. in that, i can see the room as being one i had as a child and can feel what she feels and almost see what happens but never get to that point. that has just happened during the day while trying to nap a few times, though different from the other two examples.

there are a lot of things that happen when we fall asleep or are waking up. it's normal to have hallucinatory things like visions, smells, noises, etc.

[Amyjay]

I often have flashbacks on or around the brink of sleep. Either going to sleep or waking up. So yes. I often get disorientated around sleep and don't know what bedroom or what time I am in.

[TrailRunner14]

Finding my way.

It's interesting that you said that about seeing someone when you wake up.

There have been 2 times that I've seen a man standing beside my bed when I wake up. I don't feel any fear there.

It feels like a comfort. Like he's there to protect me.

I don't know.

It feels real, but not.

[amandalouise]

yes sometimes i get this. my treatment providers say it is normal for this to happen with things like sleep deprivation, medication over dosage and stress. with me besides those three things it also happens as part of my having MS (a physical health problem) and sometimes when I do my meditations...

short version it is a situation where a the brain prepares for sleep. it produces a chemical (Gaba) that is like a paralyzing agent. it makes it so that the body doesnt move when in REM sleep. the brain also tells the body to produce chemicals like melatonin. when its time to wake up the brain tells the body to slow down the production of GABA melatonin and other sleep chemicals.

in some people like me the process of decreasing levels of the chemicals in the body takes a slight amount of time where after sleeping instead of being wide awake right away I am in whats called Hypnagogia (in laymans terms this is being half awake half asleep) under normal circumstances I just lay there and enjoy the restful calmness of it. but sometimes on rare occasions my mind wakes up before my body does, where I know Im awake but I cant move, or causes me to have hallucinations where I will hear noises in my head like a huge bang or roar and physical sensations.

my treatment providers have me on some medication that helps with this. they are anti psychotics that control the production of the chemicals and rate that the receptors doing their jobs.

my suggestion if this continues to bother you contact your treatment providers. they can help you find the right medication for you.

[TrailRunner14]

No disrespect. I don't want be medicated. I feels like there is something that wants to be known and validated.

I've Googled today, looking for a connection to validate what I've experienced. My eyes are crossed.

Can't find anything connected to it.

It's very frustrating to feel, experience and know something that doesn't really make logical sense, but you know what you know. What you experienced is real.

There has to be someone else who has experienced this too.

It validates it.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by TrailRunner14

No disrespect. I don't want be medicated. I feels like there is something that wants to be known and validated.

I've Googled today, looking for a connection to validate what I've experienced. My eyes are crossed.

Can't find anything connected to it.

It's very frustrating to feel, experience and know something that doesn't really make logical sense, but you know what you know. What you experienced is real.

There has to be someone else who has experienced this too.

It validates it.

you probably wont be able to find anything on the internet about it being associated with things like repressed memories, co consciousness (alters sharing what they know) and the like because Hypnagogia isnt a dissociative problem.

it is being half awake and half asleep at the same time. it becomes a mental disorder when it causes emotional problems like hallucinations/ delusions, loss of touch with reality. dissociative disorders like DID have a diagnostic criteria that reality testing remains intact and the problems cant be because of other problems.... in other words in .......most locations....... having the symptom problems of Hypnagogia would .......most likely..... knock out a diagnosis of dissociative disorders...

that said a person can have more than one diagnosis of unrelated problems... for example I have dissociative disorders .....and.....I have Hypnagogia two separate problems that do not intermingle (they have their own set of symptoms, and problems)

because they have to be treated separately or they cancel out each other for diagnostic purposes I'm guessing you probably wont find anything related to things like retrieving repressed memories or developing co consciousness with dissociative alters while being half asleep / half awake and hallucinating and having delusional thoughts (Hypnagogia)

since you think something is trying to come through while you are in that extremely relaxed state of mind that comes with being half awake/ half asleep... heres a thought....

talk with your treatment providers. there are things like guided meditations and hypnosis /self hypnosis where you can during therapy place yourself in a highly restful state of mind similar to being half asleep/ half awake and during this process you can get the answers you are looking for from your alters if this is what is trying to happen.

[just2b]

Yes. All the time. Earlier this week actually sent T info on it and her response was how do you know it's this vs altes being there? I just kinda was like the article explained my experience. Nothing else.

[ruh roh]

I don't know if it's the same thing or not, but I have what feel like horrible, jarring re-entries to the body from sleep or deep naps, where I hear a super loud clanking. For me, I think it's about being aware or awake before the body is in sync with my consciousness.

Separate from that are shadow people, but I think both of these are from being in semi-sleep states.

I'm with you on the medication opinion. We as a society are way over medicated. It's scary and harmful to the planet. All that medication gets excreted into waste water and recycled into our environment.