Strange sleeping anomalies, anyone else?

Hi again! I found this site today and have been looking around. It may be selfish and if I could I would wish everyone better, but it's such a comfort to know I'm not crazy and alone (or at least not the latter) ;)

I was just wondering if anyone has any weird anxiety related issues that only crop up in the transition towards sleep. I've suffered from sleep paralysis and am prone to lucid dreaming so I've read up a lot about how sleep works.

One of the things I've found happening since getting panic attacks is that I will close my eyes but still be able (or at least think) I can see my room around me. I'm a bit of a sceptic and lithe to call it a paranormal thing... I'm tending to think it has something more to do with memory imprintation or something like that. Has anyone else experienced something similar or know what it could be?

I also hear music when I'm starting to drift off. Sometimes it's quiet... other times it's loud as if there's a band playing right in my room. Sometimes it won't even be a song that I particularly like but I get the whole works, lyrics, music... and there are also times I hear members from my family speaking. It's usually just snippets of conversation (which is even more weird because at least if it was a full conversation I would know I was making up what was coming next). But the fragments just sort of pop into my head and don't really correlate to anything.

I mentioned it to my doctor and he said it was likely an auditory hallucination. Does anyone else suffer from those?

:)

Hi cassether,

I replied on a previous post you made about this. I have had similar experiences on rare occasions. The hearing of voices and music occurs to me more often, though it is my thoughts racing through my head and not actual audible hearing, though the experience feels like "loud thoughts." When I realize this is happening and keeping me awake, I find that I can relatively quickly stop the loud thoughts by just focusing on thinking about nothing.

It could be a known sleep anomaly that a specialist if sleeping disorders could help you with. It is also sufficiently unusual to warrant going to a psychiatrist and getting checked out.

I've had this mate I think it's when your in the brink of nodding off you in-between consciousness so really it's like half dreaming without the visual :)

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Originally Posted by cassether

Hi again! I found this site today and have been looking around. It may be selfish and if I could I would wish everyone better, but it's such a comfort to know I'm not crazy and alone (or at least not the latter) ;)

I was just wondering if anyone has any weird anxiety related issues that only crop up in the transition towards sleep.

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Do a little research on:
"Hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations are visual, tactile, auditory, or other sensory events, usually brief but occasionally prolonged, that occur at the transition from wakefulness to sleep (hypnagogic) or from sleep to wakefulness (hypnopompic). The phenomenon is thought to have been first described by the Dutch physician Isbrand Van Diemerbroeck in 1664.[1] The person may hear sounds that are not there and see visual hallucinations. These visual and auditory images are very vivid and may be bizarre or disturbing."

.patient.co.uk/doctor/Hypnagogic-Hallucinations.htm#

Add the w parts to the above address.

I've had a few fascinating experiences with these principles. Once, I awoke, but the room was filled with garbled noise. As I lay there, after a popping sound, the room fell silent. The noise was some residue of sleeping.

Another time I awoke and saw a mass of things before my eyes, gnarling and almost paisley in shape. It caused no fear, I was transfixed watching it, and it just disappeared. Again, I had the feeling that had I been asleep, this would have been the visual portion of a dream.

These were both single occurrences that happened many years ago. I think it likely that psycotropic medications (and other medications) may contribute to these effects, though in my case this did not apply.

Thanks so much for the replies! I guess the important thing is at least I'm getting sleep ;)