Why Our Brains Hallucinate As We Fall Asleep

Have you ever found yourself seeing images right before falling asleep? You might be experiencing hypnagogia! Learn more about what causes our pre-sleep hallucinations in this new episode of SciShow, hosted by Hank Green!
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Sources:
www.theatlantic.com/science/a...
www.scientificamerican.com/ar...
www.sleepassociation.org/pati...
www.merckmanuals.com/professio...
www.sciencedirect.com/topics/n...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.britannica.com/topic/drea...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...
books.google.com/books?id=q_v...
www.psychologytoday.com/blog/...
www.bbc.com/future/story/20150...
www.merriam-webster.com/dicti...
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/09d8...
www.academia.edu/33150155/Repl...
www.businessinsider.com/what-i...
www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/P...
www.sleepassociation.org/pati...
www.bbc.com/future/story/20120...

[@ukulelerapboi7668]

One time I was falling asleep in class and I heard a voice say "you can't be my son you're a fish"

[@fka-Kaya]

That´s a good one haha!

[@elanorsan708]

Thanks for the laugh. That’s strange and hilarious.

[@drakkensdatter]

One time, I experienced hypnogogic hallucinations in math class where I was still aware of my surroundings, but instead of the lesson, the teacher just started saying the word "pop" over and over... same diction/pitch/speed as the lesson, but just "Pop, pop pop pop pop pop, pop pop pop, pop, pop pop." Also, a goldfish swam/few circles around him.

[@fossilfighters101]

+

[@hemlock6737]

You can't be my dad you're a jish

[@Morpheuss]

Sleeping is really "fake it til you make it" most of the times.

[@crackedemerald4930]

morpheus1008 that's how's done

[@RainAngel111]

That's pretty accurate. >I can't fall asleep >Pretend that I'm asleep >Start to actually fall asleep >sleep

[@asielsmith6007]

You ought to know... morpheus

[@NinjaKittkatt]

I usually pretend I'm dreaming to fall asleep, but it doesn't always work. I've had times where I laid in bed for 6-8 hours without ever falling asleep. The more stressed I got about time passing, the less I was able to fall asleep.

[@danielpratt2358]

You beet my record.

[@Dwohman]

What's crazy is waking up from a dream and then waking up from that dream

[@hachikiina]

oh shoot

[@franzy871]

Yes!! This feels like Inception A LOT

[@romeoslover817]

I can do this multiple times a night.

[@FlorenciaVM1]

Happened to me, in my dream, dreaming something, let's say a potato, then "waking up" and tell someone "hey, I dreamt about a potato!", and then finally wake up. And obviously tell someone about that inception

[@user-lu4fn9pe4y]

lol, it is, for me i don't get as much dreams as a normal person should get but when i get a dream it's this sorta thing, a dream in a dream but just this once i had a dream in a dream in anther dream, the situations were so identical but the time was crazy, 9:00 then 8:13e? and then it was 10:30 and when i woke up it was yet to be 8! and my head hurt like devils! so i just fell asleep again and woke up so late that day...

[@eldritchvoided]

oh so this is why I sometimes hear voices talking very clearly when I’m about to fall asleep even though no one is actually talking nearby, nice to know it’s fairly normal

[@catpoke9557]

My voices usually tell me to play video games and make my nose itch

[@kelligirl1210]

Sometimes it feels like my husband is next to me. I can feel him physically next to me but he’s actually already left for work or he’s right next to me talking to me but he’s not there when I wake up. It seriously feels SO real.

[@kassiep]

Yup I think I've had full on conversations in my mind doing this and been very worried when I wake up and my faltmates are like "no you haven't been taking to us at all, you've been just laying on the couch" , omg its creepy as hell, thought I was getting schizophrenia

[@Mrthecrafter162]

Same for me and the words I hear are also very random haha

[@johnbarker924]

I have them silly conversations with no meaning for about 1 minute just when I'm falling asleep

[@thisismyname8621]

One time my boyfriend was so tired I told him to go to sleep and good night and he said “Have a ......( very long pause) pepperoni” Then he was asleep. He didn’t believe me when I told him the next morning.

[@kirillp.4630]

Get him a pepperoni pizza. He seems to really want one.

[@JosephM]

Did you get the pepperoni?

[@gyro4250]

my wife claims that i once said "pull your nipples off" in a similar situation. Im sure what i actually said was intelligible and that was just her imagination

[@thejiracros]

Once I was texting with a friend and I was sleepy so I want it to say goodnight (in Spanish, cause that's our first language), and I just said "Buenos doritos" which means "Good doritos"... I was really tired.

[@MacaqueStinx]

I don't believe you either.

[@AJDaBaws]

Once I heard a violin suspense sound when I was trying to sleep... It was terrifying

[@stephenstrange1719]

As a kid, I used to frequently wake up to a single piano note, guitar pluck, violin or cello chord, or even the buzz of some electrical machine right as I jolted awake. It used to freak me out a bit.

[@stephenstrange1719]

@@Inzpectre Something traumatic happen recently? Or possibly in the past that might be bothering you subconsciously lately? I used to get tons of nightmares of being chased after a particular traumatic event at age 4. Either waking up screaming, crying, or covered in sweat.

[@Inzpectre]

@@stephenstrange1719 i don't know actually... it just happens i have not experienced something traumatic on a really long time so i have no idea why this happens

[@stephenstrange1719]

@@Inzpectre If something's stressting you out or there's something you're afraid to face/accept, that could do it too. Could be someone else or a situation causing stress, or even something you regret or feel guilt about. It's not always easy to pinpoiunt something right away, but dreams and nightnares do often reflect somehow of our waking lives.

[@kkkkk3811]

😂

[@tommymckiddy7872]

That video actually explains a lot of WTF moments I've had while falling asleep.

[@trevormorgan6538]

same I always hear extremely loud crashes when I'm really tired and falling asleep

[@itsok3368]

@@trevormorgan6538 bro what

[@Justanobodybro]

@@itsok3368 same

[@humbertodelac0494]

​@@trevormorgan6538 like a ringing in your ears?

[@mic383]

@@humbertodelac0494 more like an actual crashing noise, or sudden rush of static and ends abruptly. Happens for a split second and then it’s over

[@bricklego5]

I go through this when I’m super tired, and I’m glad its normal because as an anxiety and depression sufferer it makes me think I’m going crazy

[@veecardenas9203]

Omg this answered a lot for me I also thought I was going crazy

[@goteemos5334]

@@veecardenas9203 same i was running off 6 hours of sleep and stayed up for 20 hours tried falling asleep and heard "ill kill you" instanly i started tripping thinking i was going crazy felt weird the whole next day till finding out this happens randomly too everyone

[@johnbarker924]

Don't worry it's not a mental illness 👍although depression can bring it on more

[@roguesriot147]

If you or anyone else need to talk lmk :) stay safe and I hope you recover and have a nice day/night

[@guanlinnie587]

my worst experience was when I was falling asleep and I hallucinated someone whispering right next to me ‘he has a kiwi on his cheek’, I’ll never get over that

[@SuperLui008]

Guanlinnie that’s me today! I woke up at 3am wanting to take a leak try going back to sleep only to hear a voice say hey and called my name. It’s sounded like slithering snake creepy AF

[@CenturyOakWindStar]

Was it the bird or the fruit?

[@xavier6130]

@@SuperLui008 Then just go to the bathroom. Holding it in is not healthy, and your subconsciousness probably tried to tell you that in a weird way.

[@SuperLui008]

Xxyz 260 I did lol I heard the weird voice when I was trying to fall back to sleep

[@somethingwithbungalows]

SuperLui008 what did it say?

[@bluewhaleking6227]

Sometimes I’ll imagine that I’m walking and misstep or fall, which startles me awake

[@hectorvega621]

Do you also kick the air, because I do.

[@Cool_Kid95]

Oh my God MEEEEEE!

[@Jo-chilin]

Oh that’s the worst

[@joshuaspath6923]

I hate it’s when this happens

[@giornogiovanna7603]

Same it was so Real!

[@funkydozer]

What fascinates me is how noises such as, say, a door slamming or a dog barking outside - noises that we cannot possibly know are going to happen - can coincide EXACTLY with a particular point within a long and vivid dream, usually the point the dream ends and we wake up.

[@gavin_oppegard]

Yesss, its crazy

[@koteswarris8949]

THISSSSS...I think our brain first listens to the sound and then convinces itself that it knew it was gonna happen, so our dream might seem like it already knew what was gonna happen.

[@ironbarsjack7977]

Hypnagogia is my favorite pastime as I enjoy my mind in altered states. For me it’s mostly like daydreams but super vivid. It’s different from dreaming because I often struggle to recall dreams after a while. When I do this hypnagogia thing it’s typically in the middle of the day so everyone is awake and any sound pulls me out of it but I drift back into it within seconds and I can do this for as long as I want or until it’s completely quiet and I have nothing anchoring me to stay awake.

[@tylerpetro5713]

dude i have been lookin forever for someone to explain what i feel and you did just that, so is it hupnagogia we experience but why is it so differnt from what others explain it as?

[@jessd956]

@@tylerpetro5713 could be narcolepsy.

[@dega4642]

Once I laid down to sleep and pretty much instantly found that I was no longer fully awake. I knew I was *not* awake, but I was also aware of my surroundings. I somehow knew that moving would make me wake up, so I stayed still for a while, and soon began having auditory hallucinations. Somehow, the voices and sounds I heard reflected my thoughts (to a degree), so I could kind of control them. I was able to play certain sound effects and hear them, like the Roblox death “oof”. I eventually moved and woke up because I was starting to get scared of the giggling noises I heard. It was NOT sleep paralysis, I was able to break out with very little effort, so it must have been something else.

[@HardeepSingh-ru6ps]

bro.. i told this to my friends and they said its weird.. im glad its not just me.. i thought i was some disorder or something

[@HighStakesDanny]

@@HardeepSingh-ru6ps 1st step: stop listening to your friends, books, not friends…

[@kate-mv5iq]

I played chess against the computer for like 4 hours straight and later when one of my family members walked in the room, I said "wait that was an illegal move."

[@_hector__]

katelyn white 🤔🙄

[@loke_the_champ]

well in germany you say "du" or "Sie". "Sie" is used at the situations where you say may could and other more polite words and "du" if you talk with a friend. i played so much mass effect 2 that i called my friend "Sie" because in ME2 you say "Sie" even to Tali when they are f*cking. xD

[@SparkMyke]

I blundered while talking to a lady and my left hand reached into the air to ctrl + Z the situation.

[@SilverDragonEyess]

Always use the formal word.

[@DIYToPen]

That happened

[@Jasperidone]

From now on I'll say "I'm Hypnagogic" instead of saying "I hear like a wooshing sound and see weird images before I go to sleep. I also vibrate"

[@MnemonicHeadTrip]

Just Me The vibrations mean you’re really close to sleep paralysis by the way

[@CarolH2O]

I vibrate almost every time I'm falling asleep...it's uncomfortable though, I hate the feeling, sometimes I wake myself up so that it'll stop.

[@flaggkatten]

@@MnemonicHeadTrip in what way does one "vibrate"? Is it a imagination or something physical?

[@user-kx1vx3hi8z]

@@MnemonicHeadTrip Oh god no

[@edenwarwick2968]

Omg!! Have you heard of astral projection? If you haven't look it up, you were super close to doing it!!

[@tcpnick6895]

Hearing random phrases when im falling asleep constantly happens to me, to the point that I actually find it kind of comforting because I know im about to fall asleep.

[@mrhicks957]

As a musician, I'll sometimes hear little melodies in my head when I'm about to fall asleep, which promptly wake me up and I can't get it out of my head until I record it.

[@IsraeliDino]

Oh wow, talk about inspiration!

[@yamiyo6050]

Post ur music or fake

[@kinglord24123]

I’ve had that before, it sounds so beautiful

[@vampirebanquets]

Yami Yo bruh

[@KezickTV]

oh my god yes, it sucks so bad, because i always forget it if i dont record it, and the melodies sound like they are from out of this world

[@erinp.420]

When I was a teen I worked at a movie theater. After a busy night, when trying to fall asleep I would sometimes suddenly jump awake thinking I was at work and needed to get different things for customers.

[@raizo-ftw]

you got PTSD from working at a movie theater lmaooo

[@ScheveSneeuwSchuifSchep]

I used to work in a callcenter, during my first few weeks of working there I would often scare myself awake when I almost fell asleep thinking I had to alter customer´s data or preferences in the system

[@Oceaniac]

I work at a movie theatre right now......

[@icarlyIV]

Yeah, I think everyone gets that when they first start work. I had it too for like the first year I was at my high school job. best way to reduce it is to rest for a couple hours before bed if you can.

[@Cutesticles]

Then you are thankful you woke up and wake up again, then you know you can't trust reality and wake up again..

[@plazamm]

I had exploding head syndrome twice. I was only just going to sleep (I must of already been dozing off) when I heard a loud explosion from outside. I this made me panic and look out my window to look for smoke or other signs of a bomb or gunshot. To add on to my paranoia, the sky was a dark red. (I don't know why) because I was so sleep deprived, I thought that WWIII had started and I just thought "welp, this is going to happen" and crawled back into bed.

[@CenturyOakWindStar]

Hahaha! Your reaction is hilarious! "f**k this, I'm going back to bed. WW3 can wait until tomorrow morning. Zzz.."

[@Vysair]

I mean considering the tension with two big idiot superpower and a few clown that get caught in between, ww3 is very plausible scenario to think off when you heard an explosion

[@meganschubert6108]

I get exploding head syndrome multiple times a night

[@19thratytt]

Happened to me but I i was drifting off and it sounded like someone clapped in my face and I jump up heart racing and I don’t see a damn thing and then my brains like “ probably some demons” which made it worse but I lived and nice to finally figure out the heck happened that night

[@Anjalena]

I'm wondering if I have exploding head syndrome because this happens to me regularly. Sounds like somebody's banging really loud. Usually it's once when it's the loudest. You wake up instantly and terrified, heart pounding. It happened to me last night but I had three loud bangs. Since it usually only happens once, I thought well maybe somebody was banging on the door. So while panting from being terrified, I start hollering at the door for someone to come in. At like 4 in the morning. Of course nobody was there.

[@seersha265]

I often hear different people say/call my name over and over when I'm falling asleep

[@lissas8984]

Seersha Bickerstaff I was just about to comment this! It used to wake me up because some of them were so loud I thought they were real! Anxiety inducing for sure

[@tardwrangler]

And you go like “YEAH?!” I swear I’m not going schizo

[@wms72]

It's souls in Purgatory asking for prayer.

[@aayonce4]

@@wms72 forreal? Thats spooky but intriguing

[@somethingwithbungalows]

Aaronix4 that’s a catholic belief, I think.

[@CheeseBae]

I'm glad someone is talking about this finally. The vast majority of paranormal experiences while lying in bed can be chalked up to this.

[@ThousandStars1000]

Who else gets random words in their head just before they go to sleep?

[@stevefrench198]

10,000 subs no videos challenge me!

[@emlynmccann4053]

Yeah last night i got the word homogenous in my head, i dont even know what it means

[@veronicagorosito187]

Alll the time! and very random unconnected crazy thougths lol when I realize what I was thinking, I laugh, and try to sleep seriously, no jokes allowed xD

[@david09baz]

I do when falling asleep

[@MosukaDreamer]

me too! They are auditory. I think it might be how much caffeine I drink.

[@snaaail]

I’ve had exploding head syndrome for awhile but recently I’ve been hearing loud shouts instead of just explosions. I’m pretty sure nobody is actually shouting at me but I’ve never heard of that happening before

[@sajaznam]

i used to have that when i was a kid! but only when i got fever. i remember, at first i would dream that a room is getting bigger or smaller really fast, then someone shouting, getting louder and then i would wake up. same dream for few yeard. it didn't happen in a while, but i'm often in that "limbo" before falling to sleep. i just connected it with my anxiety, dunno why :D

[@snappleandcats2209]

I've had exploding head syndrome my whole life and occasionally the sounds have been shouts or even screams.

[@snaaail]

Good to hear, I don’t get scared by the noises anymore but this was just a little surprising

[@sajaznam]

yeah, same. you get used to, i suppose

[@Odood19]

One time I heard a most loud and dreadful guitar riff as I was drifting asleep. It was so loud it hit me like a wave in a storm, and I lept out of bed before I was fully aware there was no guitar.

[@lilmatt1914]

used to play gta alot, i would hear police sirens before falling asleep after a long night of gta

[@firstyeet1527]

Bruh same

[@electronium6378]

thats the tetris effect lmao

[@lilmatt1914]

@@electronium6378 holy crap thats exactly what it was lol

[@Gruximillian]

When I was a student at the college and preparing a math exam, while I was falling to sleep I started doing integral calculus using people instead of variables/functions. It made so sense while I was in that state!!! :D

[@anja.kuhelj]

Same for me! I studied once very hard for a math exam. Next morning I wake up, go to the door, open it, multipy it by cos(x) and then continue to the toilet. Only there I realised I actually did something weird on my way.

[@EtherealMass]

Oh! That happened to me too when I was studying math. I remember one time trying to find the derivative of my sister and other people as if they were fuctions, while I was in this state of sleep.

[@nasirdjedi8962]

Nonsense always makes sense in dreams like “ohhh that’s right, my hamburger ventilator is a very nice potato”

[@obattlefail]

i used to have that all the time when i was first learning calculus, for multiple nights after long hours of studying i would dream of solving equations all night long, i dont think most of them made much sense, sometimes there werent even numbers or functions

[@BubbleGumPinkHair1]

I've had hypnagogic hallucinations for a long time, but I only recently learned they were an actual thing in the last few years. I've always described mine as "dreaming while I'm awake". I only get them when I've woken up in the middle of the night and am sick, usually nauseous, and I'm trapped in a distressing and repetitive hallucination for a couple minutes until I can realize what's happening and get out of bed. Throughout the hallucination I'll be half conscious, trying to fall asleep, trying to convince myself what's happening isn't real, and tossing and turning.

[@LadyTanyaNY]

Lur - Same here!

[@Seannplanet43]

I hear like weird zombie noises and it’s like two day after Halloween which is kinda weird and this is the first time it’s ever happened to me

[@erikagayle8368]

This happens to me every time I have illness

[@andreigeorgescu]

How did you get rid of them? I am curently experiencing the same thing for 3 weeks already

[@rwjensn]

Hey, I have the same thing sometimes. For me I've had it if there have been little sleep, much caffeine or alcohol in the past days. I used to see alot of spiders, I would wake up seeing spiders crawling on the wall next to the bed. But I have seen faces or people through the door gap.

[@Master_Therion]

Recently, I was falling asleep and hallucinated that a horse was in the hallway. Was that hypnagogia or a... nightmare?

[@mikerich32]

Master Therion Lol night MARE! because a mare is a female horse 😂

[@schadenfreudebuddha]

just don't light incense and eat peppermints before bed, or you'll end up with a hand full of strawberry jam when your alarm goes off.

[@Ballout.tp3]

Master Therion that was real my friend.

[@Noodlepony]

Master Therion that was a horse

[@lt.tactical7917]

Idk but i only have weird dreams wich are mixes of everything and very trippy

[@timvangerwen470]

Legend says he's still rapping 4:26

[@f7744dread388]

Bars 🔥🔥🔥

[@MP-lc2jd]

The new Eminem lol

[@xxxtrddy]

@@MP-lc2jd he low key did sound like Eminem there.

[@whaddafuque]

Lmao

[@quoiquand2888]

Omg I get those hypnic jerks all the time and it’s so annoying because then I have to restart my sleep process >:[

[@galbatorixhacks6481]

You know that feeling when you trip and fall and a jolt of adrenaline shocks you at first ? Ive felt that while falling asleep , usually half my body twitches/jumps for a moment

[@intriguedhistorian1171]

Yeah, I'll twitch for a sec right before I wake up sometimes.

[@glacialimpala]

Yeah it happens when you dream about tripping or falling but your brain hasn't released the paralysis chems yet

[@kellyalves756]

I got that last night. I had a mini “ dream” that I stepped off a street corner and jarred myself. I woke up just to catch myself shifting my head from an awkward position to right off the edge of the pillow.

[@kellyalves756]

Normal, but it still pisses me off. Stop interrupting my hard earned sleep , biomechanical impulses.

[@parkerjeans5777]

Not adrenalin but I get what your saying

[@esk9889]

a few years ago i was in physics class hallucinating that i was in inception falling off of a building and literally fell back, jumped up from my seat while throwing my textbook and papers off of my table. my teacher was in the middle of his lecture so the room was dead quiet lmao

[@ilikeyoutube836]

My husband had episodes like that in college. Turned out he was having seizures

[@samwake7987]

one time while being extremely tired i thought my door was a god that would dress me

[@avedic]

lol....nothing weird about that. o__o

[@douaa1934]

Once i was really tired in class and i heard a techer passing by say "it'sa me-" in a very mario-ish accent.

[@Francis-xh2hd]

Is this real? 😂👌

[@PeggyB47]

ITS ME MARIO

[@xyz7572]

I don't experience hypnagogic states of mind, but sometimes hypnopompic ones - when you're about to wake up. I often think I'm at a different place from where I actually am (I might think I'm in other bedrooms; like the one I slept in at my grandparents' house when I was little, or the guest room in the house of a friend I haven't met in years), that I'm a different person (like, I'm in an alternative reality where I'm a knight or a dragonslayer or a princess), that I'm in the middle of doing something (I might think I'm hiding in a shed from assassins, and that I have to be absolutely quiet and lie completely still) etc. It only lasts for a few minutes at most, but it always leaves me with a sense of loss. It's a bit like losing yourself, because you lose the person you for just a short while thought you were.

[@droptopmars3998]

Jozie Charles i have experienced most of that too

[@Kelly_C]

the other day when my mom woke me up I kept tell her I needed a pen and paper, because I was convinced that writing something down was a normal, necessary part of getting out of bed

[@blubber608]

I get something similar except i wake up and see spiders (or other insects), so i immediately jump out of bed and after a few minutes i realise its not real and my adrenaline stops pumping

[@TheYodaman22]

Jozie Charles, do you ever get those dreams in a dream things? I do, I realise I’m in a dream, so I try to wake up, and when I do I soon realise I’m in another dream, so I try to wake up and then I usually wake up in real life.

[@seqka711]

In my dreams I'm usually someone else, and often times, when I wake up, I still think I'm that person. And when I realize it's me again and that person I thought I was wasn't real, I get melancholy... I thought I was the only who got this. I'm definitely researching hypnopompic behaviour now.

[@fka-Kaya]

This channel got one of the nicest comment sections I've ever encountered! Not a single stupid or mean comment. 💚

[@sladechan368]

Either that, or we aren't triggered.

[@JAOResnik]

Scrolled down 3 comments and found one that literally says "I jerk off before sleep" 😂

[@slappy8941]

@@JAOResnik And your point is...?

[@gunargundarson1626]

@@slappy8941 comments were filtered out to include non-offensive comments first, but not in this case

[@Argonak1]

This is a place of science, not barbarism.

[@novvakx2501]

When I closed my eyes I felt like going to bed I opened my eyes and I seen floating headphones in the dark and my heart dropped. It scared the crap out of me

[@aceiam4370]

I see floating objects shapes of which, are unknown... Literary hard to tell which shape those could be.

[@pecfexfextus4437]

i've experienced my brain trying to attach semantical meaning to music as i was falling asleep multiple times in fact. melodies started to feel as if they were words and it was like someone asking me questions and it felt like they had meaning.

[@sesseljabs964]

I get hypnic jerks often, I 'dream' that I'm walking and then i trip and my whole body twitches...it's really weird

[@nasirdjedi8962]

Same thing happened to me but shitting the bed was my hypnagogic reaction to tripping

[@HN-kr1nf]

i feel like as i'm about to drift off, the foot end of my bed feels like it's tilting to the floor and i jerk awake

[@-Zer0Dark-]

@@HN-kr1nf I get that too. A lot. Either the belt tilts and I'm falling off, or suddenly I'm falling off a building and I wake up.

[@rustbucket5238]

Happens too, same and relatable. I jerk awake whenever I trip in my dream

[@deenorman3734]

Sesselja BS ME TOO

[@spoonikle]

Yea... I felt some weird stuff after binge playing an MMO, I was half asleep and was wondering where all my spells went.

[@remuj6457]

spoonikle praise this man

[@petuniaolgapicklewrinkle3441]

LMAOOOOOOO

[@MauroTamm]

Or you play, get extra sleepy and keep on playing just to suddenly wake up and realise you are already dead.

[@GraveUypo]

hah, i once tried to alt-tab out of a dream. seriously.

[@spoonikle]

GraveUypo - Stopped to get a snack and tried to pull up my crafting menu.

[@punchek]

I like this state, especially when I'm really tired. I have vivid visuals, like animations, and sometimes hear music, constantly changing symphony. It's awesome.

[@2010waslit]

Sometimes it’s really creepy and most of the time when that happen my body is paralyzed and I can’t move.

[@Peregrina]

I've had these dreams/illusions when I'm off to bed were it feels like I'm awake and I'm aware of my surroundings. It can be either whisperings voices, footsteps or things changing or moving. If I see a poster all of the details could warp and look more sinister. If I looked at my curtains they were slowly moving. Small objects on the floor could move ever so slightly. Some hallucinations wasn't visual or optical...more like I could sense something was watching me or I imagined that things showed up like hatches in the ceiling. As a kid it happened a lot and I was often terrified because I didn't understand what it was. I was often sweating and my heartbeat was so fast. Sometimes it felt like my bed was shaking or I was going to fell off my bed. I believed there were spiders or dark shadows moving around. I could move around freely and even leave my bed. Because of the stress I could be really scared of gong to sleep. Besides the hallucinations I was also a sleep walker and I talk in my sleep as well. Today these dreams are not as frequent or extreme but it happens and I'm a lot calmer about it now. It often helps to turn the light on- I also know that this happens when I'm stressed about something or have been sleeping badly for some time.

[@6Twisted]

I used to hear a buzzing noise while falling asleep that would get louder and louder until it was deafening and I'd see a black dot surrounded by white that would get bigger as the sound got louder. I also sometimes lose my spatial awareness while falling asleep and I feel like everything is really far away. The most recent hallucination I had was while waking up I saw a giant spider leg on my duvet and spent the next hour looking for a tarantula in my room. Brains do weird things while they're shutting down...

[@rabbitpiet7182]

6Twisted I had a nightmare about bees woke up and sure enough a whole swarm of them were in my room.

[@Sage03]

ME TOO!

[@gilgameshtheimmortal369]

Tactile hallucinations are my favorite. Feels like k holing when your not sure wether your arm is 3 inches away from you or 3 meters away

[@jejcnsjdndjskdjrn8329]

6Twisted I havent heard bussing but I have felt like everything is far away. It’s really weird. I’ve heard someone talking and another time I saw a person walking down a road and suddenly realized I was in bed.

[@rwjensn]

One time I fell asleep on the coach watching tv, woke up looking through the living room and in to the hallway. Remembering thinking, damn my apartment is big 😅.

[@A_Dopamine_Molecule]

When I fall asleep my braim seems to produce random words... Like I am having an internal monologue but all of the words are scrambled. hl Has anyone else had that happen, especially if they are not extremely tired but are trying to sleep?

[@whatamidoingwithmylife9355]

Finally I do not feel alone

[@jacpowerz4840]

Omg thank god I thought I was hearing voices 😂😂😂😂

[@jacpowerz4840]

But it’s like my brain just says random words when I’m tired

[@somethingwithbungalows]

My mind will make stories that I find interesting sometimes lol.

[@noracola5285]

Not random words for me; usually mean, angry or nagging remarks & not necessarily directed at me but seemingly overheard. Most of the time I can't tell what they're saying tho

[@Eainai]

Mine usually include me seeing knitted tentacles rubbing on a metal pole against a pastel background, while still being partially aware that I was falling asleep. It happens so often that I'm not even bothered by the... strange image anymore.

[@winycentaur2540]

Lmao I read this as “knitted testicles” and I was horrified for a second

[@mic383]

This is such an incredible explanation of all my experiences!! I have a bunch of “mini dreams” before I’m about to fall asleep. I experience this a lot when I’m trying to wake up but still super tired. I have an exploding head syndrome episode about once a week, and occasionally have short auditory hallucinations. The most recent one was a deep voice going “mm-hm” and it sounded so real I jumped up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I don’t know if it’s connected or related, but I’m also prone to lucid dreaming. I’ve never really tried to lucid dream, it just comes to me naturally. I remember my dreams almost every night too. I also experience “brain zaps” which is usually related to drug addiction, but definitely not addicted to anything lol, other than maybe caffeine. Either way, brain zaps feel very similar to exploding head syndrome experiences. Just my two-cents and experiences. Thank you for the video 😊

[@eviehoff7122]

I sometimes experience a waterbed-like sensation, it feels like I have turned to goo and someone is gently waving my body up and down. Kinda weird but this explains it!

[@MosukaDreamer]

Alex Hoffman I have had that too but always after a swim.

[@bohaywood7733]

this happens to me if i was on a boat or swimming earlier that day. its like youre floating on the waves almost. i fond it a little spooky but also kinda relaxing. maybe i should get a waterbed... lol

[@9977DAN]

Same thing happens to me

[@360.Tapestry]

i only get this way thru guided meditation/relaxation routines

[@morpheus_circuit]

Zoe Haywood same thing happens to me

[@motjon]

I keep hearing people running through my house, and entering my home. I once heard my dad calling my name, (I don't live with him.) And recently I heard someone screaming for help.

[@ohboy1113]

Bruh. Bruh. Bruh. I literally hallucinated this word when falling asleep just now.

[@darthsonic2114]

wait that happened to me once

[@ultraviolet119]

Whenever I get “hypnic jerks,” they are always on my right foot, they always involve me dreaming that my foot is slowly slipping off whatever surface my brain imagines I’m on, and they always startle me awake every time without fail. It’s happened so often that some part of my brain is actually able to anticipate when it’s about to occur again, but it still startles me even though my brain expects it. Weird

[@MayberryRebel]

When I was a little kid, I'd have this when I was woken up rather than when falling asleep. I'd always see the same thing: Flamingos. I have no idea why; stopped when I was about 12.

[@iCukieBear]

All I know is I didn’t get my full motherf*ckn sleep and I work the next morning

[@RainbowMama143]

One time, I fell into this state while taking notes in class. I remember my teacher turning into a cow, udders and all. Later, when I reviewed my notes from that time, this is what I found: ~~~ ~~ milk ~~~ 😂

[@color4795]

XDDD

[@rowynnecrowley1689]

I don't believe you.

[@enettehatchway9551]

@@rowynnecrowley1689 Well it sounds believable 🤷 But whatever floats your boat

[@CrazyLeopard128]

😂

[@statueofliberty1132]

m i l k i guess you were thirsty

[@DavidConnerCodeaholic]

this is always a personal favorite for entering a "trance state"

[@dollop1595]

I sometimes think my bed is constantly spinning around while I‘m in it. I know it isn‘t moving but this feeling only goes away when I move my Head .-.

[@SickleRose]

I have the same thing. My doctor thinks its benign positional vertigo.

[@dollop1595]

Sitting on Ceilings it makes me rather dizzy or even nauseous

[@mahmudchariev2456]

Your blood flow in your neck might be disturbed, so try to lay in a better positions.

[@beaub152]

Dollop 159 when that happens i dont want it to stop because it feels so good....... :)

[@danagibbs3265]

Sometimes i get a faint dizzyness like it feels like im moving slightly and when i open my eyes i can see the wall moving. The only way to stop it is to move position

[@veronicagorosito187]

I think hypnic jerks are caused by stress. I had them when I'm on an emotional struggle and burning on anxiety.

[@shanleyshoupe7873]

I usually get them shortly after being reminded they exist lmao

[@SuperCherry3000]

It's really interesting to read other people's experiences with hypnagogia! Strangely, I tend to get auditory hypnagogic hallucinations when I'm stressed. One time during exam season in high school I was home alone, drifting off and heard my door slam excruciatingly loudly, I then looked up to see it was ajar as I always left it. I was so so scared lol. I also go through stages of waking up having been holding my breath (seemingly during the hypnagogic stage), my body wakes me up and I'm fighting for breath. Fun! But I will also occasionally hear close friends or family members reciting nonsensical phrases and I wake up laughing because they come out with really dumb stuff. So it's not all bad 😅

[@kelligirl1210]

Same! It’s so weird that it feels soo real!!

[@niloowel3564]

I'm a very spiritual person and Im positive that I lucid dream and can enter different realms in dream state. I can remember most of my dreams and what I do in them, I can wake myself up when I feel in danger in a dream and fall right back asleep in a different scenario because of wanting to leave the previous dream. When moments like that happen, it is scary but knowing that it was just a dream calms me... Or was it just? I've been researching a lot about lucid dreams and the hypnic jerks, sleep hallucinations, etc. And ppl can't seem to explain why this stuff happens. I believe its all connected to spirits, angels, demons, and whatever else comes to mind. I'm writing this now because I just experienced a jolted push directly on my forehead right before falling asleep/almost mid sleep and when I opened my eyes, there was something in my closet with green or red eyes/marks watching me in the dark. I hid under my blanket after looking for a few seconds and turned on my lamp. I can still picture it in my head, at this point I'm so used to these feelings that I don't get any reactions from myself. I dream about people aswell and being in crowds, interacting and having full on conversations. When I think about it, I look at myself in a mirror in dreams sometimes and I'm always a different person, or being. There are times where I would be so close to the ground, feel like I'm walking on all fours and even going through walls, flying and watching others from that realm. Who knows, maybe it was my dream self in the closet, lol. Theres a lot more I could add about my experience about sleep, spiritual awakenings and lucid dreams. I just wanted to put my little bit out because I think it's kind of cool to see and experience such things that our minds can't quite process.

[@chasetuttle2121]

Are we hallucinating when we fall asleep or do we start hallucinating once we wake up..

[@fullofawesomeness123]

those are two different types of sleep hallucinations. experiencing hallucinations while waking up is called hypnopompia.

[@aesonone]

@jordana0 that's a sweet term i'm stealing it

[@saila-5828]

woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[@danagibbs3265]

jordana0 I think they were asking if this is real life or if our dreams are real life

[@dust7962]

chase tuttle Actually you don't see anything, you see the light reflected and hear/feel atoms being vibrated :).

[@tonypee3465]

now please talk about lucid dream

[@slopcrusher3482]

Buri Buri Zaemon you wake up, but your brain still thinks your sleeping, so your brain still doesn't allow you to move ( body locks up when sleeping so you don't act out dreams) and your brain is still sort of pumping the hallucinogen, it's a very creepy experience

[@tonypee3465]

that's not lucid dreaming, that's sleep paralysis, one of many way to get into lucid dream.

[@nickmangaroo]

I've had that only once and not for long, I can tell you that it felt amazing, only way to describe it is freedom.

[@hectorvega621]

@@slopcrusher3482 funny I had a dream, so I was like this is a dream. Out of random my whole body was trying to freeze up, like a sleep paralysis ( which I have gotten from time to time), although something like this never happened to me, everything turn dark, until I woke up and got out of the paralysis part, but my hands and feet felt like needles pressured on them. All I can say is. How do you get a Lucid dream? I'm always aware of my dreams, and even question what was that, but never do I have full control, unless I'm running from something.

[@hectorvega621]

@@Ivanastico Wait you're telling me, I might have had Lucid dreaming, because I do feel it being real, but the only control I have is running, and that's all.

[@rikustorm13]

I usually hear music in this "falling asleep" state

[@jakeso7737]

Same and when waking up

[@rikustorm13]

Pablo Pachino Right?

[@jakeso7737]

Nic Anastasi nice tip I’ve learned... and it’s going to sound crazy say out loud ‘shut up’ or something like ‘be quiet I’m trying to sleep.’ It’s works like a charm let me know how it goes 😎

[@rikustorm13]

Pablo Pachino Ok, I’ll try it

[@curiousnerdkitteh]

So glad I found out about this! So many people didn't believe me when I said I was having hallucinations before I slept and they definitely weren't dreams and I wasn't asleep!

[@MrShadowcast]

Well crap, I have exploding head syndrome. It doesn't happen often, but I hear bangs and a flash of light (at the same time). Also if, say, my cat knocks something down and makes a noise, there will be a flash of light.

[@lagduck2209]

Exactly what I feel lot of times when falling aspleep. Also hipnyc jerks are common thing, sometimes I just twitch wildly, for no reason, like sudden sneeze; sometimes I feel like falling and then twich out just to find out that I'm already lying, not falling - so wild mindfuck sense. (But I kinda got used to It and it never bothers me, I find it kinda entertaining actually)

[@wawan8759]

Yeah same, every sudden loud sound will produce a soft flash in my eyes. And that help me to detect if somebody is breaking in to my room

[@amberhicks6546]

This is a huge issue for me this and sleep pralisis.

[@StrohmaniasFlyingCircus]

If I don't review what my dreams were about just after I wake I can't remember what they were about later. :- /

[@d.n.3652]

Strohmann I usually remember my dreams from last night right before I fall asleep for some reason

[@MrCount84]

Strohmann That is because that memory part of the brain is asleep so it is difficult to remember.

[@fka-Kaya]

If u want to remember your dreams better, write them down right when you awake or record a voicememo. If you do that for a while u will be able to remember them a lot easier and eventually even remember several different dreams per night!

[@danagibbs3265]

I almost always remember my dreams without even writing them down, but writing them helps to remember more details

[@justingasparino9204]

Strohmann you're kinda lucky last night I dreamt about my dad dying right in front of me in detail. I guess I'm prepared now

[@Fuzzycuffsqt]

Definitely had a conversation with Spider-Man as a kid that I attribute to this phenomenon. It's possible he was actually in my bedroom but I have my doubts.

[@somethingwithbungalows]

Don’t look under your bed

[@dougfowler1368]

​@@somethingwithbungalowsthis reminds me of this series of jokes I've done with my nieces and nephews about signaling for Spider-Man just like you signal for Batman, except you use cobwebs.

[@autumnames393]

Once when I was falling asleep I heard a woman scream in my ear. Felt her breath in my ear and felt the pain in her voice. No one was there and it hadn’t happened before or since..

[@ChesuMori]

I've had so many weird experiences with hypnagogia. It always involves patterns and obsessively carrying out some weird task. It usually happens when I'm sick or sleeping in, and I'll return to the same "dream" of this activity again and again and I fade in and out of sleep.

[@BubbleGumPinkHair1]

I'm so glad someone else experiences what I do! Mine are always repetitive tasks that are distressing for me and I always get them when I'm sick. I'll try to tell myself over and over that I'm in my bed, and I'm not actually doing what I think I'm doing, but I end up being pulled back under into sleep.

[@IgniteSlickGamer]

That's exactly what I get, often times I'm back at work and it will be me fading in and out all the same haha

[@wagilini9723]

yeah, when i sleep in and i wake up, i can almost always return to the same dream if i feel like it

[@EchoInTheKettle]

Ohhhh it's an absolute joy to have nightmares during these. It's like sleep paralysis but you can move and "touch" the hallucinations. Would definitely wish this on my worst enemy. Edit. Probably hypnopompic, though.

[@gilgameshtheimmortal369]

I think that shits fun honestly. I love being paralyzed while seeing sharp jagged demonic seeming shadows on the ceiling and walls. Or believing I'm being chased by people or animals that are trying to hurt and eat me for sustenance, in the woods. Anything that's not my usual day to day reality honestly haha

[@robofern2462]

This morning I woke up to a monster staring at me from the edge of my bedroom. Im used to seeing weird things at night so I just turned on the lights for that area since hallucinations fo me wont appear in the light.

[@MnemonicHeadTrip]

Christian Dodd You love the hallucinations from sleep paralysis? Boy do I have a drug for you... diphenhydramine/benadryl

[@shadesilverwing0]

Once while falling asleep experienced sleep paralysis along with an intense burning sensation on my right ear and a voice growling something in some made up language. Vision went completely red too. It took months before I felt comfortable falling asleep without my ears covered up with a blanket or pillow.

[@jackcomeaux2280]

Wow guys it's the portal or jumping off point for out of body experience. Take a breath enjoy the experience. Just go easy on that cosmic sex.

[@LightStrikerQc]

"Why We Hallucinate While Falling Asleep" ... we do?

[@roelgianarellano9057]

same can anyone eplain why?😟

[@MnemonicHeadTrip]

The video

[@Marcos-yv1rn]

@@koenigsforst_ he is stupid af

[@ramy701]

Same

[@avedic]

@@Marcos-yv1rn jesus man...a bit harsh lol?

[@AliceDiableaux]

I find this really interesting because I've only been having this since about a year or so. What makes it interesting is that it started around the time I found out about aphantasia and that I have that. Maybe it's because I was thinking about it a lot at the time, but I noticed for the first time that when falling asleep, I'd see these really real and vivid snippets of images. Like, REALLY SEE them, like I imagine normal people without aphantasia can conjure images in their mind's eye all the time. It was a really surreal experience, and ever since, when I get hypnagogic images when falling asleep, I actually really enjoy and treasure it because it's the only time when I'm still (mostly) conscious and able to see clear images.

[@CoriSparx]

For some weird reason most of my hypnagogic hallucinations tend to be auditory rather than visual; usually they come as musical pieces I've never heard before in my life, yet sound better than most melodies I can come up with while conscious. Some time ago, I had one of these where I saw some kind of purple haze amidst some kind of... floating... lake-like thing, and some voices chanting in some strange language: _"A tei'i vestu va las kis,_ _A tei'i vestu so lanis,_ _A tei'i vestu va les ki aterra..."_ Of course, I realized I just HAD to use this in some of my art, like one of my fantasy stories or something, so I almost instantly started awake out of bed and rushed to my phone to make a recording of the "song"... I eventually made another recording of it that sounds more like the one I heard in my sleep... XD (It's here if you're curious:) soundcloud.com/corisparks/the-antikythera-machine-vocal-demo

[@rohitchaoji]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has experienced surreal hypnagogic music that sounds better than real life. And the best part is that it always feel like you can "conduct" where it goes.

[@Dubtrokuted]

Damn, that's crazy!

[@360.Tapestry]

definitely sounds like primitive music phrases i dream about, too - unfortunately, i'm not musically trained

[@nemtudom5074]

Ehh, i think cthulhu is just calling you-

[@Hakajin]

Interesting! Those lyrics look Latin. My translations skills are really rusty, but... Of course, living in a Western culture, we do expect chants to sound Latin. I once had an experience where, I'd been playing The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker late at night, and I could still faintly hear the music after I'd turned it off. Also, once in a rare while, I'll have dreams where I'm composing and conducting music. It's not eerie like that, though: it's the most beautiful and moving music I've ever heard; I get completely swept up in it, and it feels like... Like I'm connecting with something divine; it's very spiritual. Of course, I can never remember the music when I wake up. I wonder... I wonder if there's any connection to the way I'm often much more emotional in dreams? Like, when my dad died in real life... It was hard, but I think I held it together pretty well; in fact, it was harder in the next few days. But in my dreams about it (both after and long, long before it happened in real life), I absolutely fall to pieces. Also... once in a rare while, I'll have a dream that feels hyper-real, where my waking life is the dream, and I know that even when I wake up, I can't escape the dystopian real reality. Like in The Matrix. These tend to stick with me for an hour or so after I wake up. Lucky for me that they're always different, or I'd really be freaked out about it. The reason I mention that is, if the emotional brain is especially active during dreaming... It makes me think that there must be a part of the brain that creates feelings of reality that can get switched on, too.

[@by9917]

Exploding head syndrome to me has been more like the loud snap of a huge static discharge. Maybe it's he perceived flash of light that makes me think that. I even think I can sense the build up of charge like what might happen in a real static discharge. It only takes a split second. That's closest real life example I can think of.

[@inawoodenhouse]

I think I experience something similar, it's not quite an explosion or gunshot but sounds like very loud static?

[@OozoTheClown]

I commented above on my experience and your description seems most similar to what I've felt.

[@moogsi]

I have the same thing and I'm really curious about what certain kinds of seizures feel like. Like i would describe the snap of the noise as having a 'flash' but I'm not even sure if it's light that I'm seeing. That you said 'perceived' made me think of that. I find the sound totally indescribable, but static discharge is a good analogy cos you feel it in multiple ways.

[@sc0608023]

Wow. My situation is eerily similar to yours. A static discharge exactly. For me, as I hear the sound, I always see an image for a split of a second as well. The images are always black and white, and also very disturbing.

[@RainAngel111]

Yeah I experience kind of a similar thing. Like a static pop noise, but really loud. I also have the flash of light thing

[@mmilcz833]

I have audible hallucinations sometimes but never visual. I also have some strange unorganized inner monologue where I can’t control it but I recognize it as thoughts.

[@cellogirl11rw55]

I've struggled with sleep since I experienced the onset of Bipolar Disorder about 5 years ago. I get the hypnic jerks and Exploding Head Syndrome all the time, as well as occasional episodes of sleep paralysis and sleep walking. These episodes tend to happen more when I am anxious, manic/hypomanic, am falling asleep, or am aroused in the middle of a dream. I learned to deal with these things by teaching myself the practice of lucid dreaming through the help of Jody Whitely's KZbin videos. Now, whenever they happen, I am able to observe them with a detached interest and wake myself up if they become too frightening.

[@edenmusic8759]

How old are you?

[@rebeccawest3608]

Same after my severe manic episode which led to my bipolar diagnosis I started having more hallucinations before I go to bed and after, and occasionally I'll have hallucination in the middle which is sleep paralysis. I went to the doctor and they asked if I heard any explosions or high-pitched noises and I said yes and they said that's a sign of exploding head syndrome, with further testing and monitoring the doctors found that I actually suffer from nocturnal seizures, which can be deadly.

[@tessaroo4959]

I've had this every night since I was a kid and it keeps me from sleeping and I end up jerking myself awake because i hallucinate something scary, I'll see faces, figures, or hear creepy sounds. It keeps me from wanting to sleep because as soon as I relax my brain trips itself out with imagery and sensations and sounds that don't make me feel safe. It's quite unnerving and it's probably the reason why I still have suspension of disbelief in things like monsters or supernatural beings because they feel so damn real to me. Very rarely do I get to skip this part of sleep and I hate it. Most of the time it's watered down or non exisistant is when I have someone with me because then I'm less on guard from the get go. But it still sucks regardless and I can barely sleep in my own room.

[@lunarsugar]

Tessa Coburn have you ever tried diffusing essential oils? Skip the crap marketing and try something from Rocky Mountain Oils online. Try sandalwood and Dreamtime.

[@tessaroo4959]

biscuitsnippet thanks ill check it out since I haven't tried it. It'd be pretty cool if it worked out.

[@lunarsugar]

Please comment back here if it does help. I'd love to know. Also, my name is Tessa too, so I felt like I had to try to help!

[@gregjones9479]

It could be sleep paralysis , especially if it happens just before you fall asleep or just after you wake up. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

[@tessaroo4959]

greg jones I've always been able to move though. Usually I have to, to get up and turn on the lights to check my room and make sure my room isn't full of the creepy things I saw, felt or heard. Although it does seem to have some similarities to my situation it definitely feels more like hallucinating than anything because as soon as I blink take a few breaths and turn on the lights it's gone and I turn the lights off and try to sleep again and it's back. It's always right as I relax, I get so close to falling fully asleep and as soon as I'm on the brink my body golts awake, feels something near me, hears a sound or peers around for a second and sees something out of either nothing or things already in my room that my brain turns into one creepy thing.

[@homicidalmuffin9063]

The whole "feels like you're falling" happens almost every time I try to sleep

[@gost4995]

I go through this every night. It's satisfying to know what's happening finally. It's actually quite trippy. They're usually over as soon as they start.

[@laurasalo6160]

I am not diagnosed schizophrenic or psychotic. I am 41 yrs old with no history of voices, hallucinations etc prior to these hallucinations which began a decade ago with sleep paralysis and has evolved into whatever is going on currently and for the last year or two. I hallucinate as I'm going to sleep but its almost always when I'm really really tired AND it occurs most frequently when I fall asleep on my back. I also have auditory hallucinations, like right now, where i hear a holy choir (singing those haunting songs without lyrics, just sounds). I often hear demons too, as tho somewhere a hatch to hell is opened and I can hear them down there. The sounds occur when I'm fully awake only, and can be at anytime. When falling asleep, I often feel like I'm falling downward thru the bed, and thru the earth, or floating around the room/house or being whipped around the room by my feet(??) by the demon that comes for me. I also see visions: grids, numbers, letters, nonsensical and repetative cartoon images and entire realistic everday scenes. I twitch very aggressively, feel like my brain is being electrocuted and i am frequently visited and touched by a demon that's trying to take me to hell. I dont see the demon tho (I only saw him in my mind's eye once), I only sense evil(??), feel or hear him, and it is always the same demon coming back for me. It's very disturbing, even as an atheist. The other night I tried to encourage myself to have a vision and I actually did. It was a cartoonist animated creatures scene. I'm gonna try to see a other vision as I take a nap right now.

[@ArkaidDeims]

I have the head exploding thingie once every few months or so. It's spooky, but never really bothered me. Thanks SciShow. I learned something about myself today!

[@ziyaat]

Arkaid D too

[@Ardenmoth]

I have it when I have a fever or because my body went through extreme exercise and that’s why I fell asleep in the first place

[@lutyanoalves444]

me too

[@jaelyntillman8368]

One time I thought I saw a leprechaun in my bushes before falling asleep

[@TeamOP2012]

Me, an Intellectual Getting blown by a ginger, were we?

[@jaelyntillman8368]

TeamOP2012 I wish

[@TeamOP2012]

Me, an Intellectual It's erm... Overrated.

[@MrWalksindarkness]

who all seen a leprechaun say "YEAHHHHHH!"

[@emlynmccann4053]

Wait, you have more than one bush, i only have one vag1na

[@HoneyballLP]

Wow... thats the name for this weird stuff... O_O Good to know. I have that stupid flash of light, my heart starts beating extreme, I fall feeling... I can hear someone saying my name, if I had a noise day, with many people chatting around me, I hear them before I sleep, I play the games I plays before I sleep or even see everything like the movie I watched before (movement, 3D animation, frames, artstyles) ... every damn night. I am used to it, but if I am stressed, it is... really... annoying. Also, sometimes, if I wake up in the night, I wake up half. Like.. One part of my brain is still sleeping and I know it. It is horrible. I can't to math, I cant focus, but I know, I am awake, but I dont function the way I should. The perceive of the world is crazy and everything feels wrong. I have to hit myself, or wait long, or best, go back to sleep again... Maybe my brain is just weird... I can have a little bit of hypnagogia, if I daydream when I am tired. I then have a dream, awake, sitting, even with eyes open, with 80% control but some surprises... Thats actually very nice. Its like perfect role-play. xD

[@AlexxCloud]

This is the exact same thing that happens to me. Foreal. For the past 6 months. Every night.

[@lilitheden748]

Ever since I was a little girl I hear these voices before I fall asleep. It can be voices from people I know or not. They have always some kind of animated talk. I can’t understand them but I recognise the voices. The strange thing is that I also hear voices of people I know that are dead. Sometimes it creeps me out so badly that I can sleep anymore. I have never told this to anyone because I thought I was crazy. Well now it seems to be normal. Still I’d like to sleep without hearing voices.

[@tracewallace23]

Thank you, I've experienced more than a few of these

[@miss.apprehended]

One time rainbows streamed from Conan O'Brien's head accompanied by undistinguishable words scrolling across the tv screen while falling asleep on shrooms

[@Hugsnotdrugs8]

Wow well done guys! I'm an Electroneurodiagnostic Technologist, so I am basically an EEG expert and Sleep study(PSG) expert. This was a very good video, I even learned a little something! I never thought about how your background alpha in occipital lobes vs your frontal beta activity could correlate or somewhat explain hypnagogic hallucinations. Very interesting! It also happens as you wake up (hypnopompic). Children have something we call hypnagogic or hypnopompic hyper-synchrony where during their transition into/out of sleep they have these crazy bursts of high voltage slow activity. Sleep is very interesting and there's so much you can learn about it!

[@Hugsnotdrugs8]

We are just so rare we aren't talked about. Last I checked, there were only about 20 schools in the United States for this. We do EEG, PSG, NCS, IONM, and EP. Neurologists need us so they may see how patients' nervous systems work. You would be surprised how many jobs exist and we dont even realize it. I got into it because a school near by had a program for it. It is a two year associates degree. Techs can do so many different studies, it may seem super specialized but we have several options within our field as well. I figured if I hated it, at least I had a good paying job and only two years down the hole. But here I am at only 22 with a couple years under my belt already and absolutely love what I do.

[@georgebritten6337]

tiffany nelson I would let you sit on my face.

[@pacman8551]

I write some of my best poetry if I write the momento I wake Up

[@___LC___]

I'm lacking REM and recuperative sleep, do neurologists ever do anything and have patients return to fix this. As a child I had Alice in Wonderland Syndrome and now, as an adult I have started to experience it again, along with ME/CHF and short notice loss of consciousness. Have you ever worked with anyone with a similar condition?

[@Hugsnotdrugs8]

Well I would definitely go see a Neurologist to make sure you dont have epilepsy or something worse. AWS is super rare and I have not come across it before. But if you have CHF and sleep problems, ask any Dr to get a Sleep Study (PSG) done to make sure you dont have Sleep Apnea because that will make a huge impact if treated or not. Also during the Sleep Study they would be able to make sure you dont have anything funky happening while you sleep as well and make sure you do get sufficient REM and Stage III sleep.

[@Trustworthy_McLegitimate]

yeah... I kept seeing zerg rushes every time I closed my eyes... man I miss those days. Now, I get nightmares about productivity sheets, customer issues I cant solve... geez

[@kwazar3239]

Trustworthy McLegitimate I trust you

[@michael-k.]

I used to hallucinate when falling asleep but it wasn’t visions it was music that my brain made up

[@shadesilverwing0]

Happened to me a couple times, completely original music I hadn't heard before. I wish I knew how to write it down.

[@metalmusi]

@@shadesilverwing0 i have this happen when I sleep on nicotine patches to induce lucid dreaming.. original content all of it

[@sillaykara6245]

Same with me. I always try so hard to try to remember them but i can never get it down...

[@Loverboy82930]

One time I was having a insane dream and I knew I was awake I had a dream I was fighting this kid and in my dream I went mental and was like attacking him and I was hearing I think toy story theme song and he slammed me on my head and when he did this I felt this vibration threw out my whole body and then I woke up into sleep paralysis

[@gamecollector5232]

MAX BENOLIEL 😂

[@fuchsiafire6932]

Some months ago I had a sleep hallucination, basically I was awake curled up in my bed but with my eyes closed while feeling EXTREMELY uneasy, as I felt like i had full control of my body (I was conscious or at least felt conscious) but at the same time I knew my surroundings were off, so the first time with my eyes closed there was a extremely loud noise, I didn't want to open my eyes cause I was scared, I opened them anyways, everything was normal except for the sound but as the second I close my eyes again everything felt worse than before, this time instead of a sound there was a very loud white noise, I decided to open my eyes and I couldn't move, My bedroom had become insanely large, with minimal furniture and across everywhere (walls,furniture,everything) there was static(like the TV ones) Then, in the hallucination(idk if it was a hallucination or not) I fainted then woke up

[@Jay-kk8wd]

This has happened a few times now so I'm used to it, but while I was falling asleep, I'd hear voices. They we're indistinguishable and there were lots of them all talking at the same time. It'd get louder and louder until it basically sounded like they were screaming, but still all talking. I woke up the first time terrified, but it's happened a few times now so I just wake up and go back to sleep.

[@Francis-xh2hd]

2 weeks ago give it or take I was falling a sleep, and I was not sleeping already but I had the notion I was "dreaming" or having these so called hallucinations since I have them everyday. And usually it feels good, I mean physically and mentally when I'm on these limbos I feel like I'm the healthiest person alive. Just feels good and if I "wake up" from a noise or something I get a bad sensation in my body and I miss what I was "dreaming". Sometimes I remember it but usually I never do (I wake up a lot in these limbos since I have a fragile sense to noise at night). But anyways, 2 weeks ago I was on the limbo and I know I was dreaming with a place full of people, and I was being part of a conversation which I don't remember nothing, but suddenly I hear in the back of my right hear: "all of them" And the voice was so sweet from a woman, so real ( when I mean real I mean I felt like I had a person behind me in the real world like In my bed, like as a "ghost", so vivid I was tripping when I woke because I didn't know what to think) and so scary that i Instantly "woke up" kinda creeped out because I never experienced something so vivid like this. I mean I don't even remember noise from any of my dreams and I remember a lot of long dreams I have but no sound at all. The only sound I hear is between falling a sleep. Usually my brain makes tunes that I know I'm loving and I would love to get up and record them with my voice but I'm simply to tired. So music tunes that doesn't exist in the world and the woman voice saying "all of them" was all I heard until now. Fun fact: right after the woman says that to me in the back of my hear, I suddenly understood the subject of the dreams conversation I was on. I mean it's a feeling but I know it and the conversation was about exterminating all of those people inside the dream. (not including the group we were in) So yeah it was creppy feeling that the woman basically said to me, let's kill them all (or in this case someone asked: "who or how many?" and before that probably "who has to be killed?" which lead to the awnser "all of them" Craziest "dream" ever. Sorry for the spam guys ahaha Cumps

[@richardepps8500]

I've had this happen solo much. I'm glad I now have am understanding of it

[@donkeysareevil8026]

During my exams this year I experienced, on multiple occasions, the sensation of falling then being woken up by what I assume we're sleep jerks. It was terrifying and felt so real as I wasn't quite asleep but not awake either.

[@ayushsharma9270]

When I get sleepy, I feel like someone is talking to me, even if I am alone, can someone tell me why does that happen?

[@aranebar3410]

Ayush Sharma there are so many weird things happening when I fall asleep that also happen to others, you really shouldnt worry too much.

[@slopcrusher3482]

If you mean right before you fall asleep, it's because your brain has already started up the hallucination step of sleep, but your still awake.

[@viiiruzgd4559]

Ayush Sharma Search help

[@ghostlyle123]

Pack your bags and move

[@emmaa.2157]

This happens to me too. When I’m falling asleep sometimes I’ll hear people talking or whispering or even calling my name which usually freaks me out and causes me to jerk awake 😂

[@henryohenry1504]

wow thank you this explained so much. especially the hyptic jerk

[@yxngsellei]

I’ve always had some very slight hypnagogic hallucinations, but after trying psychedelics, they turned into something way different. Those faint colored patterns turned into visuals that I saw while on acid, and they transform into photorealistic images, along with bright flashes of light, and they naturally progress into lucid dreams almost everytime I sleep.

[@BlackCat_2]

My brother would often have the falling sensation and it was hilarious when he fell asleep in a chair while watching cable. He would jerk in response to the falling sensation and then actually fall. :p I have crazy dreams. My favorite (and recurring) one involves going into space in a silver space submarine bubble like thing and Albert Einstein is along for the ride with me. :P I also like the one where I am walking on cobblestone streets in London at night and it is raining. - Heidi

[@vinnybossman]

BlackCat2 s

[@David-uc4hc]

Those are waaaaaay better dreams than my dreams. I'm jealous

[@MicrowavedAlastair5390]

BlackCat2 my favorite dreams are the ones where Harry Potter and the basilisk from the second book show up. That's always fun.

[@Jay-ou2vz]

I only ever had recurring dreams as a child, not any more :( But I often have action dreams like two days ago I was some kind of a guerrilla fighter and I had to go ask help from some folks in their flat, but the police showed up and knocked and so the overweight mom escaped through the window but for some reason I kept sleeping on the couch until the police asked if they could come in and I screamed no and started changing clothes and then tried to escape through the window with both of my bags but I couldn't do it quickly enough and so the two police people (1 man 1 woman) came in. At that point I willed it back to the point where I was just gonna pick up my bags and changed it to pick up only one, and so I could get out quickly through the window. And outside I was on some kind of a roof so started going carefully to the left and I climbed in the next window before the police got out of the first one. Sadly, at that point my alarm went off so I've no idea wether I actually escaped. And again, I quite often have dreams like this. Actually, they're pretty exhausting.

[@BlackCat_2]

I hear you. I just woke up close to midnight from a strange dream. I was with a good friend who was very seriously telling me that things had driven them so crazy they had reinstated the affair with Sonia (who?). Then he got even more serious and said he would have to hurt me if I ever repeated what he said next... he said he killed her... WTH? Must have been because I fell asleep with Law & Order on cable. I think what is on/what I hear does influence what I dream about. I used to sit bolt upright in my sleep and talk nonsense. No idea if I still do. Sometimes I keep a digital recorder by my head that is sound activated. Haven't caught anything interesting in years though. Well I did find out I sometimes will softly snore... *blush*

[@nat-ep4ip]

when i was about 10, i remember i heard a extremely loud women scream. it felt like she was in front of my face, but of course there was nothing. the next time it happened i heard someone call my name. it felt so real. from then, it's been getting quieter and now i just hear whispers. i found out about this like 2 years ago and it all made sense. i try to evade this by staying up until i can't open my eyes and just knock out.

[@erendiraestefaniamejiacamp5897]

OMG! Thank you so much for explaining this!! I was starting to wondering if I was really hallucinating!! 😳

[@Influx27]

Thank you so much for this video. I started getting these hallucinations when I was a kid, and they've scared the crap out of me since. Starting today, I'll treat them as the brain noise they are.

[@spine2788]

in response to the first 10 or so seconds. yes, so many times. and not just with video games, but with books and tv too.

[@IvanHernandez-ge8kv]

How can people comment so fast? Did you watch the video?

[@MrRoboman333]

No, they didn't.

[@busTedOaS]

Videos are rolled out to viewers in waves/layers.

[@chinchin3274]

No, watching videos is for weenies

[@jacobh.3008]

They could be watching the playback speed by 2 times the normal speed. I do that sometimes when someone speaks super slow in the video.

[@tomraptile804]

Judging by the fact that most of them talk about their dreams they either didn't watch it or didn't understand a thing.

[@roguesriot147]

This video explained some things so thank you, but doesn’t explain the rest of my hallucinations when I’m not tired. Thank you for the help anyways, I’m gonna look into more hallucination disorders :)

[@Budabaii]

i'm an avid mushroom forager, i pick gourmet mushrooms commercially every fall in the pacific northwest. of all things that have made me experience this phenomenon, mushroom picking is the most prevalent. After a long day picking, i see bright orange chanterelles in my minds eye until i fall asleep.