Sleep study with nap study - in progress.

[jnk]

Don't let the word "hallucinations" throw you off. Stage 1 of sleep is as much being 'awake' as it is being 'asleep,' as I understand it. So yeah, call them dreams, but they are still, technically speaking, hypnagogic hallucinations, I believe. The fractal imagery you speak of is common from what I've read. By common, I don't mean a large percentage of the population. But more common than tasting colors, anyway.

The "dreams" you have that don't occur in REM are often like those you describe--lacking in emotional content. It is the REM dreams that more often contain the memorable deep stuff. You could have a form of narcolepsy, or something. But you may not. And my understanding is that there are people who experience what you have described who manage to think of it as kind of special and cool. It's entertaining and it's free, right!! Falling asleep and waking up are pretty mysterious things. (My father experiences sleep paralysis where he wakes up at night but can't move. That's pretty common too.) One way to think of what you describe is that you are a little too awake during things that other people experience asleep. Your brain is letting the rest of you see things that for most of us remain completely behind the curtain. Toto has jumped out of your arms and revealed the frantic man pulling all the levers you aren't supposed to know about! That could be a sign of other things. Or it could just be part of what makes you you.

You may want to do a little research on 'hypnagogic dreams" and "hypnagogic hallucinations." There are other names for it too. Like "hypnagogia." Just stay away from the parnormal stuff on it if you are staying scientific about it.

If it is disturbing to you, I hope you can get it dealt with. But you sound like the sort of level-headed person that can find a way of coping, either way.

jeff

[-SWS]

DreamDiver, you may already know about this narcolepsy message board:
http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/message-b ... um.php?f=2

Good luck!

[ozij]

The nap test is over. I've got a splitting headache for some reason. Huh - maybe they had me at the wrong pressure.

You are not allowed to consume any caffeinated beverages during the day.

Typical caffeine withdrawl symptom. Not a valid explanation if you don't drink caffeinated beverages.

O.

[DreamDiver]

@jnk,
I've googled the terms you suggested and looked at RG's links now that I've had some time. I certainly have narcolepsy. As part of that, I also get catalepsy, ever since I was a child. When it happens, I usually do one of two things: A. I recognize I can't move, and something in the dream scares me. I end up trying to get my body to move, but can't. B. I'm in a dream that I'm enjoying, recognize I'm dreaming and take the opportunity to 'slip out' of my body and do all the fun stuff I was talking about. It usually involves flying, since that's the most fun. I've heard it called conscious dreaming. I was aware that catalepsy is the body's way of keeping people from acting physically on a dream, so I always thought it was normal.

Occassionally, upon waking, I will feel like my ears are bleeding or that I'm laying in three inches of warm water. It feels very real, but it's all a dream. Sometimes I feel like something big stomped me right in the chest or head, so I also have experienced full tactile sensations during the "hypnagogic hallucination" state.

I'd always thought everyone could conscious dream, but that I just remembered it better. I guess I'm wrong.

I've never been totally awake and had a dream though. I wonder if this is at all connected with how I'll be in the middle of a conversation and either lose track of what's being said or lose track of what I was about to say. I hate that.

@sws,
Thanks for the link. I have more homework to do, for certain.

@ozij,
I generally don't do coffee or black tea because it makes me really wired. I get headaches from some foods, especially when I eat out. You're right about that, it could have been something I ate.

[jnk]

I only recall having one lucid dream. I admit I enjoyed it. I don't enjoy getting lost in conversations though. (Look, over there, something shiney! What were you saying?)

Sounds to me like you got the right tests and now maybe there are things to learn and do about it.

My only suggestion, and you knew I had one (I can't help it that I'm so opinionated), is that you not get too caught up in the idea of what is "normal." All of us have quirks. Some of us are willing to talk about them, others aren't. Some people who have experienced some of the things you have experienced have come to wild conclusions about themselves and then kept it all to themselves. That seems like a much more stressful approach than your approach to it--assuming it was relatively common, talking about it with doctors, etc.

Wish you the best. And if I see you flying over NYC tonight, I'll wave!

[ozij]

You may have catalepsy, but all of us have REM paralysis (at least all of us who have normal sleep...).


"In narcolepsy, the muscle paralysis of REM sleep intrudes into waking life"

http://www.sleepfoundation.org/site/app ... ct=3500899

In order to understand the basics of narcolepsy, it is important to first review the features of "normal sleep." Sleep happens in cycles. When we fall asleep, we initially enter a light stage of sleep and then progress into increasingly deeper stages. Both light and deep sleep stages are called non-REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. After about 90 minutes, we enter the first stage of REM sleep, which is the dreaming portion of sleep, and throughout the night we alternate between stages of REM and non-REM sleep. For people with narcolepsy, sleep begins almost immediately with REM sleep and fragments of REM occur involuntarily throughout the waking hours. When you consider that during REM sleep our muscles are paralyzed and dreaming occurs, it is not surprising that narcolepsy is associated with paralysis, hallucinations, and other dream-like and dramatically debilitating symptoms.

O.

[DreamDiver]

Yes, from what the doc said, if I do have narcolepsy, it's atypical. Apparently, you're supposed to get wobbly legs when you get angry or laugh very hard when your awake. I haven't noticed that. I get that normal is just a statistic. There really isn't anything 'normal.' Thanks for that.

I'm a pretty atypical guy.

While I'm waiting to see what happened for the last sleep lab, my first had no delta or theta states. I'm guessing that happened again this time. I don't think I get enough - if any - of these. I suspect it may be affecting my health.