Waking Dreams

[Cyberman]

I myself had had a few similar things happen, which I've shrugged off as the usual dream state stuff. One, however, does stick with me, not so much because I attach any greater significance to it but because of the unusual (for me) way it occurred. I was lying in bed, just trying to relax. I was alert and conscious of my surroundings throughout, but clearly my mind had started to drift off and do its own thing without me. I was suddenly aware of an invisible something, a large animal such as a dog or similar, trying to climb onto the bed with me. To revisit a joke from another thread, this would be the dog I never had - there were pets in the flat at the time, but I'm not aware of fish being that curious or agile.

But I was aware enough to realise it was my mind playing tricks, so I played along and shooed it away. Then without any warning, there was an invisible person snuggled up alongside me. I could feel them pressing into me and then drape an arm across my chest. It hadn't climbed into bed with me or anything, it was suddenly there. Now the 'dog' hadn't fazed me in the slightest, I took that in my stride and was in fact slightly amused by it. But this was different, it felt different, it was completely unexpected and the shock jolted me back to full alertness - a bit like one of those annoying myoclonic jerks that wake you up just as you're drifting off. I was now fully awake, but I could still feel this 'presence' and the pressure of the 'arm' draped across me. As soon as I started to move, however, it seemed to melt away, which was odd in itself because somehow I would have expected it to suddenly stop being there as though I flicked a switch. As I said, it left an impression on me similar to hearing a noise in the middle if the night, opening a door to an empty room to investigate and finding it was a book that had fallen off a shelf, relaxing in relief - and then hearing a voice right by your ear.

I don't particularly attach undue significance to any of this, other than making me intensely curious (and of course the obvious sentimental wishful thinking) and I certainly don't go around trying to convince others, since I know that would be pointless. I'd like to note that there have been other... interesting events when I haven't been anywhere approaching a dream state, but that's all outside the scope of this thread. I also feel intensely silly now for sharing this.

[Minimalist]

... sleep paralysis ...

Not quite. I could move when I woke. It's just what I saw lingered until it faded a few seconds later. This is more like a hallucination.

Happened to me once. I thought I was having a heart attack. Felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest.

Totally unpleasant. Like spending an afternoon with an insurance salesman.... or drippy.

[Violet]

Dreams always end when we wake. They never "linger".

Anyone know anything about this? Was it childhood imagination that got the best of my senses? Does this sort of thing happen to others?

Dreams can do a lot more than "linger"...

I just hope, for her sake, and your own, that it is a one-time occurrence (for her), and that for you it is but imagination that you can (and that does) stop.

[The Grand Nudger]

Anyone know anything about this? Was it childhood imagination that got the best of my senses? Does this sort of thing happen to others?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
related is this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myoclonus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
(jerking your limbs - perhaps the sensation of falling - upon falling asleep)

-chances are we've all experienced something along the spectrum of what produces those "waking dreams". Hallucination prior to, shortly after (and of course during) sleep is very common. I'd say ubiquitous. I think we might attach significance to the full blown "waking dream" that belongs just as well and in precisely equal amounts to the little leg kick. So when people conclude that it's "strange" or that it's not common..they're using an arbitrary standard.

Just my 2cents DP> I had a waking dream once, but I'm pretty sure it was brought on by drugs combined with a pretty nasty fever. Not an uncommon experience, of course...but those above are of a different sort. Normal, healthy individuals experience this sort of stuff -all the time-. Really fascinating subject. I like to think of it as what the mind does when the "leash" of sensory apparatus is loosened. The second bit, about hypnic jerks, is a real mind bender though. When it comes to waking dreams I sometimes think that almost as a rule we're out of our depth as to explain the particulars of any given -individuals- waking dream. The leg pumping is just generic and unambiguous - that's the one I'd put my sights on if I wanted to get a foothold for explanation of the range of effects on what we currently think is that spectrum.

[Jaysyn]

She's never had that experience and doesn't think it's normal or natural at all. Dreams always end when we wake. They never "linger".

Waking dreams and sleep paralysis are a common occurrence for unmedicated narcoleptics. Source: My narcoleptic fiances' sleep specialist.

[Angrboda]

I had a dream once where I was a member of a slave species, ruled over by tall monsters. In the dream, I was in an auditorium, and there were two of the monsters in front of me, and in front of them beyond my sight they were attending to my baby. I kept trying to look around them to see what they were doing to my baby, but I couldn't get a clear look. As I was doing this, I came awake and realized that the monsters that I was trying to look past were actually two stacks of boxes in my room at the foot of the bed. It was the weirdest thing.

[Exian]

I don't think I'm narcoleptic (I have a hard time falling asleep even when I'm dead ass tired), but while its happening (sleep paralysis) I have a difficult, near impossible, time snapping out of it. And when I am able to drag myself out, I'm pulled straight back in regardless of my will. That was always the scary part as a kid; not only am I unable to control the pull into sleep, but the buzzing and vibrating and heart palpitations added to the experience a sense of "something happening". After years of this, I can tell by how I feel before bedtime that its going to happen. It's a certain mixture of alert and tired.

[Jaysyn]

I have a hard time falling asleep even when I'm dead ass tired.

Yeah, believe it or not insomnia, hyposomnia & hypersomnia are all possible symptoms of narcolepsy as well as the hypnognic hallucinations. It rarely evidences as they portray it in movies & such.

[JeffofGallifrey]

I sometimes have a dream fade out where I'm mostly awake and dreaming, but it rarely stays after I'm awake. The exception is one entity that has come and gone throughout my life and always completely terrified new.. I sometimes dream of it in monster form and I wake up and it is still very present (I usually wake up screaming.) It comes and goes.... I am not sure if it's a demonic thing or if I'm crazy.

but whenever I have a week or so that it's around, it follows me sometimes in the day and it screams at me, especially when I'm alone. So... I don't think that's what you're describing.

[Jackalope]

Not precisely the same thing, but back in January of last year - coming out of medically induced coma, from some time Thursday until Friday afternoon when I became lucid - every breakthrough into consciousness treated me to what I recall as - as best I can describe - giant neon spiders. My perception was so whacked that I could swear I had been moved to a different room. I don't really trust my recollection, much less my perception..

Wild wacky stuff, perception.