hypogagic hallucinations - Sleep Disorders Message Board

Dusty · 01-20-2001, 01:15 AM

I used to get them a lot when I was younger but as I aged they got less and less, now only rarely. I have never meet or talked to another person who has had them.

Dusty · 01-22-2001, 08:45 PM

Sorry I misspelled it. The name is hypnogagic hallucinations.

Slee-P · 03-29-2001, 08:54 PM

A.k.a sleep paralysis? It happened first when I was 11 or so. I woke up and couldn't move. That first time, I could talk for some reason and I screamed to my mom for help. She just laughed at me, and after a while my brain finally let my body wake up. All the subsequent ones have been classic, though. I can't move, can't talk, can't open my eyes, almost feels like I'm suffocating. I'm usually having a dream where something is trying to lure me to it, or I have to get away, but I can't b/c I've been immobilized. It's so scary... even now that I know what's happening it scares me to death. It usually happens when I've let myself get too tired or stressed out, but sometimes for no apparent reason. I used to sleepwalk but stopped sometime before college, and I also talk in my sleep, so I know that mechanisim in brain is just screwy. Does anyone know of any treatments for this, or is it just something to deal with?

LittleFilly56 · 04-11-2001, 07:18 PM

Sleep-P, I have suffered with this my whole life, but until now, thought it was just something peculiar to me. I feel like I'm burried alive, and I struggle and scream in my sleep so someone will wake me up. My husband knows that when I start this, he is to wake me up. I have sometimes been able to over it by praying. It is frightening, but I find the less I am frightened of it, the better it gets. There is usually something trying to pull me back into what I think is a deep sleep state, but I fight and struggle to wake up, experiencing the total paralysis you speak of. Sometimes I am even aware of what is going on around me.

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Donna

SHERCAT1 · 04-15-2001, 03:33 PM

I didn't even know there was a name for those hallucinations until last year. I have been having them all my life. I have a pretty creative and active mind day and night. Nighttime is non-stop dreams which is fun but sometimes scarey if my eyes are open and the room has those blobs or whatever the heck they are floating around. Sometimes I see bright objects jump out at me and I blink until I can awaken. I find that lying on my belly stops another weird dream occur- works with sleep paralysis as well.

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LUV AND PURRS, SHERCAT