24 replies to this topic

[SleepySiren]

I have similar experiences.

As I'm falling asleep, I'll find I'm thinking about something....and then it's like my mind slows down and I get stuck on one word of what I was thinking.
So, for example, I'm thinking about my garden. I think: "I wonder if I need to ......" and then the word WATER (the last part of the thought) sticks in my head and it kind of hangs there in slow motion. Then I wake up and think "what was I thinking about WATER for?". This sort of thing will happen several times if I'm laying on my back in bed. Once I realize I'm starting to fall asleep...and i roll to my side.....I'm right out and these hallucinations are gone.

I also hear weird things as I'm falling asleep - if I'm laying on my back in bed. Usually I hear my dogs barking or my husband telling me something. I'll ask my husband "why are the dogs barking?" and he'll say..."they didn't!"

When I went onto my meds this stopped completely. When i had to go off the meds for a week...it came back again.

I also notice that sleep paralysis seems to happen when I'm sleeping on my back.

I hear dogs barking, the ice cream truck, loud music, people talking, cats fighting and people on our porch, lol. I also smell things... I also suffer from migraines though and always just thought that I was more sensitive to sounds and smells than other people because of the migraines. Then I just started to think I was going crazy after walking around looking through all of the windows like a crackhead looking for the lights that went with the sirens.... And my fiance doesn't help when he looks at me like I am insane for thinking I hear the ice cream truck at 11 at night, lol...

[Megssosleepy]

Its funny I never really thought about this until reading this post. I always start dreaming while I am awake. It has been my cue that I am going to fall asleep soon. Its like random blips into my awake thoughts. Last night all the sudden I think in a strange voice "she looks like a banana" then I returned to whatever I was thinking in the first place. I really never thought anything of the random thoughts, music, or random noises... I knew the music and such had to do with my N but I guess I was thinking everyone had the awake dreams?

[stoic]

Its funny I never really thought about this until reading this post. I always start dreaming while I am awake. It has been my cue that I am going to fall asleep soon. Its like random blips into my awake thoughts. Last night all the sudden I think in a strange voice "she looks like a banana" then I returned to whatever I was thinking in the first place. I really never thought anything of the random thoughts, music, or random noises... I knew the music and such had to do with my N but I guess I was thinking everyone had the awake dreams?

Interesting, I was trying to have a nap during a car trip today. I couldn't settle myself enough to sleep. Soon enough I had a dream wile awake and I remember being happy because I knew that was the indicator that I was about to fall asleep. Next thing I remember I was waking up after a 20 minute nap!

I've spoken to my mother and wife about these dreams and they definitely don't experience them.

[munky]

I've often, in talking to someone, found myself saying something like, "You know those dreams you have right before you fall asleep? When you're not quite awake, but not really asleep, either, just on the edge of it?" And always been surprised when they'd say no, or give me that confused, 'WTF is this chick talking about?!' look. It's something that's happened all my life, not just since the EDS--and presumably narcolepsy--started, and I never realized that it didn't happen to everyone. Happens to me every time I go to sleep!

No overarching theme, though, other than weirdnes. The other day, it was a conversation with one of my cats about astrophysics, complete with visual aids. Or I might have an entire conversation about something that never happened with someone I can't see. Or anything, really.

The little fragments when I'm taking a nap, though, are generally just that. A spoken word or two here, a smell, a color, a snapshot, a voice without words, a single unspoken word with no connection to anything else ... The fragments of a single nap don't even connect up to each other. It's like everything in the world has been put into one of those big machines that mix up bingo balls, or the machines they use for lottery numbers, and my mind is the thing at the end of the machine that catches the balls when they pop up/out. Only, instead of 'B3' or 'number 49' I get a voice saying "gray balloon" or see the word "time" or smell fresh cut grass or see blue ... just random weird stuff.

Oh, lord, my brain is a bingo machine--and I don't even like bingo!

[SleepyDays]

Its funny I never really thought about this until reading this post. I always start dreaming while I am awake. It has been my cue that I am going to fall asleep soon. Its like random blips into my awake thoughts. Last night all the sudden I think in a strange voice "she looks like a banana" then I returned to whatever I was thinking in the first place. I really never thought anything of the random thoughts, music, or random noises... I knew the music and such had to do with my N but I guess I was thinking everyone had the awake dreams?

Megs,
The "she looks like a banana" made me laugh so hard. (I was sitting, so no cataplexy.)
Thanks for sharing that.
I'm so glad to have everyone here sharing their unique N experiences. It helps so much to know I'm not the only one.