hypnogogic/hypnopompic hallucinations

[starbunny]

I have always assumed that I have had this experience since I was about 15 - having regular hallucinations before sleep or just after waking. The hallucinations have been varied from people talking / walking around the house to 'spiders' or writing on the wall /geomertric shapes that change and so on. However I googled it today and the examples I read all talked about sleep paralysis as an accompanying feature.
The 'hypnogogia starts when I am sitting up in bed and I am to be able to move about the house when the hypnopomia happens - the hallucinations follow me and I can see them even when I close my eyes. They also last minutes rather than seconds. Is this normal? I have also been diagnosed with a mental disorder and am currently on seroquel 500mg. Just curious!


This discussion is related to Seeing Spiders.

[fireflykd]

I have these too, as well, I can move around and often do. But the sleep apnea does not fit since I am a mother of three and I am being waked up by my kids instead. As a child and teen they were stranger like people in my room and I would talk to them to actually thinking my bed room was subway and I was making sandwiches for ever for people. ( first job!) Now they are just silly things like I will be getting up to my two year old and think the floors are hardwood floors. I have carpeted floors. happened last night. Or the room will look like there is a red light in it. Night before. I am going to the doc next week to see if I have nacolepsy. I have not been on any meds for 15 years so that has nothing to do with it.

[CareerLady]

I am not sure whether hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations are "normal." Some researchers have hypothesized that they are caused when sleep is disturbed by breathing issues, such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). There are folks at the University of Manitoba who are researching this.

I had had a lot of these hallucinations since I was a teen. (I'm in my 50s now) I recently had surgery to correct my sleep breathing issues which were similar to OSA. My hallucinations are very infrequent now - I only have one every couple of months now.