Every 2-3 days, I end up in a state between REM sleep and wakefulness which I believe to be some combination of a lucid dream and sleep paralysis. It's a bit hard to explain, but I can list the symptoms:
1. I can't move, which is typical of sleep paralysis.
- I can "feel" my limbs moving, but in reality they aren't moving at all.
-Occasionally, I "move" a limb off the bed, and it slumps down and becomes completely unmovable along with the sensation of all my blood being sucked down to my fingers, as if it were made of lead or something.
-It seems to be different with every episode, at times I can "open" my eyes though it feels like my eyelids are made of lead, I can "move" my limbs/fingers/toes though my real body isn't moving at all, there are times when I can control my breathing, times when my heartbeat becomes incredibly strong, times where I can make sounds using my voice although nothing coherent and no one else seems to be able to hear it, and times where I can hear as I would normally.
- I instantly wake up by being physically touched by another living thing. I haven't had anyone test prodding me with inanimate objects though, but I believe it would have similar results.
2. As for the mental part:
- I am quite aware of my state.
- I can attempt to struggle awake, but there's an incredibly strong urge to just fall asleep.
- Attempting to move just moves the body "in my mind", my real form doesn't move at all. If I manage to open my eyes I just see what I expect to see: the room wall that I'm facing when I fall asleep.
- Giving in to the urge to fall asleep makes me enter the dream state, where I apparently dream as normal, although they are quite vivid.
- While dreaming, I am unaware of doing so until near the end of said dream, I suddenly become acutely aware that I'm dreaming. I can attempt to wake up and return to my paralyzed state or attempt to continue the dream, which only delays the time where I return to my paralyzed state.
- While in my paralyzed state, I can wake up through sheer force of will, but I occasionally experience very frightening hallucinations.
- A full dream period state, if I decide to fully experience it can be as short as 20 minutes, where I can experience several dozen different dreams.
I suppose I could list these different states:
1. Paralysis: I have become aware of my paralyzed state.
2. Resistance: I attempt to wake up, I do see imagery, but its mostly translucent images with a black background.
3. Dream: I gave in to the urge to sleep and enter a dream, I have no knowledge that I am dreaming.
4. Semi-Lucid Dream: I'm suddenly acutely aware that I am dreaming, depending on the type of dream/nightmare, I can attempt to wake up or continue dreaming, but either way I return to stage 1.
After enough time passes, the dream period will end on its own and I will feel completely refreshed, even if I only slept for 20 minutes. On the other hand, if I resist the attempts and wake up after stage 2, I'll be extremely tired and almost immediately return to stage 1. This tired period only lasts for about 30 seconds if I manage to get up on my feet.
And that's the few I can remember. I can't make heads or tails of it either.
Oh, the questions are:
1. Is this going to detrimentally affect my mental or physical well-being?
2. Is there any trick to staying in a dream? Some of said dreams are quite enjoyable.
3. Has anyone else experienced this or anything similar to this?
I'm going to answer these backwards, because the answers to the other ones come from what I have experienced.
3. I have had similar experiences (especially the first part). I've asked around, mainly on dreaming sites, and someone told me it was a trance or somesuch. They suggested I try "rolling out" of my body. Not actually trying to move your physical body but your imagined one (eg. the feeling you feel when you "move" your limbs, but they're not). I've 'gone' out of my body into lucid dreams doing this and wake up in a refreshed state (which I rarely get from normal sleep). I find that I can get "chains" of these going if after I wake up again, I go quickly back to sleep. I guess this is what people call out of body experiences, but to me they're just lucid dreams. Try "rolling out" the next time you have one of these episodes.
2. I am not aware of any way to prolong normal dreams, but for lucid ones, just keeping constant motion or activity is a good way to keep it from fading out and going to a normal dream or waking up. (fyi: trying to keep lucidity and failing can often cause false awakenings)
1. If what I experience is the same as yours, I don't think you'll have any problems from this, unless this tired state you speak of gets worse when you try to resist the urge to sleep. (I don't remember ever trying to resist it, so I don't think I've ever had this part. It sounds like sleep inertia to me though) Try the "roll out" thing I suggested or, if you just want to sleep, do so. Let me know how it all works out.
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Topic: Odd Sleeping Condition (Read 1952 times)