A waking dream: what are hypnagogic hallucinations in children and adults

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Daria Polevaya

Practicing general practitioner with 7 years of experience. I love my job and try to constantly improve my skills.

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A waking dream is a dream that appears to be reality. Not everyone falls into this state, and you can enter it consciously. But why does it occur, is it dangerous, and how does it affect the psyche? You will get answers to these questions from the article.

What is this

A dream as if in reality - what does this mean? It is a borderline state between wakefulness and drowsiness (falling asleep). Muscle tone is reduced, the body is as relaxed as possible, the brain is already falling asleep, but is still active and reacts to external stimuli. The surrounding reality is still perceived by consciousness, but it is distorted and takes on a different color: the subconscious is involved, drawing pictures and images that usually appear in dreams.

During waking dreams, the eyes can remain open: the person falling asleep sees what is happening around him. But the brain is already switched off and works differently; pictures drawn by the subconscious are connected to reality. They are imaginary, but perceived as realistic. The person does not realize that he is already asleep, which is why he may feel anxious and frightened.

For your information! Many people are interested in: if you have a dream in reality, how long does it take? The transitional state between wakefulness and drowsiness does not last long: its duration is from a few seconds to 3-5 minutes. Then the person either completely falls asleep or wakes up if the dream was frightening. But usually the brain perceives waking dreams as part of a night's rest, so awakening does not occur.

What is a waking dream?

This is a pleasant action. In it you will see yourself in unusual places that you would not be able to visit in ordinary life. Do crazy things, because no one will know about it. Enjoy popularity, complete unfinished business and see people with whom you cannot communicate in the present time. But this is not like lucid dreaming and trance, although people confuse these concepts.

Unlike the usual dreams that we have at night when we sleep, waking dreams do not occur when the brain is disconnected from reality. This is where the difference lies. When sleeping in reality, the eyes remain open and the body is relaxed to such an extent that the surrounding environment is unimportant to it. But at the same time, we are aware of the reality of what is happening and at the same time we see hallucinations. Thoughts at such moments are not controlled by the brain, so strange people and impossible phenomena sometimes appear in dreams.

Almost all people who tried this phenomenon on themselves were dissatisfied with the result. They felt fear and anxiety, and after finishing the session they felt tired and nervous and had a headache. After waking up, some fell asleep again, but now for almost a day. These people do not want to return to dream experiences. But there are also those who are interested in conducting this experiment on themselves. No one can guess in advance what you will experience during your waking dream. But that's what makes it more interesting.

Habitual dreams are considered strange and unreal compared to waking dreams because sleeping people do not control their brains and thoughts, thereby allowing dreams to develop in any direction.

Children also have dreams that are incomprehensible to adults. For example, dreams about an invisible friend or that the child is a daughter or son in a royal family. Such children think that they actually live with adoptive parents, while the real ones at this moment attend balls and rule the country.

Therefore, you can notice that in waking dreams our needs, wants and everything we dream about are expressed. But night dreams also express fears and dangers. Therefore, waking dreams are sometimes called daydreams.

Hypnagogic hallucinations

A waking dream in the practice of psychiatry or medicine can be called hypnagogic hallucinations, which are deceptions of perception that occur in the late evening or at night before falling asleep. This is the period of half-sleep, the border between wakefulness and drowsiness.

Such hallucinations are classified as pseudohallucinations, and not true ones, since the person is not in a state of full wakefulness, and contact with reality is lost. The environment is distorted by consciousness and perceived differently.

Hallucinations during sleep are called Lhermitte's syndrome, but a simplified name is more common - waking dream. There is no clear definition and no separate scientific or medical term, so many people confuse the condition with sleep paralysis, true hallucinations, and lucid dreams. The phenomenon of waking dreams refers specifically to hypnagogic visions and was discovered by the French-born neurologist Lhermitte in 1922.

There are hallucinations that appear after awakening, and they are called hypnopompic. But the general concept of “hypnagogic hallucinations” is usually used, although waking dreams arise precisely when falling asleep. After waking up, sleep paralysis develops (read more about it in the article “Sleep paralysis”).

Types of waking dreams

There are two types of waking dreams: visual and auditory. The emergence or predominance of one or another variety depends on the degree of development and characteristics of human perception. If he is prone to visualization, that is, evaluates everything with his eyes, then visual (visual) hallucinations occur. If a person is an auditory person who perceives information better by ear, then auditory dreams in reality will be observed more often. Both types are discussed in detail below.

Visual hallucinations

This phrase refers to visual images: static or dynamic (moving), realistic or having reduced (increased) dimensions.

Visual hallucinations are:

Single. One image appears.
Multiple. In a waking dream several images come to mind.
Scene-like, that is, moving according to a certain scenario (the image has a plot).
Kaleidoscopic. Several images appear adjacent to each other, moving in space or changing outlines and shapes (as if in a kaleidoscope).

Visual images are able to maintain a static position, but more often they move, move in space, change rapidly and perform actions. The sleeper is assigned the role of a contemplator: he observes what is happening, as if watching a movie. But he does not take part in it, although characters can interact with him: move towards him, touch him, try to cause harm.

The attitude towards what is happening can be critical or realistic. In the latter case, a waking dream that occurs for the first time or suddenly is perceived as a frightening reality or an unknown strange state that causes fear and anxiety. If the person falling asleep encounters hypnagogic hallucinations again or realizes their unreality, then he understands the impossibility of what is happening.

Auditory hallucinations when falling asleep

When falling into sleep, they appear separately (separately) or simultaneously with visual ones, supplementing them with loud or quiet sounds (this is a kind of soundtrack). A voice or several voices are heard in the form of individual words, specific phrases or slurred incoherent speech, noise, musical passages or fragments of songs, tones, various sounds or letters.

Auditory hallucinations can be caused by real environmental sounds that are interpreted by the conscious mind. While the clock is ticking, the person falling asleep will hear the sound of rain or footsteps. The noises coming from the window will seem like voices in which individual phrases are caught. The occurrence of dominant (predominant or constantly appearing) auditory hallucinations is likely after stressful situations, real terrible events or psychological trauma: those who have lost loved ones hear the voices of the deceased after their death.

“Why do you dream in a dream? If you see a Dream in a dream, what does it mean?

American dream book

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Seeing yourself sleeping in a dream means that you are most likely traveling in the astral plane and seeing your body from the outside. May symbolize your reluctance to change. Stagnation. No movement. No change.

If you dream that you are dreaming, it is most likely a lucid dream.

Idiomatic dream book

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“Oversleep” - be late, miss an important event or event; “fall asleep forever” - death; “to sleep and see...” - to desire strongly; “go to sleep” - step away from business; “sleep in a deep, uninterrupted sleep” - insensitivity, unconsciousness; “wake up” - awaken to a new life.

Imperial dream book

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A clear dream is a sign that the consciousness and soul are unclouded by emotions and patterns of perception of the day. This is a symbol of inner freedom and power over your emotions.

An ordinary dream is an unconscious perception of the information received: it is good if approximately 15-20% of the information of the Cosmos is not too distorted by the remaining 80% of earthly and daytime perception. In this case, the world of reality and the world of sleep are united in a dream, because this is what nature and the Cosmos, who created man, want.

A lucid dream is a sign of personal transfer of control over what is happening into the dream: the dreamer simultaneously and consciously lives in two worlds. He consciously, in reality, recognizes the existence of the invisible world, and in his perception, the information of both worlds is equal and controls each other. Such lucid dreams about dreams are mostly dreamed by enlightened and exalted people.

A clear idea in a dream that you are seeing a dream - to sleep and see yourself sleeping, while simultaneously seeing your dream and the like: the harmonious movement of yin and yang without distortion.

A clear awareness in a dream that you are seeing a dream is a sign of complete understanding and control of the daytime situation of events. In this case, everything you dreamed has a real, practical meaning; you only need to translate the dream symbols into reality, which is usually not difficult for such a dreamer.

The state of lucid sleep is favorable: physically it promises health, success, and the speedy fulfillment of pleasant predictions in reality. If the dreamed events are unfavorable, then, having the necessary information and understanding of the situation, the dreamer in reality has every chance of turning everything to his advantage.

A chaotic, plotless accumulation of heterogeneous elements in a dream with an organization repeated in different versions on other nights is a reflection of the complete inadequacy of the dreamer’s perception of the world and his place in it. There is no adequacy, even if during the day your own worldview seems harmonious and justified: in a dream, everything secret becomes clear.

Italian dream book

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Sleeping in a dream is a situation that occurs much more often than one might assume; this image reflects the need for respite, respite, pause when solving any problems.

Maly Velesov dream book

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Sleep is very bad, because you can go crazy; sleep - an obstacle in business, illness, laziness; sleeping standing is a near misfortune; sleeping on the grass is a joy, a carefree life.

Newest dream book

In a dream, why do you dream about a Dream?

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A dream, the plot of which is completely forgotten, heralds your predisposition to diseases of internal organs and systems.

Seeing yourself sleeping means a lingering illness; disability cannot be excluded.

Psychoanalytic dream book

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Dream - seeing oneself in a dream. Death. Some aspects of the personality, the individual, for example, conscience or faith, must be awakened.

The other, visible to the sleeping person, is a symbolic destruction of the other, the desire to avoid his influence.

Everyone around is sleeping - the stage of individuation and personalization. What I see in my dreams happens.

Proscopic dreams can actually be due to the fact that the individual, when something happens, believes that he has already seen it in a dream, although in fact this dream either did not happen or it could be interpreted differently. This means the unconscious desire and desirability of events occurring in the future. In this case, the individual himself can influence the events of the future in such a way that they go exactly in the direction he desires.

Family dream book

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If we have an unclear dream, the content of which eludes you, take it as a warning. Be prepared for betrayal by a friend and do not enter into dubious undertakings in business life.

Modern dream book

Find out what it means if you have a Dream?

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Seeing yourself sleeping and dreaming means that in reality you are playing a double game in relation to a good person and doubt the correctness of your actions.

If someone tells you about their dream, your relatives will have problems and they will turn to you for help.

Seeing a nightmare means a favorable resolution to a difficult situation.

A bright, joyful dream seen in a dream promises disappointment in reality.

Dream Interpretation 2012

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Sleep is the need to “wake up”, to be more aware. Need for rest.

Dream book of the future

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A dream within a dream (when we dream that we are dreaming) is a situation that occurs more often than it sometimes seems. This image reflects our need for delay, correspondence when solving any problem.

Dream Interpretation Veles

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If the dream can be described with the word pure, this means good events.

Dream Interpretation of Denise Lynn

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Sleeping may be a sign that you need more sleep. It could also mean that you have entered a period of stagnation and are unwilling to change. Declare to yourself: “I am awake and aware of myself and the surrounding reality.”

Dream Book of David Loff

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It often happens that we dream that we are dreaming. But this, in fact, is the real state of the body when we dream about something. However, in a dream, sleeping and resting do not always mean the same thing.

The state of sleep is one of the most vulnerable states of the body. At this time, we are defenseless in the face of anxiety: the ability to defend ourselves is limited, not to mention the inability to take care of others. Dreams of this kind tend to evoke either a feeling of relief and peace, or a feeling of violence. Important elements in interpreting such a dream are answering questions about how you wake up and who wakes you up.

There are two types of dreams that fall under this category - joint and coincident. In each case, two or more people dream about similar characters and actions. The difference between them lies in the way in which these dreams are dreamed. When dreaming together, dreamers deliberately develop the desire to experience a common dream through incubation. In contrast, with matching dreams, the dreamers had no idea when they went to bed that their dreams would be similar.

Sharing a dream is an intentional action aimed at influencing its content. This training allows dreamers to create psychic meeting places to develop subconscious knowledge about each other. This can help discover new facets in relationships (from ordinary to sensual). It can be quite interesting to get together with your friends (friends) based on a shared dream and compare impressions. The best way to do this is to write down everything you dreamed about and then exchange sketches.

Coinciding dreams are often discovered by chance. You can tell your friend about your dream, giving vivid details, when she suddenly discovers that she had exactly the same dream. This is truly a rare and mysterious case!

Dream interpretation of birthday people of January, February, March, April

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To dream that they cannot wake you up in any way means a serious, long-term illness.

Dream interpretation of birthday people of September, October, November, December

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To see in a dream how you are sleeping and cannot wake up in any way - your body requires rest, which you cannot afford.

Dream interpretation of birthday people in May, June, July, August

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Restless sleep - oneself in a dream sleeping towards death.

Miller's Dream Book

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If you have an unclear dream, the content of which eludes you, this foreshadows either infidelity in friendship or dubious undertakings in business life.

Dream Interpretation from A to Z

Why see a Dream in a dream?

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A dream in which you dozed off while sitting in an easy chair after a hard day at work foreshadows the betrayal of a loved one precisely when you have gained boundless trust in him. If you suddenly wake up and cannot immediately figure out where you are, this portends the return of lost hope. If you were rudely awakened, it means that in reality you will finally get a decent job after a long ordeal at the labor exchange.

If you see yourself sleeping on a roof, this is a sign of rapid success that will take you to unattainable heights. If in a dream you spend the night in the open air, in real life you will go on a trip that promises to be not only fun, but also extremely useful.

Sleeping on a long-distance train on the top bunk only on a mattress without other bedding means that you are satisfied with your situation and do not pretend to be more.

If you have a chaotic dream, the content of which you still cannot understand, this portends a meeting with something mysterious and inexplicable in real life.

If you have nightmares in which you are chased by some kind of fantastic monsters and vampires, something completely terrible will happen in reality.

Seeing yourself sleeping in a completely renovated, remodeled and newly furnished bedroom portends happy changes in your destiny.

Tsvetkov's Dream Interpretation

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Clear dreams mean quick fulfillment.

Dream Interpretation of Black Magic

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Sleep paralysis - too frequent manifestation of sleep paralysis (prolonged fixation in a drowsy state) is one of the signs of practicing practical black magic.

Explanatory dictionary of dreams

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Seeing yourself sleepy is an obstacle.

Esoteric dream book

Meaning of the dream: Dream according to the dream book?

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If the sleeper is aware that he is sleeping and dreaming, he must try to consolidate this state and learn to “order” dreams. That is, before falling asleep, you need to tell yourself what question you would like to receive an answer to in images that you understand.

A dream in a dream means your readiness to work with dreams, to practically use the information obtained in this way.

Who has waking dreams?

Healthy people have waking dreams: according to statistics, everyone has seen them once in their life. Some people experience sleep-induced hallucinations more frequently, and there may be several episodes per year, periods during which such dreams are more common.

Daydreaming often occurs in adolescents during puberty, due to the influence of hormones and the endocrine system on the functioning of the nervous system and brain. Older people are prone to hypnagogic hallucinations: in older people, the condition is accompanied by other parasomnias (sleep disorders), for example, insomnia. Waking dreams are not uncommon for suspicious, vulnerable and tender individuals who have a wild imagination and developed imagination.

The frequent occurrence of waking dreams is provoked by the influence of certain factors. The reasons are as follows:

mental illnesses and disorders: schizophrenia, bipolar disorders;
nervous or emotional disorders: neuroses, severe depression, neurasthenia;
sleep deficiency, chronic lack of sleep;
suffered severe psychological trauma or severe stress;
sleep disorders: insomnia (insomnia), somnambulism (sleepwalking), frequent nightmares;
severe migraine attacks;
symptoms of neurological diseases (narcolepsy, epilepsy);
alcohol abuse, alcohol intoxication, prolonged binge drinking, severe hangover;
altered physical condition: due to increased body temperature, decreased or increased blood pressure;
taking certain medications: neurotropic drugs, tranquilizers, sleeping pills, antidepressants, antipsychotics;
traumatic brain injuries, severe head contusions;
neoplasms localized in the brain, hemorrhages;
use of narcotic or toxic substances, substance abuse or addiction.

The factors described above irritate the reticular formations located in the midbrain and responsible for the transport of nerve signals. And if the transmission is disrupted, the cerebral cortex is activated incorrectly, and information is processed incorrectly.

Fact! Adults, both female and male, have waking dreams.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in children

You can suspect sleep-induced hallucinations in a child by his stories that animals, people and creatures come before bed, and various situations occur that have no relation to reality.

The child's psyche is not fully formed, unstable and vulnerable, and therefore is exposed to adverse factors. A child’s waking dreams arise due to emotional overload, fatigue, intense emotions experienced in the afternoon, active activities, frightening events.

Dream book for “Rublev’s wives”

— Can standard dream books give an interpretation to these images?

- No, the dream books that are widely available are unlikely to help. In different publications, the same image can be interpreted differently. Recently I saw “Dream Book for Rublev’s Wives”, it is clear that this is just a marketing ploy. I think that if you search, you can find a dream book for Mytishchi wives (laughs). Seriously, it is better to use a personalized dream book, which is compiled on the basis of your personal associations.

For example, as a child, when you were walking through a chamomile field, you were bitten by a dog. This association can take hold in your subconscious, and every time you feel danger, you will dream about this field. Another example: they say that fish dreams of pregnancy. But in reality, every woman will have her own dreams. For example, an apple, because when she first felt pregnant, she was just picking apples in her garden, etc.

Article on the topic

Erotic dreams: a sign of a problem or an addition to reality?

— Is there some kind of algorithm for how to correctly understand my dreams, how should I guess that I dreamed of a chamomile field as a danger signal?

- Just be more attentive to your own dreams, analyze them. For example, a person says: I recently dreamed that I was hit by a car, and this happened. But he forgets to tell that a month before the incident he constantly crossed the road in the wrong place. So his brain signaled to him that he shouldn’t do this! A dream, like any forecast, may come true, or it may not.

I would also like to define such a concept as a “prophetic dream”. Let's say I dreamed that tomorrow I would go to work. Is this a prophetic dream? In theory, yes, I dreamed of the future. But most will say that this is not so, because everything is too obvious. Another example: I dreamed that tomorrow an icicle would fall on my head. And so I go outside, and she really falls. Everyone, of course, will say that this is nothing more than a prophetic dream. At the same time, few people think that every day in Moscow 100 people can suffer from icicles. If you looked at the weather forecast in the evening, in which you were promised ice or warned about the danger of falling icicles, then the brain can give some kind of prediction in the form of a dream, but it is not a fact that it will come true.

Article on the topic

In facts and figures: 50% of dreams are forgotten 5 minutes after waking up

Here you can quote the words of one Englishman: “If you dreamed that horse number 6 would win the race, bet some money on it. But don’t mortgage your house!” So in this situation: you dreamed that an icicle fell on your head, be careful, but do not reach the point of fanaticism. Imagine, you didn’t come to work, and then you write in your explanation to your boss: “I stayed at home because I had a dream about an icicle falling on me.” Agree, this is a strange reason to shirk your direct responsibilities.

— Is it possible to study in a dream?

— Unfortunately, in the classical sense, you won’t be able to study textbooks in your sleep, even if your beloved girl whispers them to you. Sleep is, rather, a kind of cleaning of the “hard drive”. Your brain in this state decides what is important to it, which means it needs to be stored in long-term memory, and what can simply be forgotten. It is in sleep that long-term memory is consolidated; in fact, a person develops adaptation to the external environment.

This function of sleep is especially important in children. If a child cannot sleep normally, his long-term memory is very poorly formed, depression, attention deficit, hyperactivity occurs, and most importantly, he practically cannot remember information, and therefore, apply it in some behavioral reactions. Good sleep allows a person to be more adapted to the external environment.

In the kingdom of Morpheus. Interesting facts about sleep and dreams

More details

Is it dangerous

For healthy adults, periodic, infrequent hypnagogic hallucinations do not pose a threat. An adequate person is able to distinguish reality from a dream and realize the unreality of visions. But when he begins to hear or see something repetitive, intrusive and frightening, it affects his psyche, emotional inner state and well-being. Haunting images can manifest themselves in the imagination and thoughts while awake, and fear and apprehension gradually develop. After terrible hallucinations, panic, lack of air, and rapid heartbeat are observed.

Daydreams can be dangerous for children. If a child happens to see something scary and frightening, he will become frightened, withdraw into himself, begin to behave strangely, and confuse reality with imaginary images. An altered state of mind will provoke problems in communication with others, in worldview and development.

How to induce waking dreams

You can try to induce a waking dream yourself. Follow the instructions:

Turn off the bright lights, turn on the night light. In complete darkness, disorientation is possible.
Lie down on the floor. When lying on the bed, you are likely to fall asleep quickly, but this is not necessary. Lay out a soft rug or blanket.
Start relaxing your whole body, getting rid of tension and disturbing thoughts, stretching your limbs and feeling a pleasant sleepy bliss.
Breathe evenly, taking three seconds to exhale and inhale. Gradually increase the duration of breathing movements. When breathing deeply and slowly, you should experience slight dizziness, spots or flickering in the eyes.
Imagine inspiring nature or a picturesque landscape: sea waves, rustling green leaves, a babbling waterfall.
Don't move, stay relaxed and calm.
When you manage to catch the moment of falling asleep, open your eyes.
If the scheme worked and you fell into a waking dream, then maintain a sober mind, but you will see unrealistic images.
If you start to wake up after hypnagogic hallucinations, do not get up immediately and abruptly: give your brain time to adapt. If you finally fall asleep, try to reproduce what happened in the morning.

Important! If you are afraid of being scared or feeling bad after seeing scary images, get a helper.

Safety regulations

Before inducing a waking dream, you must master safety precautions.

The brain will be unusual in working in this mode, and in order to prevent it from “breaking down” from high load, you should choose the right moment to awaken. You should not take an alarm clock: it can drive you crazy with a sharp and loud sound - this is without exaggeration! The best option is to have an assistant gently wake you up by touching you on your arm or shoulder. This should be done a couple of minutes after falling asleep. Don't worry, this is enough time for the first time. After a certain number of sessions, you will gradually increase the experiment time, but no more than 30 minutes. If the time increases, there is a risk of nervous and mental exhaustion. Arrange the session so that nothing interferes with the process. In a turbulent environment, nothing can be done. Warn your family and friends about the severity of the experience. It would be even better to lock yourself in a room with an assistant. If you have a major event coming up the next day, you might want to consider skipping the experience. After the session, you will be in such a state that it will become impossible to concentrate and strain your brain.

How to get rid of annoying hallucinations

What to do to get rid of waking dreams when they interfere with feeling normal? Follow the rules:

Get enough sleep, avoid sleep deficiency.
Follow a routine by going to bed and waking up at the same time.
Avoid overwork in the evening.
Avoid stress, stormy experiences and emotional excitement before bed.

Do not consume alcohol or drugs.
Lead a healthy lifestyle.
Create a favorable environment in the bedroom: ventilate it at night, prepare a comfortable bed.
Don't overeat before bed.
If you have an existing disease, you should undergo treatment.

Attention! If a child suffers from hypnagogic hallucinations, the parents’ task is to calm him down, support him and protect him from all kinds of stress and unpleasant events and news. It is important to do everything to stabilize your mental state.

Should waking dreams be given meaning?

Do dreams come true in reality? Sometimes they carry a certain meaning: if a person thinks or worries about something for a long time, the subconscious draws images for him, and the conscious mind interprets reality taking into account disturbing thoughts. So hallucinations often reflect anxieties or actual events.

What can waking dreams mean? Evaluate what has been learned and extrapolate (transfer) to reality. You will probably see a reflection of events, a sign or a solution to a problem. If you can’t figure it out, study the dream book, which gives interpretations of various dreams, including those in which people begin to fly, breathe under water and do something unnatural.

A dream in reality. Human Features

Every night the world plunges into darkness. Nocturnal animals go hunting, and people, like other diurnal animals, go to bed. Sleep is the most important process that ensures the functioning of the brain. The function of sleep is that the impressions of the day are transformed into the form that is more convenient for consciousness to use. More important events are placed in long-term memory and included in the picture of the world. Less important ones are put on the farthest shelves. And remembering them is no longer so easy. Sleep is needed to solve those problems that were not solved during the day, but are important for a person. In a dream, those actions that happened in reality are experienced. If a person does something for the first time - say, learns to drive a car - then dreams become more vivid. During sleep, new and unusual information is brought into line with the person’s picture of the world. The more novelty the brain encounters during the day, the more sleep it requires at night, but is this really true?

The duration of sleep is also influenced by the internal attitude towards the perception of life. Energetic and proactive people sleep less. Their internal attitude is to actively perceive circumstances and transform them for their own purposes. And vice versa: passive, suspicious people sleep longer. And with big changes in life - a wedding, divorce, moving, changing jobs - the need for sleep can increase dramatically. The amount of sleep required for good rest is about 7–8 hours a day, while in childhood about 10 hours of sleep are required, in old age - about 6. There are cases in history when people spent significantly less time sleeping. For example, as witnesses said, Napoleon slept no longer than 4 hours a day, Peter I, Goethe, Schiller, Bekhterev - 5 hours, and Edison - generally 2-3 hours a day. Scientists believe that a person can sleep without realizing or remembering it.

It is well known that the answer to some very important question for a person, which has been tormenting him all day or several, can come in a dream. Sleep obeys the innate biological rhythm; with a smooth flow of life, the duration of sleep comes to a certain level. Strong deviations from this level disrupt the functioning of the intellect. A person copes worse with tasks that require a creative approach. Sleep is a biological necessity, and the need for it accumulates throughout the day. Scientists consider the intersection, to a certain extent, of the states of wakefulness and sleep to be a normal phenomenon, but lack of sleep leads to a deterioration in well-being.

Insufficient sleep at night for long periods of time increases the incidence of conditions that subsequently lead to microsleep. This may require you to spend extra energy to concentrate. This will make you feel sleepy or tired. In addition, with sleep deprivation, very short (several seconds) repeated episodes of microsleep may occur during the daytime, which a person may not be aware of, but during these periods there may be a significant decrease in attention and activity level. This phenomenon is particularly problematic for people who drive cars and ride motorcycles. When a person falls asleep, he leaves his body and hangs in the subtle body at a height of about a meter above the physical body. At this moment, our subtle bodies actively absorb energy from the space around us, as a result of which our “battery” is recharged - the amount of energy that we need for normal normal life activities during the waking period. If we haven’t slept enough, then this “battery” does not have time to charge, and we feel tired during the day. You can give a figurative example - it’s like charging a mobile phone - we use it all day, and by the evening its battery runs out. And for the phone to work again, we put it on charge.

There are different sleep techniques; monophasic, biphasic, polyphasic. Monophasic is normal sleep from evening to morning, biphasic is sleep divided into two parts - four and a half hours at night and one and a half hours during the day. According to a recent discovery, before the invention of electricity, people slept twice a day: they went to bed after sunset and slept until midnight, then woke up for a couple of hours and fell asleep again until the morning. But in total it was still 7 or 8 hours. Perhaps in the future we will return to this old scheme. Polyphasic sleep is very interesting; it is associated with the name of Leonardo Da Vinci, who, according to some information, lived in this mode all his life and, perhaps, that’s why he managed so much. Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin and many other lesser-known people are also considered polyphasic sleepers. There are several scenarios in polyphasic sleep; Tesla's so-called sleep - two hours at night and twenty minutes during the day, Leonardo's sleep - every four hours, fifteen minutes of sleep, Fuller's (architect, inventor, philosopher) dream called Dymaxion - every six hours, fifteen minutes of sleep, Fuller developed the unique ability to fall asleep within thirty seconds.

There are other modes of polyphasic sleep; Uberman and Everyman - the first consists of six stages of sleep of thirty minutes each (2 pm, 6 pm, 10 pm, 2 am, 6 and 10 am), the second is three hours of sleep at night and three twenty-minute periods in the rest of the time, so that you can stay awake for five hours, four times a day. The technique of polyphasic sleep is as old as the hills, I decided to try them on for myself; It was hard to adapt to Tesla’s regime and Leonardo’s regime - sleep broke me on the fourth day, so that I slept for twelve hours in a row in both the first and second cases, and I considered everyone who tried to wake me up as my “enemies”. Biphasic sleep is very easy to perform over long periods (one and a half months), when it is possible to sleep during the day. The Dymaxion and Uberman modes were also difficult for my body to accept, as in the case of the Tesla and Leonardo modes, it is difficult to fit such systems of sleep and wakefulness into our society, after a period of adaptation to such modes you can get used to such modes by force of will, but it was very boring when you didn’t find it, what to do with yourself, time flowed differently - as if it had stopped, but, undoubtedly, the modes are very interesting - they free up a lot of time, just like the Everyman mode. What to do at night when everyone is sleeping, and if you find something to do, you will definitely wake up someone nearby - an inconvenience, to say the least!

Having practiced these sleep patterns and feeling all the shortcomings of existing approaches, I decided to change the approach fundamentally - a priori! In order to sleep, it is not necessary to lie down; you can sleep while sitting, but in a static position and with your eyes closed. I decided to conduct an experiment, the purpose of which was the following - why not create such conditions in the internal environment of the body when it would be possible to sleep with open eyes, and even in movement, and even in communication... The thought then, ten years ago, seemed to me absurd, but in nature there are mammals, birds and insects, which in our understanding do not sleep at all and are in motion; dolphins, whales and sharks, a giraffe can go for weeks without sleep. It is enough for him to take a nap for about 20 minutes during the day in order to regain his strength. At this time, he sticks his head between the thick branches of trees and, thanks to strong neck muscles, does not fall. And to sleep, the animal lies down and wraps its neck around its legs. Previously it was believed that birds did not sleep during migration. But it turned out that this was not the case. Every ten minutes one of the birds flies into the very middle of the flock and sleeps there. It happens like this - she moves her wings only a little so as not to fall, but is carried by a stream of air created with the help of the entire flock. Then the next bird makes its way to replace it. But it has not yet been possible to catch the period when the cuckoo sleeps. She is in “trouble” all day long. Bees are also constantly on the move. They probably rest somehow, it just happens in a very short time or too rarely. The idea of ants has also changed. They were previously classified as insects that never sleep. But it turns out that they sleep almost 4 hours a day. The ants simply fall asleep 250 times and sleep for 1 minute. By the way, when they wake up, they even stretch!

In general, I began to experiment, at first myself, and then, when it began to work out, I involved other interested people in this, all of them are alive, healthy, none of them were harmed. At the very beginning, sleeping with open eyes affected motor skills - lethargy appeared, everything around me, including me, stopped, there was a clear feeling of sleep, but with open eyes, I started lying down, then sitting. The transition to sleep with open eyes in motion was a very unusual sensation; it was more difficult to maintain “waking sleep” during communication, but this height of the bar, in general, is useless; during the day you can find “windows” of five to ten minutes, six to eight times a day without attracting the attention of others, it all depends on the task; if during the day the work is very intense, mentally and emotionally, it is enough to turn on this mode six times for five to ten minutes, the body quickly recovers, I become much calmer, my thoughts stop jumping - everything is in order, thinking is easier and more pleasant, there are many more associations, the process becomes more creative, non-standard solutions often appear immediately after leaving the “waking dream”, later I learned to record and remember dreams that unfolded next to my head - on the right or left, when I know that I will need to work also at night, until two -three hours without loss of performance the next day, I turn on the “waking sleep” mode eight times during the day for five to ten minutes, the last time at ten o’clock in the evening, this is enough to work until two o’clock in the morning, wake up at seven and start everything again. The “daydream” mode is good because it can be turned on and off as needed; in polyphasic systems, it is necessary to maintain stability of the mode for a long time so as not to fall out of context. Practicing “waking sleep”, I noticed that at the beginning the number of lucid dreams decreased and then increased, it became easier to enter the Wasps - I want this, and it happens! The unconscious layer and dreams have become much more interesting for me, I can’t put it any other way, very often - what is dreamed then unfolds in reality, in general, knowing events in advance is very pleasant and interesting, every time there is genuine surprise in the process - will it really come true again , although logically it should be otherwise!

In a dream, a person gets the opportunity to communicate directly with the subconscious. And if we don’t understand something in a dream, we don’t need to immediately declare it “our fantasy.”

In addition to aimlessly wandering through spaces of options and different worlds, the subconscious can show us in a dream the solution to certain life problems and tasks that concern us in life.

Sleep is a unique phenomenon to which people practically do not pay any attention. Whereas, by using sleep correctly, you can gain such enormous Knowledge that you will not receive anywhere else. Einstein, Bohr, Tesla, Kekule, strange as it may sound, became Nobel laureates only because they knew how to “sleep correctly,” and Edgar Cayce was called the “sleeping prophet.”

Interesting Facts

Here is some information about waking dreams:

Often strange creatures and demons appear in waking dreams.
Hypnagogic hallucinations have been described more than once in literary works.
Some believe in the mystical meaning of waking dreams.
Scientists believe that hypnagogic hallucinations appear as a result of inhibition that occurs in the cells of the cerebral cortex during falling asleep: this process disrupts the normal correlation of signaling systems during wakefulness.

Waking dreams are an interesting, unstudied phenomenon. If you happen to encounter them, you know what to do.