QUESTION

Hear voices in my head before sleeping? AND while trying to sleep??



I'm just wondering it this is reasonably normal, or very bad. I have been having a very very hard time sleeping. Sometimes I can't sleep at all the whole night. In the last 72 hours I slept maybe 5 hours total.

Anyways, I know that's not normal, but I'm trying to work on it. The question is, does anyone else hear voices when they're trying to fall asleep? It's not like I actually think someone in the room is talking (and it doesnt 'sound like that) it's more like the thoughts that are always going in my head belong to someone else now. Not someone talking to me, it's just kind of like I'm hearing bits from a movie or someone else's conversation. If I take an ativan before bed, that is when it ususally happens. I'm totally fine during the day (except for being damn tired from not sleeping well). Is this a normal hypnogogic hallucination? The voices don't talk to me or anything, they're just kind of random. I tried to write some down last night, but I was pretty out of it:

Jim go see Daddy. There you go (don't know anyone named Jim)
- someone suggests that
- Cainan? Cainan? or Conan? (someone trying to pronounce someone's name)
- have a theme? have a theme? have a theme?
- pertaining to your balls (haha dunno)
- that was my contestant first (Know it doesn't make sense)
- Jerome something
- hold your poultry (wtf?)
- danciest robots left in the fort left field your honour (getting crazier)
- also was kind of hearing a buch of songs that don't exist.
- also ton more phrases but I stopped writing them down because I was super out of it.

Again, it's not like I'm HEARING people say this. It's more like if I was imagining a movie I'd just watched in my head....except it's not from a movie...or from anything.



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ANSWER

yeah it seems pretty normal. it happens to me all the time, when im awake too. I think its a good thing, i try to have fun with it. But sometimes more than one song plays in my head and i cant control it and thats when i start freaking out, or a random voice talks over a song that is being sung. We only use part of our brain when were awake, a very small part, the larger part is constantly functioning and we're not smart enough to control it while were awake. However, while asleep we use our whole brain to create dreams and such (just makes you think). Go see the movie Inception (in theaters still) , that will be a lot of fun if you enjoy this type of stuff, i know i was crazy about the movie, i saw it over a week ago and i still think about it.

Also, the thoughts that are in your head (once again) are just random thoughts that you cannot control. Use them to your advantage, like the songs that don't exist you could write music using them (if youre musical). The phrases if theyre not TOO random, you can try to fit them in real life talking to people, and you can come off as really clever ( i know i have ), people have said to me, "john, i dont know where you think of these things, but its genius". I'm not talking about 'holding your poultry' or anything, but if you ever think up something clever by accident.

If you start hearing bad things... stress, a loss of someone, a break up, or anything relatively bad having to do with other people would be the cause. It's your super ego speaking tell you that you're guilty.
Source(s):

the voices in my head.

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I have experienced similar issues before going to bed. When you begin to fall asleep your Reticular Activating System begins to open up to allow you to dream. It's kind of the gateway to your imagination on subconscious. This is a pretty normal thing to have happen. It can be more serious if they stop being so much of an internal monologue and become auditory hallucinations. This can also be a sign of slight anxiety disorder if they begin to keep you from falling asleep. It may be best to see a neurologist or a psychiatrist. A psychologist will not be able to help you.

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Yea, it sounds pretty normal, I have the same thing go on for a while when I am in a half awake/half asleep state. Ativan might exacerbate it because it makes you even sleepier, but you are still partially awake.

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These sound like pretty normal hypnogogic hallucinations to me. Your brain starts making up nonsense because it's sort of in limbo between being awake and the first stage of sleep. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone drunk right before they passed out? They make absolutely no sense, the things they spout off are totally off the wall. Your brain is kind of doing a similar thing... as it's lapsing into sleep, it stops making sense because it's slipping out of your normal 'consciousness' and into stage 1 sleep.

If you were hearing these things while you were fully awake during your normal daily activities, that would be troublesome. In reality though, even that doesn't mean you're psychotic, it could be stress induced, or out of boredom, or from severe anxiety, etc. But since you're only ever hearing these things while you're lying in bed trying to fall asleep, it seems very, very likely that they are hypnogogic hallucinations.

If you are worried about this, talk to your doctor, but I think they'll probably tell you the same thing. Good luck!

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