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24 Oct 2025, 6:54 pm
25 Oct 2025, 7:59 pm
Lampipe wrote:
Going back to childhood, I've had chronic sleep paralysis accompanied by visual, auditory, and tactile hallucinations, though these go away the moment I wake up. I also often see hypnagogic/hypnopompic imagery beneath my closed eyes while falling asleep, and sometimes just after I've woken up--but it's never happened while my eyes were open. Until now.
A little over a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, and in the dim light of my room (the light was off, but the door was open and light was streaming in from the next room), I saw the type of imagery I normally see beneath my closed eyes--sort of an animation of various objects rapidly changing and morphing into other objects--except I was seeing it in front of me, while looking at the upper wall and ceiling.
This was after I had failed to take my regular dose of my psych meds (clonazepam and amitriptyline) for a few days, so this could have been the result of a withdrawal effect.
I've heard that these types of sleep-adjacent hallucinations are fairly normal and not necessarily a sign of anything wrong mentally, but for what it's worth, it's the first time I was awake with my eyes open, and not in the midst of sleep paralysis, and had a full-blown visual hallucination.
A little over a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, and in the dim light of my room (the light was off, but the door was open and light was streaming in from the next room), I saw the type of imagery I normally see beneath my closed eyes--sort of an animation of various objects rapidly changing and morphing into other objects--except I was seeing it in front of me, while looking at the upper wall and ceiling.
This was after I had failed to take my regular dose of my psych meds (clonazepam and amitriptyline) for a few days, so this could have been the result of a withdrawal effect.
I've heard that these types of sleep-adjacent hallucinations are fairly normal and not necessarily a sign of anything wrong mentally, but for what it's worth, it's the first time I was awake with my eyes open, and not in the midst of sleep paralysis, and had a full-blown visual hallucination.
Welcome to the dreamer's club.
I won't say it is normal but I don't take any meds and my head is full of images that sometimes superimpose on my vision. Moving lights, static, circular shapes, flashes of really detailed images that distort my vision, then fade... kind of like when you've been in the sun and walk into a dark room. I've gone completely blind twice, once just sitting eating pizza. It's a virtual laser light show in my noggin. Woohoo! I have cataplexy/narcolepsy... when I'm extremely stressed or traumatized, I have night terrors, can get violently and urgently sick, pass out, wake up paralyzed (kind of made me think of the sleep paralysis you mentioned). I am older so I was never diagnosed properly as a child. They told my parents that I was passing out because I was dehydrated. 
