Has anyone else experience this

[Maria6681]

when I shut my eyes I get pictures and some of them can be quite scary it like my eyes are not closed as it like I am seeing in the same way as when there opened

Has anyone else experience this or no y this happens and what can I do to stop it

 

[Suzanne]

Lol yes, I do actually and when I try to open my eyes to "capture" the image, it frustrates me that I can't, because a sense of needing to take it out.

It is like looking at our eyes within our eyes, which freaks me out!

 

[Southern Discomfort]

And this happens when you're trying to go to sleep? Or just like when during the day you close your eyes?

 

[Maria6681]

When I am trying to go to sleep mainly but if I shut my eyes for more then 10 seconds

 

[xudo]

And this happens when you're trying to go to sleep? Or just like when during the day you close your eyes?

I get this when I'm going to sleep. Never been scary images though and to be honest I can't say I've ever really given it a second thought.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

It's called hypnagogic hallucinations. These are fairly common and are benign. They are not tied to any mental illness. They can be colours, seeing things like spiders, sounds, quite a lot of things. Hypnopompic hallucinations happen when you wake up.

I used to experience hypnagogic hallucinations all the time growing up. Mine would manifest as kaleidoscope style colours on a black background. On rare occasions I would see an orb, it was of charcoal colour and its textures would change from being smooth to a tarmac surface, it had the potential to make me vomit. Nowadays I don't experience visuals too often, instead I hear voices and sometimes sounds in my head which can sound quite convincing although I can tell they aren't real. That's been quite a hot debate over the last two years if I suffered psychosis or not. It might have been that the hypnagogia just changed for some reason or another. But I also had other psychotic sounding problems too so we're not really too sure.

Have a search for hypnagogia on YouTube, there's quite a few interesting visual takes inspired by it.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

And in case anyone experiences something similar to this there's also thermal hallucinations such as feeling cold or heat on all or parts of your body, tactile hallucinations such as feeling a hand on you. There's also olfactory ones where you smell stuff.

Slightly unrelated but whilst on the subject of hallucinations I heard of one man's where he felt boiling water being poured on him when he was going to bed or asleep. That must have been terrible and very hard to live with. I believe he had schizophrenia though.

 

[Bolletje]

I have these too, thankfully not too often. Most of the times they're just images (for me, somehow, mostly rows of columns?) but sometimes they can be like stills from very graphic horror movies which can be quite upsetting.

 

[GoofKing]

. Nowadays I don't experience visuals too often, instead I hear voices and sometimes sounds in my head which can sound quite convincing although I can tell they aren't real. That's been quite a hot debate over the last two years if I suffered psychosis or not. It might have been that the hypnagogia just changed for some reason or another. But I also had other psychotic sounding problems too so we're not really too sure.

Have a search for hypnagogia on YouTube, there's quite a few interesting visual takes inspired by it.

That's sounds like something similar to what happens before I fall asleep or falling asleep. I would get a sudden visual of something vivid when I'm drifting off to sleep and after listening to voices that sound like they're from people talking outside. I'm probably hallucinating the voices thought.

I don't know if it's the same thing as what you're all talking about or if it's because I'm schizophrenic. :/

 

[Maria6681]

I hear noking on the window and hear people talking when my back is facing the window and I shut my eyes I can see shadow and then people it is quite clear sometimes I stay awake all night as I try to workout is it in my head or it is real. But some of the faces I get are disturbing and feel like it going to attack me. And the images can change lot of times. I know this sounds weird but it getting to the point where I don't want to go to sleep I get scared

 

[ksheehan88]

when I shut my eyes I get pictures and some of them can be quite scary it like my eyes are not closed as it like I am seeing in the same way as when there opened

Has anyone else experience this or no y this happens and what can I do to stop it

Yes I get this. I try to distract myself.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

I don't know if it's the same thing as what you're all talking about or if it's because I'm schizophrenic.

Could be a number of things really. Typically with schizophrenia hallucinations there's an element that is tied to a delusion and you belief that it's real. That's not an absolute however since there are a lot of times when we all hear, see, smell, etc things we believe in the moment to be real. That's what I think a lot of people's so called supernatural experiences are. My mum once smelt the perfume that Gran wore, I would put that down to a hallucination. What would also help determine for you would be if you got these things happening to you before the psychosis took hold, which can be a difficult thing to determine. Easier if you can think back to when you were a kid - unless you were one of the unlucky ones and that's when schizophrenia first started.

I know this sounds weird but it getting to the point where I don't want to go to sleep I get scared

Yeah, they can be scary. I remember seeing a scary face in the foam on the back of the driver's seat in my parents car. My brothers and sister would remove the cover and I'd used to scream at the sight of it. I would have been about five. Scientists believe hallucinations are very common in children too as they develop.


It's a really interesting subject.

 

[LittleLemon]

I think I know what you're talking about and I think I do. It happens when I'm trying to concentrate on going to sleep. Sometimes skulls and really scary images pop up and move around and it's really unnerving. It was the worst when I had severe insomnia. I've learned to just think about something else. I like to escape into fantasy worlds, so I'll force my brain to go into these fantasy worlds. Eventually I'll drift off to sleep. If that doesn't work, I just have to get up and try again when I'm more tired.