[UA] Introduction

[Walter F. Croft]

on 2/24/03 3:51 PM, it was written by David M Jacobs:

> 
> Hypnopompic, IIRC.
> 

I think everyone knew what I was talking about, but thanks for the
correction. I was too lazy to go to yourdictionary.com or somewhere else to
momentarily look it up.

> Ever since then, I've found it difficult to stay awake in moving
> vehicles.  I don't often dream of conversations anymore, but I do still
> dream from time to time.  By far the worst are the times when it happens on
> aircraft; one moment, I'll be awake, then the scene will change.  Somehow,
> the change of scene doesn't bother me.  This'll last for a few seconds, and
> then I'll snap back into reality with a lurching sense of vertigo.

Very interesting. I've always found it difficult to sleep at on in moving
vehicles. Especially aircraft. And I've been on several long 20+ hour
flights overseas. I can never sleep longer than 20-30 minutes, and it's
always catnaps.

> 
> Sometimes, in the mornings, I wake up to discover that I've reprogrammed my
> mobile phone so that the displays are all in Greek... and I can only barely
> read Greek.  Or that I've reset the alarm on my phone to give myself a
> couple of extra hours of sleep.

Bizarre. I think it's actually the MIBs. :)
> 
> I have, once or twice, had the whole hypnogogic "alien abduction" dream,
> but I've also once had a woman appear in my bedroom to tell me that I'd
> rolled over and pinned the cat under my legs.  Usually, I dismiss it, but
> that woman was dead on the money about the cat.  #%o)
> 
> What really annoys me, though, is sleep paralysis and dreams of waking.  If
> I fall asleep in an uncomfortable position on the couch, I'll sometimes
> dream that I wake up and roll over.  Then, I'll think about gettting up and
> doing something -- only problem is, I'm still lying, asleep on the couch,
> in that same uncomfortable position.  So, I'll wake up and roll over, and
> think about getting up.  But I'm still asleep in an uncomfortable position
> on the couch...
> 
I've never had the sleep paralysis, but have had hypnogogic "gremlin"
dreams. I'll be in that state and keep hearing this rustling and chattering
somewhere to my side. It gets louder and closer. I seem to always wake up
for a few seconds just before they're right next to me, and then fall back
into the hypnogogic state again for a few more times with the same "gremlin"
experience before finally waking.

> 
> It just occurred to me... cats spend a lot of time in shallow sleep, so
> they must get a lot of this sort of thing.  No wonder they're so whacked in
> the head...
> 
I often wonder this about our cat too...

Thanks for sharing this David. Even though I don't get inspiration from too
many actual dreams I've had, I do find the experience of dreaming and the
whole hypnogogic/hypnopompic states fascinating.

I did have a "solipsistic" dream some years ago where I was lying on the
beach reading a comic book. One panel showed a man with his back facing the
reader and his head turned in a side glance toward the reader. Then the
focus of the page moved closer to my eyes until I "broke" through the panel
and entered the scene. All of a sudden I was that man in the comic panel;
standing on a beach and turning my head around to face forward to look into
the setting sun.

Walter


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