Hypnagogic Hallucinations: What They Are And What They Can Be A Symptom Of
Hallucinations are all those perceptions that, despite not being based on real stimuli, make us see, hear, or even feel through touch. In the case of hypnagogic hallucinations, these occur during the night and are not directly related to organic disorders.
In this article we will review the concept of this type of hallucinations, as well as its most relevant causes and characteristics in terms of its symptoms, which usually occur while we are trying to fall asleep.
Hypnagogic hallucinations have the peculiarity that occur only during the transition process from wakefulness to sleep , specifically in the first and second phases of sleep (REM). This means that they happen when we are trying to fall asleep during the night.
These hallucinations are frequently related to experiences experienced by the subject during the previous day, and the most common are auditory and visual in nature. They can be hallucinations of any type; visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, or even tactile
They generally occur in the young stages of development, when the subject is in childhood and during adolescence. They are less frequent during adulthood, where under natural conditions, it is normal for them to have completely disappeared. However, there may be exceptions, in which case they could be considered as indicators of neurotic or psychotic pathologies
These types of hallucinations are, in many cases, the explanation for the “paranormal experiences” that some people claim to have felt during hours of the night, when they were trying to fall asleep.
They should not be confused with hypnopompic hallucinations which occur during the transition process between the state of sleep and wakefulness, that is, they are exactly the opposite of hypnagogic.
It could also happen that the subject knows that what he is feeling at that moment is not real; In this case, it would then be a pseudohallucination.
Causes
These types of hallucinations usually occur in isolation in people, depending on the stage of development in which the subject is. As we have already mentioned before, are common in childhood and adolescence a moment in which human beings have not yet fully established logical-rational thinking, and what still prevails is magical-religious thinking.
During these young stages of life, these hallucinations can be attributed to those fantasies and beliefs typical of the respective ages (between 6 and 17 years old).
In the most repetitive cases, when these hallucinations recur frequently, they could be caused by some specific sleep disorders. For example, the well-known sleep paralysis.
If it happens that the intensity of the hypnagogic hallucinations is more severe, could be one of the symptoms of narcolepsy (excessive sleep during the day). However, this type of hallucination is not considered pathological when it occurs in isolation.
In adult life they could occur once without being considered an indicator of any disorder. If, on the other hand, the prevalence is significant, exactly in cases where they occur over a prolonged month, you should go to a specialist (neurologist or psychiatrist).
The doctor will be the one who performs the necessary tests to detect the possible origin of the hallucinations. Under normal circumstances, these experiences do not last more than twenty seconds, and when the subject wakes up, they usually do not remember them.
The prevention of these hallucinations involves taking into account several factors related to their origin, which means that it must have been determined what causes them to proceed to prevent them in a specific way for each circumstance.
Let’s start with the most common causes: Excess fatigue caused by not having adequate sleep routines When this is the cause, what is recommended is to distribute your time better. The idea is that you can go to sleep at a reasonable time and get a restful sleep of between 6 and 8 hours (in the case of adults).
Anxiety and the consumption of some substances can also cause these nocturnal hallucinations.
Particularly, when the cause is anxiety, relaxation techniques before sleeping work quite well These include specific breathing patterns to reduce anxiety levels and be able to fall asleep better.
Regarding the consumption of certain substances, prevention involves abandoning such consumption, or else the hypnagogic hallucinations will persist or could even intensify depending on what the substance is or if the person begins to consume another that has a more powerful effect. for your body.
Finally, when hypnagogic hallucinations are the product of some sleep disorder, then their treatment and prevention depend on the specific disorder that the subject is suffering from.
