Hallucinations at night. Auditory hallucinations during sleep. Types and causes of aphasia

Hypnagogic hallucinations are a type of perceptual disorder. It manifests itself in the form of images that appear in consciousness on the verge of wakefulness and sleep without any stimulus. This is a very rare type of disorder that causes discomfort to the patient. The main difference between hypnagogic hallucinations and others is that visions arise only in a darkened consciousness. The disease does not have a clear classification.

What is hypnagogic vision, symptoms

Hypnagogic illusions are short-term visions that bother a person when falling asleep or waking up. Night images that arise before sleep are called hypnapomic, and after it - hypnapomic. IN medical literature they are united by one concept - hypnagogic hallucinations.

The phenomenon is difficult to identify; the patient can easily confuse it with other types of perceptual disorders. An illusion differs from a dream in that the patient perceives everything he sees and hears from the outside, without being a participant. Patients often describe the resulting condition as a “magic crystal effect.” There may be an association with watching a movie. Unlike sleep, the patient reacts calmly to any events, he is interested in what is happening, but does not evoke strong emotions in him.

Children are most susceptible to hypnagogic visions; in adults, the phenomenon is much less common. There are cases in which patients encounter similar illusions throughout their lives. They are irregular; between periods of exacerbation there is often a long period of time, up to several years.

There is a theory that every person has seen hypnagogic illusions, but not everyone remembers them.

The events that take place are always very clear. The patient can the smallest details describe what you saw. They don't seem blurry like in a dream. Usually, imaginary events are short scenes and faces of people, sometimes strangers, against the background bright light or flashes.

Types of hallucinations

Hallucinations are divided into categories and grouped according to general criteria. There are two types of illusions:

1. 1. True hallucinations - they are characterized by the absence of a stimulating factor. The formation of imaginary events is not affected external stimuli. The patient perceives what is happening uncritically and calmly, and the plot interacts with the surrounding reality.
2. 2. Pseudohallucinations - wear disturbing character. These visions are not as vivid as in the previous case, and do not occur outside, but inside the patient. These could be insects under the skin or voices in the head that have a subjective coloring. What is happening around is perceived critically, the patient is haunted by a feeling of unreality. The emerging pictures are intrusive and do not depend on the person’s desires or thoughts. Usually such visions are accusing in nature.

Based on the type of analyzer used, hallucinations are classified into several groups:

Sounds or meaningful phrases sound in your head. Hallucinations are divided into several types:

• Threatening - the sound message does not force the patient to act, but there are disturbing comments towards him or his family.
• Imperative - a person hears specific orders for action.
• Contrasting - hallucinations are divided into two opposite sides. One orders you to do something, the other orders you not to do it.

People have illusions created by some physical phenomena - mirages. These include visions caused by pathologies of the organs of hearing or vision. For example, cataracts and retinal detachment.

Causes

According to statistical research, 1/3 of the population reports disturbing visions of a hypnagogic nature. The predominant number of patients are men during puberty. Such illusions disappear naturally in the process of growing up. Girls have a higher incidence of hypnagogic visions than boys.

Perception disorders develop against the background of:

Hallucinations that occur against the background of mental disorders and disorders of the brain require hospitalization and constant monitoring of the patient. The reason for the emergence of illusions lies in the body’s immediate response to disturbances. The brain creates pseudo-sensations and feelings according to the impulse provoked by the disease. Intense hallucinations usually occur; weak ones can be eliminated by psychopharmacological drugs.

In psychology, the phenomenon of children's visions is separately considered. They should not be confused with mirages, which are a reflection of the child’s perception of the world around him. If the visions are disturbing, cause the patient to cry, and he constantly tells adults about scary monsters under the bed, measures must be taken. Among alarming symptoms not only stories about monsters, but also sounds that do not exist in reality.

Treatment

To completely get rid of the problem, the disease is considered from an etiological point of view. If a patient comes to the clinic with a complaint of hallucinations and is prone to alcohol abuse, a narcologist will treat him. Therapy for hypnagogic hallucinations that occur in a state of half-sleep is carried out by a somnologist. Before visiting specialized specialists, the patient must undergo full examination and identify existing diseases.

If the patient has any mental disorders, such as dementia, the specialist should find out about this before prescribing treatment. Some medications may worsen the patient's condition.

The main method of treating such disorders is medications. These tablets include antipsychotics, tranquilizers, and antidepressants. Neglecting medical recommendations is dangerous; advanced hallucinosis is extremely difficult to treat, and a patient in this state can harm himself. If the patient does not want to seek help, responsibility for his health rests with close relatives.

The treatment of perceptual disorders in older people deserves special attention. Age and poor health can provoke injuries that the patient can inflict on himself as a result of the visions that arise. For this reason, hospitalization is necessary.

Perception disorders do not always require serious medical treatment. Initial recommendation for everyone patients - lifestyle adjustments. After it, improvements are often observed. To get rid of the visions caused nervous overstrain, necessary:

1. 1. Strictly control the time of waking up and going to bed.
2. 2. Rest for at least 8 hours and more than 12.
3. 3. Wake up according to natural biorhythms, that is, at dawn.
4. 4. Give up alcohol and cigarettes.
5. 5. Strictly limit the consumption of coffee and tea. It is recommended to drink no more than 1-2 cups of weak tea and 1 cup of coffee per day.
6. 6. Before using dietary supplements, always consult a doctor and do not increase the dose on your own.

Hallucinations that a person experiences during sleep are called parasomnia. They refer to unusual behavioral phenomena observed during sleep. Hallucinations are visions that visit a person while he is sleeping and are not reality. Basically, in a sleeping person among various types visual hallucinations are more common, but other types are also often observed this violation, for example, there are sound, as well as tactile and gustatory. Sometimes patients complain that they have visions in which he flies, swims, or falls down. The problem is that dreams are not so easy to distinguish from nighttime hallucinations that occur during sleep.

Sometimes a person cannot accurately determine whether he is awake or in a state of sleep. If the visions are of a terrible nature, they are unpleasant, then they are often perceived as nightmares experienced in sleep. But, of course, differences still exist. When a person has a nightmare in a dream, when he wakes up, he clearly realizes that he was under the influence of a dream. Basically, hallucinations occur during the period when a person begins to fall asleep or has just woken up. In this case, hallucinations are called hypnagogic. In a situation where unclear visions visit a person in daytime, they are often symptoms of narcolepsy.

If people with narcolepsy suffer from sleep paralysis, they experience an unexpected craving for sleep and hypnagogic hallucinations. Determined that hallucinations at night may occur during the same period of time, although on different days. In addition, hallucinations during sleep are often accompanied by such phenomena as sleep talking and sleepwalking. Often, a patient waking up at night observes pictures in which the participants are people or animals; such pictures have a motionless character. At the same time, the person does not understand that he has already woken up. This type of vision is not particularly rare, and approximately thirty percent of people have experienced something similar at least once in their lives.

There are many more reasons for this disorder than one might imagine. The peculiarity is that what older age, the less such phenomena visit him. The main cause of hallucinations in healthy people are strong feelings, anxiety states, persistent insomnia. Also, the occurrence of hallucinations during sleep is sometimes caused by factors such as taking narcotic medications, drinking alcohol in the past, especially in large quantities. Sleep hallucinations are a consequence of epileptic seizures. At the same time, they look like short-lived visual fragments. If you turn on the light in the room, the hallucinations disappear without a trace.

In order to understand whether a person suffers from hallucinations during sleep, it is necessary to answer some questions. For example, do various images appear in his mind before falling asleep, or after waking up, that seem quite realistic, although in reality they are not? It is also important to know whether nighttime hallucinations are most often visual? If the patient answers these questions in the affirmative, then with a high degree of probability it can be said that he suffers from sleep hallucinations. But in addition, there are many other reasons that contribute to the occurrence of such episodes.

Hallucinations during sleep can be caused by many diseases. nervous system, disease internal organs, serious disorders mental nature. To solve this problem, you will need help qualified specialist, which treats sleep disorders. Treatment is especially necessary if hallucinations are the cause of increased anxiety, do night sleep intermittent and unsteady. If significant daytime sleepiness is observed along with nighttime hallucinations, the patient may suffer from narcolepsy. With such signs, the consequences of the violation can be significant, so you should not postpone a visit to the doctor.

By asking for help at medical institution, the patient must provide the doctor necessary information about the duration of hallucinations, frequency of occurrence. Also, the doctor will definitely ask about previous diseases, as well as those that are present on the this moment. The doctor will also ask whether the patient suffers from excessive sleepiness or whether there are problems with sleep. We need a list that indicates those accepted previously or currently medications. Sometimes it matters genetic predisposition person to certain diseases, so the patient should tell the doctor whether they have suffered similar problem his relatives.

Often hallucinations in a dream are expressed to a significant degree, and literally poison a person’s life. In this case, the patient is prescribed instrumental study sleep. This procedure is called polysomnography. Polysomnography can record brain waves, breathing, and heart function while a person sleeps. It also records involuntary movements limbs in a dream. Thanks to this method, your doctor can find out whether nighttime hallucinations are related to other sleep disorders.

Dream interpretation of hallucinations

But the dream book perceives hallucinations as receiving financial rewards, which the dreamer did not hope for at all.

Non-existent vision

The first thing to say is that dreams in general can be hallucinations. Scientists are still arguing about this topic.

I dream of mystical pictures

When we are immersed in an unconscious state, we may see a picture that seems to be reality, but in fact it is not. Remember how often, when you woke up, you could not understand that you had just slept, and everything that happened to you was just a dream?

Gustav Miller's prediction

This dream book is a leader among dreamers’ requests.

Miller believed that hallucinations in a dream, which were somehow mystical and unclear, promised the sleeping person an imminent illness. You may also experience troubles in business.

I saw spirits in a dream

If you dream of a hallucination, the dreamer should pay more attention to his relatives. Miller believed that the family was suffering from the complete indifference of the sleeping person.

There was some kind of spirit in the hallucination - you will be able to find meaning in life.

At the same time, the presence of a clergyman, a church, or its attributes in your incomprehensible dream can predict the onset of difficult times. Higher power give you instructions to be tolerant and not to lose your human qualities in a tough fight.

Interpretations of other predictors

Whatever situation you dream about, it is worth considering it in different interpreters. How more points vision you gain, the clearer the picture will appear before you.

Interpreter of Sigmund Freud

I dreamed of strange pictures

The psychologist believed that if you dreamed of a hallucination, then you would not be able to realize your sexual fantasies, since an insurmountable obstacle would appear on the way.

When you decide to diversify your sex life, then the partner will perceive the proposal with caution.

Interpreter Mindel

Why see hallucinations in a dream? Soon in business sphere you'll get into trouble.

What else can the vision promise you:

• unclear pictures - troubles with your significant other, the dream book believes that one of you has completely forgotten that it is also necessary to give, and not just take;
• see blurred faces - aggression will be shown towards you, but you must understand that you should not respond to such attacks with force, think about other ways.

Modern interpretation of sleep

Do you dream of unclear pictures that suddenly become reality? Soon all household members will be happy.

Taking a hallucinogen in a dream and hearing strange sounds means you are in danger of a serious and incurable disease.

You just can’t wake up, get rid of the vision - you trust completely the wrong people who should. They will let you down greatly and hurt you.

Seeing a hallucination or a mirage in a dream means delusions.

Hallucinations are images that appear in the mind without an external stimulus. There are true ones, which only occur in people with mental illness, and pseudohallucinations. The latter include hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. They occur in people who do not suffer from a mental disorder and often appear as auditory or visual images when falling asleep or waking up. Non-existent images can be perceived for several seconds or minutes.

Why do night hallucinations occur?

Hypnagogic hallucinations occur at rest when closed eyes, when a person is about to sleep, that is, during the transition from wakefulness to sleep. The images are predominantly visual and are projected onto a dark background.

Hypnopompic hallucinations occur during awakening. The most common images that appear are visual, verbal, tactile, or combined images.

Wake-up hallucinations occur when the path to the cortex is clear for visceral afferentation, but the flow of information from visual analyzer it has not yet been suspended and there is a connection with consciousness. The flow of visceral signals is comparable in strength to visual signals. The impulse of activity of the visceral input enters consciousness and causes visual images that are superimposed on the recently perceived and actually seen environment.

With normal visual hallucinations the person falling asleep sees figures, faces, scenes of the day. Visions are motionless or dynamic. Sometimes hallucinations when falling asleep are frightening. A person sees parts human bodies, huge heads, creatures crawling on the wall, pieces of furniture moving or changing shape. The images are quite clear and detailed.

With auditory hallucinations, a person perceives sounds that do not exist in real reality. They can be elementary (noise, roar, thunder, whistle); they are also called acoasms. Hallucinations in which a person hears a call, phrases, or speech are called verbal. Sound can be heard from under the floor, from the ceiling, from the wall, perceived both very close and far away.

The difference between hallucinations and dreams

Types of imagination include dreams, various hallucinations and daydreams. Dreaming is considered a passive, involuntary form of imagination. During sleep, a person experiences his own fears, realizes what he wants, and in them he perceives himself as in reality.

Hallucinations also refer to passive, unintentional imagination. For people with mental disorders hallucinatory images are perceived as part of the reality in which they exist; they are not able to distinguish between what is reality and what is a “game” of the mind. Daydreaming represents passive but intentional imagination. In dreams, people see what they want, but do not try to make it come true.

Images appear during that period of time when a person has not yet fallen asleep, but is no longer awake. They differ from dreams in that a person is an outside observer in them and does not perceive himself as an actor. People describe it as watching a movie that shows their brain. At the same time, they do not experience tension, are calm about what is happening and do not try to interact with what they see.

How to distinguish pathology from normality?

Pseudohallucinations, which include unreal images that arise while falling asleep or waking up, are devoid of signs of objective reality and concreteness. Auditory images are very different from normal speech. What is seen and heard is not perceived by a person as an undoubted reality and has no connection to the real situation in the room in which he is located.

If the voice heard during a hallucination is clear and at the same time perceived as absolutely real, and visual images arise in relation to the situation (a person sees something in his real room), then this is a sign of true hallucinations that require treatment.

True hallucinations are characterized by the fact that the perceived object or action is located in objective mental space. Thus, patients see a certain creature in the room in which they are currently located, and the room looks exactly as it does in reality (with the same glass on the nightstand that was just placed), so it is perceived as real. At the same time, the patient interacts with the image that has arisen: shakes off the insect, closes his ears, listens, and tries to escape.

Reasons for the appearance of the image

Vivid images when falling asleep most often appear in children aged five, but can also occur in adults.

This is not considered a pathology, and therefore does not require drug therapy.

But hypnagogic hallucinations are often a harbinger of development alcoholic delirium“delirium tremens” or other intoxication psychosis.

Hypnagogic hallucinations are caused by:

The Guinness Book of Records includes a young man who did not sleep for 11 days. The first two days he felt tired and irritable; on the seventh, hallucinations and paranoia, tremors, and signs of Alzheimer's disease appeared. Hallucinations can also occur in a person with narcolepsy or epileptic seizure. Rarely, the cause is a disorder of the brain stem.

A person can see non-existent images under hypnosis, these are hypnotic hallucinations. Knowledge can arise spontaneously or be suggested. A person sees them during hypnotic sleep, and he can have his eyes open or closed.

Sleep paralysis and hallucinations

Some may experience sleep paralysis upon awakening ( sleep paralysis). It is characterized by the fact that a person wakes up and correctly perceives reality and own body, but is not able to make a voluntary movement for some time (up to two minutes).

The cause of sleep paralysis is considered to be a delay in the removal of blocking of motor commands in the part of the brain that is responsible for behavior and behavior. motor activity, that is, consciousness woke up, and the system responsible for controlling movements slept. This condition is not a disease and occurs more often in young people aged 12-30 years. Sleep paralysis and hallucinations at night occur under the influence of the same factors, so they are often observed simultaneously.

Sleep paralysis is accompanied by fear (a person thinks that he has Sopor, afraid of dying, may hear voices), hallucinations, suffocation, rapid heartbeat, disorientation. Much less often, sleep paralysis occurs before falling asleep.

The condition is the opposite of somnambulism, when muscle activity is not blocked. Physiologically it is similar to the natural paralysis characteristic of the phase REM sleep. His biological significance will not allow a person to get injured. Normally, the brain “falls asleep” a few moments before paralysis, but due to the disorder, the opposite happens.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in preschoolers

In children preschool age hallucinations during sleep can be part of normal development psyche. Hallucinations often occur before going to bed at night. The psyche is still immature, so the child cannot distinguish a hallucination from reality.

Fantastic images that arise during the transition to sleep or upon awakening can frighten the child and cause disturbances: nightmares, nocturnal enuresis, anxiety, panic. Children more often than adults see frightening images (monsters, animated characters from fairy tales, films, dead ones). Then the child who begins to torment scary vision, refuses to go to bed, asks to sleep with his parents, or demands to leave the light on.

Hallucinations during sleep in children, as a rule, occur in an unfavorable family atmosphere, psychological trauma, emotional overload. Often the reason for the appearance of images is watching cartoons with fictional villains before going to bed.

Parents should ask their child about the causes of anxiety and fear and try to eliminate them. If the objective reasons could not be determined, and hypnagogic hallucinations began to cause harm to mental and physical health, then you should consult a psychotherapist or psychologist. In just a few sessions, the specialist will help the child learn to cope with his own fears and distinguish reality from fiction, and nightmares will stop tormenting the child.

Do I need treatment if hallucinations occur?

Hypnagogic hallucinations are not a symptom mental disorder, so no medical intervention is required.

But it is quite difficult for a non-specialist to distinguish one type of disorder from another, so if images begin to appear frequently and cause discomfort, it is recommended to consult a psychotherapist. Psychotherapeutic techniques are used for treatment, the purpose of which is to eliminate the underlying disorder, hallucinatory. Antipsychotic medications may also be prescribed.

In order to reduce the frequency of hypnagogic visions, it is recommended to refrain from drinking alcohol and other hallucinogens, monitor your stress level, and observe healthy image life and sleep-wake mode.

anonymously

Hello! I'm a girl, I'm 21 years old. This problem has been present in some other form for a long time, probably even 5 years, I don’t know for sure. Nor is only getting worse. At the moment I am not taking any serious medications, only if I take Pancreatin-Lect, Magnesium b6 (By the way, it makes me feel better). For seven years I have been taking painkillers Indomethacin every month, diclofenac no more than five suppositories per month, and also spasmalgon. IN critical days, including after taking these medications, I sleep for days. They may also have had a significant impact on my condition. ECG is normal, I did it several times. Blood pressure periodically is low 60-100, but for me it is always low, for me the norm is (65-65 per 115). Rarely increases, mainly due to stress. Blood tests are normal, in May the leukocytes were slightly elevated, I don’t think this is related to this. Often I am bothered by something like painful insomnia. Although this is a little different. When I go to sleep, after 1-2-10 minutes I suddenly wake up, shuddering or, more often, bending over, and in my head there is a feeling as if an impulse ran through my whole body or some kind of flash, after that - sleep like never before. Sometimes I lie down for a long time, but I can’t sleep, because I wake up like this, or I just feel strong fear just before falling asleep, during such periods it happens that my heart seems to stop, I don’t feel discomfort in my chest and I don’t feel a pulse. Sometimes it feels like I’m falling through somewhere, sometimes my body feels like it’s experiencing weightlessness. I often wake up from strong heartbeat, which I feel with my whole body and it seems that it is about to not withstand such a load. On such nights you want to immediately do something, write to someone, communicate, feel or create the illusion of someone being nearby. But it happens that you really want to sleep and you no longer have the strength to do so, you just have to lie down. Sometimes cry. Of course, nowhere without the fear of death. It happens almost every night that I wake up and see various hallucinations (not bright, moving, strange objects floating around the room). I'm very tired of this. I just want to sleep, get enough sleep, relax in my sleep, enjoy my sleep, and not wait in horror for nightfall and not have the strength to open my eyes in the morning. What to do, what could be the reasons? Calming saw, different. Phenazepam, prescribed by a psychiatrist, helped, but only for the period of use. Last year I drank for about a week or two at a minimum dose. The weaker ones, such as valerian, motherwort, novopassit, persen - only made it worse, I drank too much of them in my life. IN Lately I notice something strange in my head: severe dizziness, especially if I want to sleep. Although I don’t even know what to call it correctly, it’s not exactly dizziness, I’m flying away somewhere, as if I’m about to lose consciousness. But I never lost it. Besides, cutting pains in the back of the head (which first appeared in winter last year, when I froze), discomfort in the temples, noise in the temples. I thought that maybe the reason was frequent stress, but this happens even when I am completely calm and happy. I have no opportunity to get an MRI done in the next few months, we have only one clinic doing this, and examining one part of the brain or organ requires a lot of money for us. They don’t do polysomnography on the island, and I also don’t have the opportunity to go to the mainland in the next six months or a year. The neurologist doesn’t pay much attention to these problems and says that without an MRI he won’t say anything at all. What else can you do?

Hello! First of all, calm down! Sharp shudders when falling asleep and hallucinations when falling asleep and waking up - unfortunately, not rare phenomena, refer to parasomnias, or unwanted behavioral reactions during sleep. Their nature is still unknown, but it is almost impossible to completely get rid of such phenomena. When the opportunity arises, still perform polysomnography and MRI of the brain in order to exclude organic pathology. Most likely, you are a rather emotionally labile person, so it is advisable to visit periodically, and perhaps undergo a course of psychotherapy. About the need for an appointment medications a psychotherapist or neurologist also decides during a face-to-face consultation. Sleeping pills like phenazepam should not be taken categorically; they can cause a deterioration in the quality of sleep. Dizziness is most likely associated with vegetative-vascular dystonia and requires appointments from a neurologist. Review your lifestyle, habits, routine - see the program healthy sleep: http://buzunov.ru/programma-zdorovogo-sna/