Dagger Forum

i think i can pretty safely assume that other people here have some mildly interesting dreams, sleeping disorders, etc. worth sharing & being read about

I'll start: when I first heard 'exploding head syndrome', I thought it was some kind of reddit joke, but when I read about it, I realized it was just the correct name for something I'd experienced for a while. The second before going asleep, when your perception is already turned off and your thinking is so fuzzy that the light is about to click off in your head, I'd get hear an (unreal) sound so loud that it would ring my ears, usually my name being shouted or a dog barking as loud as possible once right in front of my face. It'd ruined the process of going to sleep and sometimes happen multiple times before successfully getting knocked out.

During and ever since boot camp, this was replaced by waking nightmares, which is the best way I can name the new problem. I wake up and stay in a half-sleeping state where my eyes are physically open and receiving input from what's around me, but some unreal things might exist, like people in my room, things on the floor, etc. I can check out of them if I see a clock or something else that confirms I'm just experiencing a dream-delusion.

that's my bit, tell me yours

Ever get into that intense experience of magnified physicality and musical enjoyment just before you hit sleep? I'd wake from near-sleep into a remarkable world of bodily enjoyment or beauty or hyper-comfort flowing through my limbs and torso, and music would seem like it's roaring into my ears from the mouth of the void or some powerful non-human source, and the progressions and notes and expressions of the music become astonishingly beautiful. I used to get that a lot more during my teenage years. I wonder if the phenomenon has a name.

I'm on sertraline (zoloft) for anxiety, and I also drink, though I strictly control the amount of alcohol I consume daily.

My dreams can get interesting...when I cut back on booze I get mild auditory hallucinations as a result of withdrawal, usually just actual sounds (like the AC unit near my bed) that grow to resemble my cat meowing or someone whining. As I approach the threshold of sleep, I sometimes hear my parents call my name, but I would guess this is fairly common. Eitehr way, it doesn't bother me.

The sertraline intensifies dreams, as many who have been on it will attest to. Dreams seem easier to control, almost like the drug is affecting the dreamer's desire to lucid dream, circumventing the practice necessary to do so. I will often be able to change what's happening in a dream or even "back out" of one scenario and prompt my brain to create a new one if the current dream is unpleasant enough.

My dreams usually involve similar themes remixed according to the daily events I've experienced. My anxiety usually manifests as being either 1. driving a car whose pedals/steering either stop working or won't respond to my input, causing me to worry about crashing or 2. being lost in an airport trying to reach a flight gate on time.

When I'm not working I sleep too much (8-10 hours), and when I'm working I sleep between 4 and 6 hours a night.