side notes

I used to have very frightening hypnagogic images on a regular basis (along with hypnopompic hallucinations), but ever since minimizing my internet use last October, I've only had a few occurrences and it's not something I've really had to struggle with anymore.

And now that I've overcome that, I've realized, like my sleep paralysis, my HIs could actually be a blessing in disguise: a key to both falling asleep easily (when normally it takes me hours to fall asleep) and lucid dreaming. On Tuesday night after seeing a beautiful HI of a humongous whale inside an aquarium [not that I condone whales in aquariums], I slipped into a false awakening WILD. I was in bed and could see my cat and husband in bed with me, but the room was lighter. I realized it was a false awakening when I noticed I could see despite my eyes being closed, and then woke up.

If I work on this, I could turn seeing HIs and having lucid dreams as soon as I go to bed into a regular activity for me. At the very least, it could help me fall asleep more easily, even if they don't always lead to instant lucid dreams. Now that I no longer have to be afraid of my HIs, I can take full advantage of them.

I had a hard time sleeping last night because I'm sick with a sore throat, a cough and a stuffy nose. When I finally fell asleep at 3:00am, I woke up at 3:30am to a spinning blade coming through the window. I really thought someone was breaking in. I rolled over my husband off the bed in fright, not wanting to die, and shook him, begging him to get up. Then I realized it was just a hallucination and the window was fine.

Pretty scary to go to bed after that and think what else I might see, but I managed to go back to bed and no see any more hallucinations. I used autosuggestion, telling myself to sleep peacefully and have good dreams, no bad dreams or hallucinations. I didn't end up remembering any dreams when I woke up, but I slept peacefully.

I'll be going back to bed since I'm sick and didn't get much sleep.