Waking While Awake

[Mrs. Jones]

i posted this in my intro but i think it'd be more appropriate here. Sometimes while I'm laying in bed to sleep, I think I'm awake, but at the same time, I start walking in my mind, like a half-dream, then after that first or second step*, I jerk awake, feeling nothing beneath my feet ('cos I'm laying down, horizontal), even though I was only thinking of walking, not actually doing it. I thought I was awake, then I woke up! I think some might see this as my astral projection leaving my body while I sleep or something, but I don't know. Because sometimes I see a sidewalk. *I feel as though I've been walking a little longer though.

[PharoahSunrise]

This happens to me, too. Its really frustrating when you jerk up and realize, "dammit, I was about to be asleep!" I often visualize or fantasize while my eyes are closed and I'm about to drift off, and began to believe I'm in some strange scenario that I'm not. I only remember this when I fail to fall asleep afterwards, though.

[Mrs. Jones]

exactly how i experience it, except i'm almost always walking.

[Saintwolf]

I get these a lot too. I'm pretty sure it is just Hypnagogic Imagery causing you to jerk awake. I find it very wierd because it feels as if I am actually falling on my bed.

[Mrs. Jones]

hypnagogic imagery... i'ma look that up.

[awoke]

This is an old thread, but I love when that happens. for me Its always that I just slipped, or Im about to take a tumble down some stairs, then i jolt awake, and realize im laying in bed. Going from a moment of fear and oncoming pain, to relaxed comfort, always makes me laugh.

[blade5x]

That happens to me all the time when I go for a nap telling myself I need to get up in 15-20 minutes. I starts out with me laying down telling myself not to drift off too far. After a while I'll end up briefly thinking that I should really get up because I might fall asleep. And then I'll actually have a very light dream where I do get up - these usually only last maybe 15-20 seconds at most, and I'll eventually just snap back to reality.

[Wildman]

It's called a hypnic jerk, pretty common stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk

[EvilTemplar]

Wow i was always wondering what this was about, sometimes i would be in this situation and then i would like... get kicked and it would jolt me where i got "kicked" and i would spring awake

[Shaman]

Yea I know what you're saying, for me it's mostly visual, like I'll see an arrow coming towards me and try to "dodge" it, or I'll trip over something and try to stop myself from falling, I think I've even tried to kick things.

[theunseen]

That always happens to me when I'm about to fall. Right befor I visulize the fall in a dream, I feel it while I'm waking up. I believe is AP. When the astral body is about to leave the physical body, but it shifts back befor the transition is complete.

[King K]

I think that it is because you are on your first stage of sleep or it's a false awaking, if you wake up in this stage, you will probably not realize that you were asleep. This happens to me a lot, actually, this happened to me a while ago when I was taking a nap (geez...), I usually have violent hypnic jerks when this happens though. But... this is an old thread.

[innerspacecadet]

I do something like that too. Hypnagogic imagery of walking leads to my walking and seemingly "falling down a step," and since I'm not sleep-paralyzed yet, that movement is real and it wakes me up from my hypnagogia. I also get twitches at the border of waking and sleep that apparently can't be explained that way.

[Demec]

Once while I was falling asleep, I dreamt that a door was about to hit me. I pulled back to avoid it, and nearly yerked myself out of bed. Spooky!

[Mrs. Jones]

um.. how do i avoid this in a WILD?

[innerspacecadet]

um.. how do i avoid this in a WILD? My suggestion: welcome it as a sign that you're successfully falling asleep, and then shrug it off and keep trying to sleep after that. Hypnic jerk and hypnagogic "walking off cliffs" only occurs during hypnagogia/early-stage sleep, pre-sleep paralysis. Once you hit sleep paralysis, it shouldn't happen anymore and you should be dreaming just fine.

[G0MPgomp]

Love this! Stayin awake, drifting of in to a dream, then suddenly being awake, as if in the dream, only not in the dream. Hehe.. "Where the hell did the glass of water go?" - "Oh, I am in bed.." The slipping and falling, is the most fun for me!

[Taven]

This happens to me quite often. The last time I can remember, I drifted off into a hazy dream about volleyball, I jumped to spike it and my body jumped in the bed and woke me!

[Mrs. Jones]

My suggestion: welcome it as a sign that you're successfully falling asleep, and then shrug it off and keep trying to sleep after that. Hypnic jerk and hypnagogic "walking off cliffs" only occurs during hypnagogia/early-stage sleep, pre-sleep paralysis. Once you hit sleep paralysis, it shouldn't happen anymore and you should be dreaming just fine. but jerks result in awakening, and as a reflex it comes w/ little warning, and i'd have to start over again. or does this not happen in WILDs? ---i never WILDed before

[innerspacecadet]

um...it happens to me mostly in regular naps. Before WILDs, I experience sensations of distortion and whole-body sinking, usually, rather than hypnic jerks and falling off imaginary cliffs. Those whole-body sinking feelings used to wake me up, too, or make me want to wake up, but ever since I first discovered WILDing, kind of by accident (I had heard of lucid dreaming before but not the different methods), I've welcomed those sensations. I wonder if the same can be done for hypnic jerk? Problem is, hypnic jerk for me occurs in stage 1 sleep (also known as hypnagogia if at the beginning of sleep and hypnopompia if at the end of sleep, or "half asleep" more generally), which usually leads to stage 2 sleep if anywhere (and you generally don't experience much of anything in stage 2-4 compared to Stage 1 and REM), whereas the sinking feelings usually mean I'm going to go almost straight into REM.

[TempleGuard]

This thread reminds me of some weird half-dreams in which I am half-awake. I am thinking about something really weird, like "she is here, and i have to tell her this", i open my eyes I am in the bed, and when i close em again, I still think of the situation, and is really haldf dream.. Or about gnomes.. But they usually happen when I am sick/drunk.

[Zatoichi]

Yeah, i have this too. I was walking, and suddenly i slipped, and i had this jerk and woke up .

[Naturally Lucid]

This usually happens when we're on vacation and I'm so tired i can sleep sitting in the car. I 'dream' - but it's almost like I'm there, back in my room at home, then something startles me awake - it's so akward, but at the same time i like the feeling