I sometimes dream while awake...

**EpicZombeh** · 08-07-2012 12:24 AM

I'm not sure this is the right section or whatever, but here it goes...

Sometimes,when something emotionally significant happens over the course of the day, I wake up in the middle of the night and start hallucinating. I've seen things from genies granting my wishes to my be turning into a girl. This has apparently happened since I was really little, because when I mentioned it to my mom, she said I once woke up (while in the hospital) yelling "Mommy! The walls! There's lions everywhere!" (there weren't any if you were wondering) And the lion theme seems to have come up before, both times somewhere on the walls or ceiling, both times I started yelling and my mom ran in.

So I'm just wondering, is this normal? Also, why the lions?

**Burke** · 08-07-2012 02:13 AM

Chances are when you wake up in the middle of the night you are either in sleep paralysis or a deeper state of relaxation which is often accompanied by something called Hypnogogic Hallucinations, or HH. These are simply sensory stimuli which can cause the thought that you are experiencing things you really aren't. They can affect any sense though sight and audio are the most common, sight having its own term, Hypnogogic Imagery, or HI. These often startle somebody who hasn't experienced them before or doesn't understand them and is probably what you are experiencing.

Can you move while this is going on? And once you do move, do they continue? If you have difficulty moving or they disappear after you start to move then it is most likely sleep paralysis. If they persist even after you move around or get up then you are probably just in a very deep state of relaxation, similar to lucid dreaming only the other way around; experiencing a dream but knowing you are awake. Either way I wouldn't worry about them, they're just your brain acting the way it has been for thousands of years.

As for the lions, I don't really know why