Thread: why am I seeing things immediately after waking?

Yes, I'm sure that's it (a little bit of the dream staying with you as you wake up)--I can't think of the name of it right now (if there is one), but other people have described this. I don't think it's anything to worry about. Maybe you are paying more attention to your dreams, and that somehow induced this.

Yesterday I had the same kind of thing, I was seeing things throughout the day.

It all started when I got a real headache and there was like a whitish splotch in the middle of my vision, so I couldn't use the computer or anything fun like TV. So I'm walking around the house, I took some pain reliever for the headache, and I saw my sister playing her Nintendo DS. I look away then look back and she's gone! WTF! So I look again and she's there. So I say okay... I walk upstairs to take a nap and I see my cat on top of a desk, I say "hmm... okay" and I walk past, I look again and it's gone. I try to look yet again and it's still not there. I was having hallucinations I guess, and I had a huge dot in the middle of my vision. Anyone know what that is or had it before?

Originally Posted by kyospants

For the past two nights I've been having really sporadic non lucid dreams and when I wake up I think I might be still somewhat asleep but I look around my room (mind you its usually light out and my vision is REALLY BAD) and I keep thinking I see a couple bugs running around on my wall but its too blurry to tell without my glasses so I hurry to get them on and by then they're gone... My house and my room are by no means bug infested so I'm sure I'm seeing them but I was wondering why. This has never happened to me before and its ONLY immediately (as in like 10 - 30 seconds) after waking up so I believe it has something to do with that. I was just wondering if anyone else has had experiences seeing dreamlike things while waking up. I know its possible for say sounds of a radio playing in real life appearing in a dream a little bit before waking so I'm wondering if its something like that only in reverse.... anyway thank you, any responses are greatly appreciated ^_^

I believe it woudl be called hypnopompic imagery, much like hypnogogic imagery, only it's the processs of waking up. According to wikipedia, it's your mind trying to make sense of the "solid" real world, when your conscious self is allowed access to the information given by your senses.

Originally Posted by Walfe

Yesterday I had the same kind of thing, I was seeing things throughout the day.

It all started when I got a real headache and there was like a whitish splotch in the middle of my vision, so I couldn't use the computer or anything fun like TV. So I'm walking around the house, I took some pain reliever for the headache, and I saw my sister playing her Nintendo DS. I look away then look back and she's gone! WTF! So I look again and she's there. So I say okay... I walk upstairs to take a nap and I see my cat on top of a desk, I say "hmm... okay" and I walk past, I look again and it's gone. I try to look yet again and it's still not there. I was having hallucinations I guess, and I had a huge dot in the middle of my vision. Anyone know what that is or had it before?

Sounds like something to do with a migraine, i'd definitely ask a doctor about that one.

When i wake up with an alarm clock, ill often have theses kind of imagery. For exemple, the other day, I saw a tarantula walking by my clock when i woke up, I had to shake my head to see it disappear.

Also, I tend to dream up the up the numbers of that alarm clock. For example, I'll see 3:10 when its really 8:00. This is not just blurry vision, i know because when I concentrate, i gradually see the real numbers appear.

Its always funny to be in that state. Its as if you were in-between dreaming and being awake

Originally Posted by kyospants

For the past two nights I've been having really sporadic non lucid dreams and when I wake up I think I might be still somewhat asleep but I look around my room (mind you its usually light out and my vision is REALLY BAD) and I keep thinking I see a couple bugs running around on my wall but its too blurry to tell without my glasses so I hurry to get them on and by then they're gone... My house and my room are by no means bug infested so I'm sure I'm seeing them but I was wondering why. This has never happened to me before and its ONLY immediately (as in like 10 - 30 seconds) after waking up so I believe it has something to do with that. I was just wondering if anyone else has had experiences seeing dreamlike things while waking up. I know its possible for say sounds of a radio playing in real life appearing in a dream a little bit before waking so I'm wondering if its something like that only in reverse.... anyway thank you, any responses are greatly appreciated ^_^

Once, I woke up, and I saw the silhoutte of a vampire standing in my doorway.

I get this sometimes too... the most horrifying time was when I had a nightmare about spiders and I woke up and it looked like the whole floor was crawling with them!

I almost cried out in terror before I blinked a couple times and the image had gone, and I had come to my senses.

I recently had something like this occur (and it disturbed me enough that I found this forum because of it). The previous night, I had gotten almost no sleep at all, so when I went to bed I was in that weird state where you're so tired that it's actually hard to fall asleep. But I did, and then I woke up a couple hours later. Since I was awake, I figured I'd read, and I finished the book I was reading (mostly) before nodding off again.

Then, I had the most vivid dreams I have ever had. The entire time, I knew it was a dream -- now, normally when I realize I'm dreaming, I instantly wake up, whether it's a pleasant dream or not. Knowing it's a dream pulls me out of it. But not this time. And, even though I knew it was a dream, I had little control over my actions...it was strange.

Anyway, I woke twice after that. The first time, I don't remember what had gone on before, but when I woke I definitely saw a man's face -- not in my head, like I was thinking of someone, but right there on my retinas as if he were hovering in front of me. Disconcerting, to say the least -- but I went back to sleep.

This time, I had a nightmare. It wasn't a nightmare until the very end, but suffice it to say that in the dreamworld I thought I was about to die (or kill someone, or more likely, both). My first thought on waking was "did I actually just scream, night-terror like, or was that in the dream?" (it was in the dream) At the same time, I shot upright, as wide awake as I have ever been, and I saw something again -- and again, I SAW it, I didn't think it or visualize it, it was there, everywhere I looked (and believe me, I tried looking away, at anything else, but it was always there) -- a dead body, twitching like a zombie (with very bad CGI graphics, even).

After it faded, I stayed up and did some things around the house. Then, I actually went back to bed and had a very pleasant two hours of dreamless, zombieless sleep.

I'm glad I don't know whose face I saw the first time I woke up, because the combo of those two visions (for lack of a better word) would be a lot more terrifying if I recognized one of them.