Thread: audio sensitivity?

Hi! First post here.
Long time lucid dreamer and long time sufferer of false awakenings. (roughly 16 years).

I have a question. When I wake from a series of false awakenings and/or lucid instances, I often awaken extremely groggy....like a heavily drug induced state. This has always been the case. What is new, however, is an intense sensitivity to sounds.
For instance, recently I awoke and I was actually trying to wake up but was having a hard time forcing myself to snap out of it. As I would start to drift off my ceiling fan became louder and louder and LOUDER. The more awake I was the softer the sound, but as I started to drift back into the sleep the fan became louder and louder as I drifted further and further. This went on for sometime until I was finally able to arise. I thought the sensitivity to the audio was strange but kind of shrugged it off until tonight when I awoke again and this time instead of the fan I could actually hear the radio.
I sleep with a radio in my bed. I'm not much of a morning person and sleep through an alarm clock if it is too far away. But the radio was off. And I could clearly hear the radio. It was kind of staticy but I was definitely picking up on it. I couldnt hear it when I was fully awake but as I started to drift the radio became more and more audible.
I guess it could have been part of the dream, but it was too familiar to the fan incident for me to just write it off..

So the question is, does anyone else experience an increased sensitivity to audio waves? I tried to find some info on it but came up short.

Thanks,
Sammie

Dear Sammy,

Check your health.

Have you ever heard of morbid sensitivity?

Sometimes morbid sensitivity can be induced by trauma. I studied to be a pilot with this recently returned Vietnam Vet who had been a helicopter crewman and been shot down a few times. Once he had been sprayed with petroleum from the fuel tank, and then as the crashing helicopter caught afire, he jumped out to avoid being torched, only to break quite a few bones when he hit the elephant grass, but the burning copter was so close by that, even with more than a few compound fractures, he did an almost miraculous job of crawling away a good distance, but it must have been really painful. After that he became very light sensitive.

But just plain bad health can bring on morbid sensitities. Your lethargy is a clue. Most instances of Morbid Sensitivity occur in people suffering from hangovers. I've heard of husbands complaining about their wives, that they were chronically unhappy and complained of smells, the TV being too loud, blah blah blah.

It seems that happy and healthy people are quite satisfied with light intensities, sound levels, and the aromas of life. Sick, traumatized, and unhappy people aren't.

Mmm, well I don’t think I’m traumatized. I lead a good life. Good marriage. Good job.
My job is stressful but most people's are.
I guess the only real trauma I can think of has always been associated with sleep and dreaming. I started lucid dreaming and false awakenings years ago and it wasn’t on purpose. In fact, it was years and years before I even knew what it was. I would have given anything to make them stop at the time. Perhaps that could be seen as a post traumatic syndrome disorder to dreaming. I don’t know.
But the audio sensitivity when I wake from the states is something that is fairly new.

i've heard the theory that HI sounds are merely over amplified ambient sounds.

i wonder if you were merely entering SP on the way to WILDing? if so then this might be a nice way of getting some bio-feedback on the process.

I have to agree with VoidOfForm on this one. I have experienced similar "loud audio" when either falling asleep or just waking from sleep before.

One time, I had the theme from Star Wars playing in my head - as I was laying there, I noticed that I could actually controll the volume if I thought about it. At one point, the music got so loud that it felt as if I was right there in a concert hall - it then woke me up.

If these sounds bother you, try to convince yourself that it's all in your head control it - because you can!

I also agree is all in the head. when I attempt WILDS I tell meself that every sound I hear relaxes me more. and if I'm lucky i catch myself in SP and the sounds are crazy and all in my head.