Strange sleep states

So I've been having these strange sleep states lately when I take naps.

Sometimes I'll just be laying there and I will start to see an image, a scene or sometimes some kind of experience that I have had repeatedly lately(I found myself drinking out of this big cup of water that I almost always drink out of a few times). Sometimes these will become dreams and often when they do I am aware that I am dreaming immediatly, though I don't have much awareness or any control. I find that if I anticipate these dreams, the image vanishes and I'm just laying there in bed with my eyes closed again, but if I don't think about them then they can unfold. Is this in anyway an induction technique or related to one? I don't think that this is what hypnagogic imagery is, but I don't really know much about HI.

I've also been having this other experience where I will be sleeping and a normal dream ends and I don't wake up, then while in a dreamless sleep I become aware of my thoughts and realize that I am am sleeping but not dreaming. When I find myself in this state I can start visualizing something, like a memory, and when I start to get visual I can enter into a lucid dream in this scenery. The problem is that in this state I'm very aware/affected by sleep paralysis and I can barely even move. Is this "dremless sleep" actually dreamless sleep, or is it possible to have a dream with no visual?

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Originally Posted by stonedape

So I've been having these strange sleep states lately when I take naps.

Sometimes I'll just be laying there and I will start to see an image, a scene or sometimes some kind of experience that I have had repeatedly lately(I found myself drinking out of this big cup of water that I almost always drink out of a few times). Sometimes these will become dreams and often when they do I am aware that I am dreaming immediatly, though I don't have much awareness or any control. I find that if I anticipate these dreams, the image vanishes and I'm just laying there in bed with my eyes closed again, but if I don't think about them then they can unfold. Is this in anyway an induction technique or related to one? I don't think that this is what hypnagogic imagery is, but I don't really know much about HI.

I've also been having this other experience where I will be sleeping and a normal dream ends and I don't wake up, then while in a dreamless sleep I become aware of my thoughts and realize that I am am sleeping but not dreaming. When I find myself in this state I can start visualizing something, like a memory, and when I start to get visual I can enter into a lucid dream in this scenery. The problem is that in this state I'm very aware/affected by sleep paralysis and I can barely even move. Is this "dremless sleep" actually dreamless sleep, or is it possible to have a dream with no visual?

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the first one is hypnagogic images. Sounds like you are really close to a very good WILD :D as for the second one im gonna say thats a DEILD but im not positive about it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stonedape

I've also been having this other experience where I will be sleeping and a normal dream ends and I don't wake up, then while in a dreamless sleep I become aware of my thoughts and realize that I am am sleeping but not dreaming. When I find myself in this state I can start visualizing something, like a memory, and when I start to get visual I can enter into a lucid dream in this scenery. The problem is that in this state I'm very aware/affected by sleep paralysis and I can barely even move. Is this "dremless sleep" actually dreamless sleep, or is it possible to have a dream with no visual?

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Sleeping but not dreaming sounds like NREM dreams, which are more thought like.

Sleep paralysis occours during REM sleep, and indeed seems to occour in the thresholds between NREM and REM sleep.
Could be that your catching this sweet spot in your transtions.

Yup, it's called the Hypnagogic Imagery Technique, it's a kind of WILD sounds like you're good at it!!! :boogie:

Thanks for all the comments. I've always wanted to epxeriment with wilds and this has me really excited.

So it is hypnagoic imigary. From the descriptions I've read in the past I always thought that it would be much more abstract and then slowly form into something more realistic.

Now that I know that this is similar to a wild I'm definately gonna try wilding soon(only one more week of classes so I'll have lots of time next week). Wilds always sounded really intense from other people's descriptions, but now that I've had a bit of experience with this they don't seem that crazy or difficult.