Have you ever had a Lucid dream or a Hypnagogic hallucinations

I've just had, yet another very disturbing night.

This time about last university course.

In reality I passed, although I was disappointed with my grade. My overall mark was 68%, just 2% below the distinction. 

In my dreams,  I was behind in my lectures, I couldn't remember where my lectures were, which building, which room? What time? I forgot the password to get into my online account to find the information.  I was In a complete state of panic.

In reality I'm very conscientious,  keeping multiple records of passwords and trying to be reliable and ontime. 

I woke up in a sweat my hair all sweaty and greasy,  standing up.  I look and feel awful.

Were you going to the Leaky Cauldron on the Knight Bus?

I've just woken up, and I am exhausted. 

In my dream,  I and a friend were travelling on a bus to a distant tourist village, the journey was exciting and terrifying,  the narrow twisting country roads, the bus speeding, overtaking other traffic, the view from the bus was fantastic. I'm knackered. 

Must get some peaceful sleep.

This reminds me of dreams where I met famous people and wanted to take a selfie with them and wished that it would still be on my phone when I woke up

How about sleep being when you slide sideways into a parallel dimension?     As there are infinite universes, odds are the one you slide into is extremely similar to the one you just left - so you don't notice.

As you go through life sliding every time you sleep, as you get older, you're more likely to jump onto a separate parallel branch that split off earlier where you don't recognise things - is this dementia?

As more time goes by, you're on such a different branch that that split off much earlier in your life that you don't recognise anything....   Even the people claiming to be your family....

Are hallucinations just the bit in that day's parallel world that you happen to notice as different?

When lucid dreaming try asking the people in your dream if they are real and see what they say, I tried to swap phone numbers or emails addresses, I dont think they exist in this universe. Usually when lucid you are in between waking up and sleeping its like walking along a tightrope, there is only once where I tried to wake my self up but couldn't and that was because a virus was turning people into monkeys, That was a weird one.

That`s interesting, I wonder if the serotonin system is more related to abstract visuals such as typical LSD trip vs dopamine dream like visuals of seeing people such as mescaline ?

It dose sound like we all have a over expression of re-uptake channels on our serotonin/dopamine systems, i guess the ratios affect people differently.

I have lucid dreams every so often, maybe two or three times a year. My non-lucid dreams are usually pretty vividly details and I often remember them clearly when I first wake up. I started keeping a dream diary at one point, but now I only write them down if they particularly stand out. 

I had to look up what hypnagogic hallucinations are, and although I don't have them now I did used to get them quite often when I was young. The most memorable one, and probably the only one that my parents would also remember was when I had wallpaper in my bedroom that had nursery rhyme characters all over it (I was very young at the time!) and they kept moving. My mum had to redecorate my room after that one!

I also remember in later childhood I would often wake up but be unsure as to whether I was actually awake or if I was still asleep. 

It's pretty rare but I have had some special types of dreams which are similar to definition of the ones you mention although it's pretty hard to categorise them exact as my memories of these are quite vague after a long time. I beleive that everyone dreams but not everyone remembers them. Most people I know do not seem to dream as often or as vividly as me. I have had  different 7 dreams in one night before but usually I will only remember 1 or 2. I am more likely to remember dreams if I have shorter sleeps or am woken up early.

Lucid dreams: I have a few of these a year (which I remember). It usually involves something like me realising that it is a dream and then giving myself some superpowers such as flying or floating, teleporting, driving an expensive car which I am interested in. Another part may be realising it is a dream and being with a girl in a sexual way since I know it isn't real. Usually once I realise it is a dream it will not last much longer.

Hypnagognic hallucinations: These tend to take place in the room I am currently sleeping in. Around a year after my great-grandmother died I had a dream that a ghost of her was across the room from me and said she's ok. When I was younger I used to have nightmares of scary things out of cartoons being in my room as if they were actually there. More recently I once dreamt that a badger was on top of my bed and jumped up awake, another time I must have hallucinated that there was lava coming through the floor of my bedroom (red light light on extension lead) and jumped out of my bed and tried to escape through my cupboard half asleep.

I have also experienced dreams which seem to go on forever or are insanely detailed and vivid with senses such as touch being so realistic. Some recent ones of these were like I was Bran from Game of Thrones going back in time and watching things from third person unseen. In one I was spying on someone and in another I was at my great grandparents house when they first built it and they were in the garden.

Another thing is occasionally when I am half asleep trying to fall asleep I will associate the unpleasant feeling of actually needing the toilet with something else like another problem but it's very hard to explain.

Just to add I have been diagnosed with a mild form of autism but I am on no medication or drugs and have never hallucinated while awake LOL

In my opinion the link between autism and these dreams may be good memory?

I have always had hypnagogic (just before falling asleep) and hypnopompic (on awakening) hallucinations. Very occasionally they involve people but usually are abstract. My avatar is a painting by the synaesthete artist Carol Steen of a hypnagogic hallucination.

I always thought they are probably related to my sound to colour/shape synaesthesia.

I also have somatic, olfactory and proprioceptive hallucinations - the full works.

Phenomena like synaesthesia and hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are more prevalent in the autistic community.

Most SSRIs increase these hallucinations - for me anyway.

cool, will give it a read.

glitches in the matrix.

Are dreams what we think they are ?
If the multiverse is real and you believe in quantum physics and entanglement, then is it not possible our dreams are fragmented views of other peoples life's fragmented because we dont understand. Its almost at times I know the directions to places that dont exist in my dreams, as if there is some sort of universal shared memory, we are the universes expressing it self.

There is nothing to be scared off, sometimes its weird, others its creepy.
If you wake up paralysed, all you need to do is close your eyes and try to go back to sleep.
I was scared at first as a child, now its a weird thing, I used to lucid dream a lot too.

Meditation also increases lucid dreaming, If you read about the different stages of the bardo it kind of makes sence.

I had a brain injury a few years ago and suffered / enjoyed a series of hallucinations for some time afterwards.

None were scary - as an engineer, I was fascinated by my own brain producing a 110% real reality for me on-the-fly.

The smaller ones were extra people in my peripheral vision - a person sitting on the other sofa reading a book.   The were dressed in jeans, a heavy white jumper and work boots with their ankles crossed and I could see them turning the pages of the book.     If I looked directly at them, they weren't there - but if I watch the tv again, they appear again  (it's about a 30 degree angle off to the side).

Another clear peripheral vision was a little white dog playing in the hallway and chasing his own tail - again, if I looked directly, he wasn't there. 

Another was people walking between two rooms across the hall - too quickly for me to turn to look directly.

Another was one wall in the bedroom having textured wallpaper - even though it's plain plaster - I could examine it closely and leave the room but it was still there when I came back - just one wall.  

These are all middle of the day, good light and I was fully awake and could describe it to my wife in real time.

I suffer with night time hallucinations. Its well scary. 

There’s some good answers in this thread from a few months ago

community.autism.org.uk/.../124402