“Hallucinations” at the wake-sleep and sleep-wake boundary, does anyone else get these?

That's normal. Your brain is technically still in sleep mode, but you're also conscious, so naturally, hallucinations may happen. It's happened to me too, as well.

I’ve been getting sleep hallucinations over the last six years or so, mostly after settling down to sleep but some are early in the morning.

The hallucinations are visual but often there is a voice that is giving me a command or telling me to do something. The voice would say something like “turn around” or “put the box on the table” and it would repeat the command and get louder which causes me to wake up. When I wake up, the visual part of the hallucination doesn’t relate to the voice but then the details disappear from my memory. The memory of the voice stays with me for a while. It has never felt threatening, unlike nightmares which are horrible. 

I had been wondering about these strange states so your post inspired me to check them out. It’s reassuring (for me) that they have a name and that others experience them.

The Fortean Times magazine has done quite a few articles over the years on hypnagogic sleep states and the commonalities around them and how they've triggered some folklore tropes.

Thank you everyone who replied to my post here, I hadn’t appreciated how common they are so hearing your stories makes me feel a bit better. 

Im teaching myself a technique to help go to sleep peacefully and without these events …. A therapist not so long ago did that guided meditation thing, too often their idea of a calm special place but definitely not mine. She helped me locate in my memories my truly special places and times, some are urban, some in nature, all dependent on who or indeed not with. So as I lie down I to sleep I fill my head with one of these places and times, last night it was on mum and dad’s canal boat cruising the Grand Union on the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border. So as these memories are completely real and quite detailed they push away the dark and troubled stuff, falling asleep I have less and less brain space for ruminating on negatives as the imagery and sensations and emotions of the time Im focusing on take over. And then without realising Im calmly asleep. Its early days but this focusing real positive memories instead of negative pasts is really helpin

A xxx

I did not have exactly the same issue as you but did have a phase when my dreams felt so real they caused me distress when I woke up.

At the time I was recommended to try lucid dreaming - a technique by which you learn to identify when you are in a dream state even when asleep and can use your conscious brain to control the dreams, stealing their power to affect you and giving you the ability to chose your own storylines with practice.

There is a decent article about it here:

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/dreams/lucid-dreams

I would recommend speaking to your GP at the least before you consider trying it and being aware that it can take many attempts to get to be good at it.

I get them too, often when I'm reading and am falling asleep, it's usually a good sign that I need to stop reading and turn the light off and go to sleep. I don't ever remember not having things like this and it did scare me as a child, but now they don't bother me.

Thanks V. My mind can make crazy visions out of shadows or the blinds catching the wind. Mostly I find sleep unpleasant, often just broken to pieces with nightmares too. I prefer to sleep in the light, daytime if possible, but with gentle lights at night if not. Unfortunately my wife is one who needs pitch darkness. We have a compromise sorted but were I not retired now working would be completely impossible. Incidentally it really began in my early years, I took children’s bible stories and victorian drawings in for instance Alice in Wonderland very literally and often sat in my bed in the dark convinced the devil would smash through the glass window and drag me down to hell.

I get these sleep hallucinations very often, like 5.minutes ago and yesterday when travelling by train.  I am starting to fall asleep and I wake up before I'm fully asleep.

It's happened to me a lot over the years, to the point I'm not sure it's hypnopompic hallucinations as it happens before I sleep and just after I wake up. I've seen "Shadow people"  a lot within seconds of waking up. I've also had noises and sounds carry over from my dreams that get heard in the real world (One example from my childhood was where I had a dream in a toy store, dropped the toy, and my wakeup was simultaneous with the dream so I heard the toy fall on my bedroom floor). I've also had mornings where I seem to struggle to get "motivated" so when I'm out of bed I can still feel I'm dreaming for a few minutes or so until I'm a bit more regulated.

A more common phenomena I have though is just as I get to sleep sleep (as in, turn over and finally drift off) my body goes haywire, like fight or fight, it's either a feeling of falling, getting crushed or eaten alive, either way I'll usually wake right up from my sleep within seconds screaming "OH SH**" or "F-word HELL!". I'm wide awake after that usually. 

The only real catalyst is having an atrocious sleep pattern. I can do anything from only get 30 minutes sleep, wake up in double figures in one night (I'll still be too tired to do anything, but I'll know I'm awake) and have frequent night terrors (despite the fact I'm aware I am dreaming due to frequent lucid dream attempts). There's no way I could ever share a bed with a partner sadly.

I can relate to having hypnogogic hallucinations.

Twice I was hallucinations in daylight, while going to the shops. Nobody helped me. 

Last year I had to move my notice board and mirror in my bedroom as was hallucinating in the night. 

Recently I was hallucinating. 

Some people think it's a joke by laughing at me and not understanding.

One day I may have an accident by walking into the hallucinations. 

Think mine is down to tiredness.