Nightmares (dreams)

[Son of David]

For some reason, although I staunchly claim not to be homosexual, if I entertain homosexual thoughts while depressed I suddenly lighten up and start singing and smiling.

Yet I would never actually go out and do those homosexual acts I keep fantasizing about - I'm not gay!

[Tiamat]

Astral Projection?

[Son of David]

I'll make one or two suggestions although I'm not an expert (so watch out ):

Restricted movement: maybe you feel a desire to move, or travel, or to abandon some present enterprise, or find a new job, or just do something radically new, but feel held back by responsibilities or feel as if you could never manage it. It might even be something that you feel as if you love more than anything that your unconscious is saying is holding you back.

The other possibility is that perhaps you feel the need to progress in something, maybe a promotion at work, or a social achievement of some kind, but so doing would upset the routine you have established and feel happy with.

Well, I make these suggestions, simply to suggest a line of thought you could take. Chances are I'm just talking crap.

[Nostromo]

Hypnagogia (also spelled hypnogogia) and hypnopompia are experiences a person can go through when falling asleep in the case of hypnagogia, or waking up, in the case of hypnopompia. When in a hypnagogic or hypnopompic state a person can have lifelike auditory, visual, or tactile hallucinations (collectively known as hypnagogic hallucinations), perhaps even accompanied by full body paralysis. The individual is aware that these are hallucinations; the frightening part, in many cases, is the inability to react to them, even being unable to make a sound. In other cases one may enjoy truly vivid imaginations. The term was coined by the 19th century French psychologist Alfred Maury. Many artists, musicians, architects, engineers, and others demanding creativity to be successful have benefited from the hypnagogic state, where the mind can be totally free and open to creative and new ideas.

Hypnagogia differs from hypnosis in that under ordinary hypnosis, people are physically inactive, and generally find their mental stimulus to be absorbing to the point that they don't differentiate between that stimulus and reality. In hypnagogic states, a person may appear to be fully awake, but still has brain waves indicating that they are still technically sleeping. Also, in hypnagogic trance states the individual may be completely aware that they are sleeping or hallucinating, while this is not generally the case with hypnosis.

It is not an uncommon occurrence with 30 to 40 percent of people experiencing it at least once in their lives. However, it can be a sign of other problems such as narcolepsy or temporal lobe epilepsy.

People in the hypnagogic state sometimes experience sleep paralysis, a condition in which the body is temporarily paralyzed after waking or before falling asleep. This is thought to happen when a person enters or leaves REM (rapid eye movement) sleep too quickly. During REM sleep the brain blocks the signals that allow the limbs to move to ensure that we do not act out our dreams. However, when experiencing hypnagogia or hypnopompia, the individual is still conscious of their surroundings, effectively dreaming while still awake. This fact enables lucid dreamers to enter the dream consciously directly from waking state (see wake-induced lucid dream technique).

The cause of hypnagogia and hypnopompia is usually associated with the varied sleep disorders, primarily insomnia.

Hypnagogia is often proposed as an explanation for phenomena such as alien abduction and visions of saints or demons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnogogic_hallucination

[Unspeakable Horror]

Common:
Sensing a "presence" (often malevolent)
Pressure/weight on body (especially the chest). See for example the painting in the beginning of this article.
A sensation of not being able to breathe
Impending sense of doom/death

I had that (except for the first one) usually after taking a nap, it´s a really bad thing, I hate that

[Vince278]

Unspeakable Horror in a thread about Nightmares. Reminds me of the Lovecraft I was reading last night (try that before bedtime ).

[Unspeakable Horror]

[Nostromo]

Unspeakable Horror in a thread about Nightmares. Reminds me of the Lovecraft I was reading last night (try that before bedtime ).

You're a wuss, Lovecraft can't even scare little girls

[Vince278]

Originally posted by nostromo
You're a wuss, Lovecraft can't even scare little girls

Seeing that he's been dead for 70 years I'd say he would do a good job of it.