flashes of almost lightning type light with sound

Hypnagogic phenomena is neurological and occurs as we fall asleep or are awakening. The auditory and visual hallucinations vary - have you ever thought you heard your child call you or heard a door slam - and it didn't happen? I have awakened to find strange things in my room, a VCR looking thing with large eyes observing me that disappeared with a "poof" as I stared at it; and a huge spider (think dinner plate) suspended from the chandelier above my bed - also disappeared as the terrified scream was building. I also have had the universal experience since as early as I can remember - including the sensation of astral travel, "out of body" experiences. It used to really scare me as well (I was afraid it might become permanent) but now I enjoy it.

The brain enters sleep from the frontal lobes (above the forehead) and progresses towards the back of the brain. The frontal lobes are responsible for executive thinking (planning, organizing, intentional behaviors and choices, etc), and just behind that lies the motor cortex responsible for physical movement and tasks. This is why people fall asleep at the wheel and continue to drive (until they crash!) and perform other tasks while essentially asleep - the motor cortex is not asleep yet, while the frontal lobes are. So, while not always pleasant (it can be deadly while moving through dreams without benefit of disabled motor cortex) it is normal.

Kim B.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really great to read your experiences. I have had the same experience many times, and I got quite excited by what I thought was a strange connection between my hearing and my vision. It's only after reading your posts that I realize the sound is in my head...I never knew! I always thought it was someone dropping something or slamming a door, and the flash was a result of a surge of adrenaline? The Zinc thing is interesting too, although the experience is not menacing enough that I feel I need to "cure" it. Wanted to mention something else: I have had falling, jerking, and spinning, but on occasion I also get a very strange feeling that I call the "infinity feeling". I momentarily loose all sense of scale. I feel infinite space above me such that the distance between me and an object is infinite no matter how near or far the object (often the letter H)...very hard to describe. It used to be extremely uncomfortable like a bad fever, but now I savor it, and I can sometimes induce it. Eric 24

[Michelle70]

Wow..I am so glad I happened across this forum. I've had the strange noises/flashing lights for years now (I'll be 39 next month). They only happen when I am on the cusp of falling asleep, I will 'see' a static like flash..almost like a snowy TV screen..or sometimes just like a camera flash. Often this will be accompanied by noise..best described like a door slamming or a loud cracking sound. Sometimes, a real noise..like my husband coughing or a car door slamming outside will also trigger the light flash. Sometimes these episodes are also accompanied by involuntary 'jerking' of my arm and/or a sense of 'weirdness'..it's hard to explain.. I wake up so freaked out that it sometimes triggers a full blown panic attack. It is very frightening..because you don't know what the heck is going on and you do think you must have a tumour or you are having a stroke. However..since this only happens at night, right before sleep..that does seem to point to some sleep related problem. I find that if I have time to wind down a bit..like read in bed for a good thirty minutes or more, it does not seem to happen as much. I've always been a very vivid dreamer too..not sure it's related.. I honestly do not relish these pre-sleep sound/light shows. They are very disturbing and difficult to explain to people. I have a doctor's appt for something else coming up and plan to mention this stuff to her. But even so, it is with some relief I at least know that I am not alone!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I too have had the following when trying to sleep or sleeping:

Bright red or white flash behind my eye lids when trying to got sleep. They are blinding.

Booms and cracks as im waking up or trying to fall asleep.

Sometimes i can hear a wierd tone like a constand EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sound that changes pitch as i focus on it.

I sometimes hear distant voices and sometimes music. I can never make out anything and the music seems so far away.

Sometimes i begin to feel the chills then it turns into a feeling of being electrocuted along with a loud roaring sound like a waterfall. It is very unsettling and i tend to fight it but im paralyzed.



So i spent some time researching it. Cross reference it with astral travel and hyponogic (i think thats how its spelled) sleep.

It is very interesting, this snapping and bright lights disturbing sleep. Recently been having a lot of trouble drifting off, and just as I'm about to, experience this whooshing, hard snap around the back of my head and it startles me to consciousness. My interpretation, which will not go down too well with the pragmatists and the scientific, is that it's the astral body, the one that floats off during repose. Because of the disturbance in thoughts or anxiety, the physical body can't relax enough to sleep, but is still in need of rest, so the astral body slips off anyway. Soon after, because of the restless mind still clinging to wakefulness, it jolts back in and the body is alert once more. The noise is because the conscious mind, on the cusp of sleep and half aware, can record the re-entry.
I've had this experience intermittently all my life, as I have of bobbing up an down on the verge of waking. I quite like it inasmuch as it suggests a separation of sorts, physical and ethereal.
The snap, and rapid whoosh, to me is the (silver) cord slamming back into the body.

Sure that the neurological biased will have a cogent case for the brain activity, etc.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Really great to read your experiences. I have had the same experience many times, and I got quite excited by what I thought was a strange connection between my hearing and my vision. It's only after reading your posts that I realize the sound is in my head...I never knew! I always thought it was someone dropping something or slamming a door, and the flash was a result of a surge of adrenaline? The Zinc thing is interesting too, although the experience is not menacing enough that I feel I need to "cure" it. Wanted to mention something else: I have had falling, jerking, and spinning, but on occasion I also get a very strange feeling that I call the "infinity feeling". I momentarily loose all sense of scale. I feel infinite space above me such that the distance between me and an object is infinite no matter how near or far the object (often the letter H)...very hard to describe. It used to be extremely uncomfortable like a bad fever, but now I savor it, and I can sometimes induce it. Eric 24

It is interesting how u describe the "infinity feeling". wen u say that, it reminds me of a feeling i can recall from my young childhood. very rarely i would have night terrors which i didnt/don't remeber but CAN remeber the scary feeling of what you call the infinity feeling. For me it feels like everything is really small, but at the same time, huge// very slow, but very fast. thats the best i can do to describe it because it is such a strange (and terrifying) sensation.

Also, I do get the loud whistling/pop noise accompanied by a bright flash of light just as I am falling asleep. This is so rare though that it does not concern me too much. I am curious as to exactly what this is because when it does happen it is very frusterating and heart throbbing; the last feeling you want wen trying to relax!

[laydeechaz]

I have something very different but yet very similar, i'm nearly 20, suffer from terrible Anxiety and DSPS.
It's really hard to explain, but i'll try. Basically whilst i'm falling to sleep i get this very quick loud noise in my head that sounds like when you lose the signal whilst listening to the radio on when watching the tv you get the fuzzy dots, it's very sudden but at the exact same time i get a horrible vision, it's so clear and scary, thick black and white lines from the middle of square moving around in a circle, kinda like a spiral. When it happens my whole body jolt's and wakes me up, and i have a panic attack afterwards because it has scared me so much. It almost feels like my mind has gone blank and need's to reboot itself, i've no idea what it is, but i do know i do think alot before falling to sleep so i'm very anxious which could have something to do with it, maybe it's adrenaline?
What on earth is this?
xx

Originally Posted by notcrazy(i hope)19

hi,
i don't think i have what most people on this board have (the lightening and thunder thing) but instead i had what i think was a really vivid dream (nightmare?) acompanied by a consistently flashing, blinding light and an absolutely terrifying voice which seemed to be delving right inside my head ("there's no point trying to hide, we can see you" and other similarly threatening sentiments). It was like the whole thing came from an external source (something hovering in the high corner of my room) but i know it was in my head. Trapped in a different dimension? It's hard to explain. It happened three times in, i don't know, five minutes? The first two times were the worst, the third time i managed to turn on the light.

The light was the scariest bit, it's 5.30 in the morning (well, 6.30 now). I think i may have had a minor panic attack, though it felt like i was going crazy. I came online to see if anyone else had the same thing and found this page. I was pretty much crying with relief when i read that post about all the different sleep disoders. Maybe it was a hyopnogogic hallucination, although it happened when i was waking/awake. Maybe it was just a panic attack. Nothing's ever happened like that before and to be honest i was and still am totally **** scared. Finding the courage to turn on the light helped dispell the thought that i was having some sort of supernatural expirience or visitation, which i don't believe in by the way. But right now, i can kind of understand why someone who had similar symptoms may think they were being spoken to by the devil, or abducted by aliens and i seriously hope it never happens again.

Anyone else like me? Or is my particular brand of temporary craziness unique

hi, yes i had the same thing happen to me around 5:30 a.m. And it scared the hell out of me,i woke up screaming and ready to do battle. This might sound crazy,but what you said about supernatural experiences and even ufo's are for real.
But what happened to me was far more scarey then the ufo's i've encountered or the bible supernatural experences of seeing a fire burn and yet not consume anything or seeing blue lights and the bible appear in front of me.

Hope you dodn't think i'm a nut, but i'm very sane and serious...i hope i donot have a brain tumor or have this happen again. If you dod'nt mind check out one of my sights called ( my life my dreams) you can find it on the google search engine it is on the blogger site.

By the way i'm a believer in jesus christ,i was born again in 1971 at the age of 14. I have seen and experenced a lot of supernatural thing's. I can tell you that i believe the so called aliens are fallen angels and they do say that christ is the creater of all the universe, when they confronted me in 1987 they knew me as one of his,, as a christian and they told me they would not hurt me, they only wanted to see me. This encounter lasted for over a hour.

I believe what happened to me last night was not spirit related, it has to be a chemical inbalance of some sort. At least i hope that is the answer. Hope i did not scare you or make you feel i'm crazy.

Thanks for reading,,, dale

Originally Posted by eleveniron11

for the past 15 or so yrs right before i fall asleep or soon after i go to bed (varies between 2 or 3 minutes to almost 30 minutes) i get a lightning type flash in my head and a loud crack or boom as if lightning is striking. has anyone else heard of this?? i dont have any adverse symptoms from this except it will wake me up if im almost asleep. im amazed no one else can hear it, it is so loud and it doesnt happen every night but at least 4 times a week. thanks

ok so, i believe this to be a type of sleeping disorder. your body may be creating these disturbances throughout your sleeping schedule. i would consult a doctor if this progresses.

if the doctor doesnt believe it to be a sleeping disorder, prepare to be having a psych evaluation. people dont normally hears things. it is usually a chemical unballence and this is your bodys way of telling u, "SOMETHING IS FREAKING WRONG!! o_o "

For your sake, i am betting you hope for the first. dont we all ^.^

I have something similar... I will be lying in bed, with my eyes closed, and I will UNEXPECTEDLY hear a noise. This noise is NOT in my head- like someone will drop something on the floor downstairs or my stupid bed will make a creaking noise- and I'll see something in my head (usually a flash, but sometimes I'll see other things (once, I saw the words "Paper Boy")). This actually hasn't been happening lately; I guess I've been staying up to late for people to make noise. :-|

[Blindchick]

Originally Posted by eleveniron11

for the past 15 or so yrs right before i fall asleep or soon after i go to bed (varies between 2 or 3 minutes to almost 30 minutes) i get a lightning type flash in my head and a loud crack or boom as if lightning is striking. has anyone else heard of this?? i dont have any adverse symptoms from this except it will wake me up if im almost asleep. im amazed no one else can hear it, it is so loud and it doesnt happen every night but at least 4 times a week. thanks

Try Googling "Exploding Head" syndrome. No joke, I thought in my case it might be neurolgical, as was diagnosed with epilepsy and then the diagnosis changed. Apparently a very common problem, with many sufferers, but perfectly harmless. Just the name makes it sound like a joke.

So glad that folks are discussing this. From time to time I experience the most awful auditory and visual sleep starts. So stinking loud, like cymbals crashing in my head and a bright camera flash right before I fall asleep. I find they're worst if I've been asleep for a while, wake up, then try to go to sleep again. It used to make me panic. But now I'm used to it so it just irritates the heck out of me.

My mother has always sworn by calcium/magnesium/zinc pills for lots of things, and after reading this board, I'm totally gonna start taking that.

Not sure if this info is relevant, but as a child I suffered with sleep paralysis (which is bloody terrifying), and under extreme stress, I'll have brief waking hallucinations (someone in an earlier post described seeing a huge spider. I saw a massive bug that disappeared right before I could scream bloody murder.) My dreams have also always been very vivid. In some cases I can read coherently in my dreams.