How can you dream before you even fall asleep properly?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Having loads and loads of memorable dreams at the moment, many of them frankly bonkers. I thought dreams occurred during REM and that REM was during deep sleep. So how come my dreams are starting before I think I'm even asleep?

I have no idea, but it happens to me too. How can I be dreaming, and still conscious?

I once started hysterically laughing at a dream, I'd been lain down for no more than a minute DH was rolling round the bed laughing

It's called lucid dreaming I think

I get it. my thoughts slow down, and then go a bit bendy.. kind of like when you are looking at one of those fairground mirrors. i know im still awake, but all these strange random snippets of pictures and scenarios are going through my brain. odd.

I thought REM was during the light sleep phase? It's when your eyes move around, during deep sleep, you don't dream or move your eyes? Could be wrong though.

Just done a quick bit of reading at it seems that REM is the 5th stage. Which is extra odd!

Could be this?:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnogogic_hallucination

Prettyplease
That's happened to me too

It's so weird

One night my dh told me that I'd shouted out 'raspberry milk shakes all round' I'd only just closed my eyes and I don't even like milkshakes

Just to add, after posting that link above:

I used to get something similar many years ago. And they would happen as I was falling asleep. Mostly they were auditory - like snippets of conversations that had nothing to do with me. It was as though someone was turning the tuning dial on a radio that had only English-language stations; or as though I was walking down a long corridor in an office building and hearing bits of conversations from each office as I passed by. Occasionally, there would be a visual element - usually a face of someone I definitely knew I had never seen before.

It all got a bit scary, hence I did some research on the internet and discovered hypnogogic hallucinations - which occur on transitioning from awake to asleep, rather than in REM sleep.

I don't get them these days, but that maybe because I always fall asleep listening to audiobooks on my iPod - which I started using when I was having problems with insomnia.

I get it and sometimes will dream eg that I've bumped into someone when walking past them and I get a big physical 'jolty' feeling, like I've fallen into the bed from a height if that makes sense. Does anybody else get this?

Princess Yes, every night! I think it's called a myoconic jerk.

I get them pretty much every night. This morning DP got up, I checked the time, had a "dream" and checked the time again and four minutes had passed. It was so weird. I was "dreaming" but I could hear DP moving around and doing stuff, but I couldn't snap out of it. It was so odd.

Ahh, a type of myocLonic jerk called a Hypnic jerk I'm sure an ex colleague (doctor) told me it was caused by ectopic (extra) heartbeat. Anyway, it's blummin' freaky

Isn't there a theory that jerk thing is an evolutionary trait we haven't grown out of yet? As monkeys we user to sleep in trees at height and the jerk thing was to stop us falling out and dying.

Something like that.

I used to hallucinate quite regularly just before falling asleep - I'd see a child crouched by my bed, who'd be there even if I sat up and looked right at them. I haven't had it since having my own....

I always thought that jerk was actually your heart stopping because you relaxed a little too much, and the jerk was your brain restarting it..... The human body is an amazing thing!

It's hypnagogia when you're falling asleep, and hypnopompia when your waking up. It can dark and unsettling on some occasions and just odd on others, but it's harmless and quite common. Happens to me when I'm tired or stressed but can happen anytime.

The only dreams I have any recollection of are the ones that happen just as I'm falling asleep or waking up.
I have been known to have falling asleep dreams when "resting my eyes" for a moment or two during the day - which can be peculiar when I can't quite remember what is real and what is dream (I do specialise in dreams which are remarkably mundane most of the time).

Not sure alci, that seems to be more sensations based.

Dreams are freaky. I have horrible ones when I have a fan on at night.

I have that too and wondered the exact same thing.
I'm VERY sleep deprived at the mo so I don't know if its linked. If I'm struggling to get back to sleep at say 4am I will lay there for 2 hours feeling awake but dreaming at the same time til 6am. I'm constantly knackered!

Should have refreshed the page! I get the jerk thing sometimes.
Also used to get a 'demon' sitting on my bed. I'd be able to see the room but feel the weight and sensation and have complete sleep paralysis. Ugh, terrifying.

Did a bit of sleep walking last week and asked dh some very odd questions until I woke up very confused standing by the bed.

I find if i get sleep deprived I dream before my body is as asleep as my mind if that makes sense.

I do sleep walk though at times like this and have woken up in hotel corridors and inside hotel wardrobes.