[Apollo]

OK, so on Wednesday I was taking a Spanish exam. Me and everyone else in the class finished in about forty-five minutes, and we were left with over an hour until the next class. I wasn't tired, but since it was the quickest way to pass time I decided to go to sleep.

I was partially awake for a long time, and I'm not sure if I ever fully went to sleep. After a while, I was dreaming while still having a faint hold on consciousness. I clearly saw other places and felt (to a limited extent) physical sensations like I would in a regular dream--although this one was extremely disorganized, possibly more than most (I don't remember most of my dreams, so I'm not sure). At one point I physically felt myself typing on a keyboard (though in a faint, imaginative way) while being aware that it wasn't real and dimly recognizing that I was still in Spanish class. I also saw various other things (at one point I was staring at a country road, for example). And all throughout this period I was aware I was dreaming (time also seemed to pass much faster), although I had some difficulty remembering this at times. At one point I woke up briefly, and by the end of the class I felt like I'd just had a very poor night's sleep (that feeling passed fairly quickly, which is fortunate because I soon had another exam).

I'm not sure if it's technically accurate to say I was dreaming, as I was still in between sleep and consciousness when it happened. Still, this experience interested me. I also wonder if extended periods of half-sleep could be restful, considering that it has some of the same effects.

[General Battuta]

In the long run you need REM for sleep to count.

[Apollo]

In that case what would happen if I was half-asleep for eight hours (just hypothetically, I know that's almost impossible).

[General Battuta]

I don't know! I do know that 'microsleep' and weird alternative sleep schedules involving numerous very brief naps can work out.

[IronBeer]

Uberman sleep schedule!

[Apollo]

Interesting. I wonder how you'd prevent yourself from sleeping longer than intended, considering that alarm clocks have little effect on some people.

[deathfun]

Extreme amounts of self control and self discipline

[redsniper]

Or you just wouldn't if you were one of those people not affected by alarm clocks.

[Dragon]

I think I've had more than a couple of experiences like you described, about 2 years ago. It was a Polish language lesson, with a boring teacher, at 7:00 (essentially requiring me to get up at 4:30, I live far away from the school) and I'm not a morning person. Not to mention I was much more active in various FS projects back then, so I often stayed up late to catch people from different time zones on IRC. When I usually didn't remember a thing from those (in most cases I took notes somehow, but if I didn't, it was awkward asking my classmates for the info I should have), few times I was more awake than usual (the usual being, IIRC, passing out into black for a short time, not long enough to get dreams) I remember it being pretty much like you described. It was like the real life was running fullscreen in the background, with something else (in most cases more interesting) running windowed on top of it. Sometimes it was difficult to tell the dream from reality.

It's a bit of a fuzzy memory, because by the end the 1st year at high school I felt like I'd end up hospitalized if this continued for much longer (well, that, and there was this time I almost walked in front of a car when crossing the street on my way to school. I started skipping that blasted lesson after that), so my parents made arrangements so I won't have to get up this early anymore. I don't know about the others (it's different for every person, some of my classmates didn't had problems getting up that early), but this kind of "sleep" hardly provided me any rest, or at least not enough of it to make me feel comfortable for the rest of the day.

[watsisname]

@Apollo

Yes, you were in a dream/REM state, and to anyone watching you'd appear to be in a daze or just 'not there'.  Sounds like you may have been making up for lost sleep from the preceding night(s), as that makes it easy to pass into REM very quickly; almost the instant you put your head down and close your eyes. 

Reminds me of similar thing that happened to me during a summer calculus course, where I had fallen behind on my sleep for a week and so at the end of it I found myself passing out repeatedly with my head up, even though I had gotten almost a full 8 hours the night before.  I'd close my eyes and instantly go into a dream were I was sitting there paying attention as normal.  Then I'd open my eyes and everything would be exactly the same -- dream and reality were totally indistinguishable.  Quite surreal.

[Apollo]

@Apollo

Yes, you were in a dream/REM state, and to anyone watching you'd appear to be in a daze or just 'not there'.  Sounds like you may have been making up for lost sleep from the preceding night(s), as that makes it easy to pass into REM very quickly; almost the instant you put your head down and close your eyes. 

Reminds me of similar thing that happened to me during a summer calculus course, where I had fallen behind on my sleep for a week and so at the end of it I found myself passing out repeatedly with my head up, even though I had gotten almost a full 8 hours the night before.  I'd close my eyes and instantly go into a dream were I was sitting there paying attention as normal.  Then I'd open my eyes and everything would be exactly the same -- dream and reality were totally indistinguishable.  Quite surreal.

My experience was a little different than that. It took me a couple of minutes to enter that state, and while I was dreaming I still retained a very limited ability to perceive the real world.

[Klaustrophobia]

this kind of thing happens to me on a regular basis.  usually in situations where i'm trying to fall asleep or fighting to stay awake not entirely succeeding at either.  most commonly while studying intensely boring material while already tired for the latter, and the 30 minute snooze after a first alarm or going back to sleep after having woken up early on a weekend for the former. 

these occurrences are not restful at all for me, since the resulting dream-esqe state is horrifyingly convoluted and even more nonsensical than normal, and the awake part of me knows this and is actively fighting it.  it's REALLY disconcerting when the piping systems of a reactor start drawing themselves out in your head like that old screen saver.  and then one of the teenage mutant ninja turtles wanders into the scene and starts talking to you.  and then you start to mentally correct the errors in the pipe maze in your head.  no, that's a diverting valve there, not a t-junction.  o.0

however, the best restful period i've ever had was after an about 36 hour day, where i just collapsed on my bed and stared at the ceiling for about 3 hours completely awake, not moving a muscle.  i think dinner is what made me get up, and when i did i felt like i had slept for a week and felt awesome.  if i had an exam to take or a soccer game to play i would have owned that ****.  i think i probably blacked out and got my real sleep in later that night, but i don't remember.

[achtung]

What you experienced is called lucid dreaming. You can get yourself to do it regularly with practice. First time I managed to do it I flew a Jeep around a coal tipple near a lake. I managed to realize I was dreaming when I moved both hands in opposite directions on the steering wheel, and the wheel "turned" both ways. The sleep you get while lucid dreaming doesn't count for much though.

[watsisname]

I disagree; some of my most restful sleeps included long lucid dreams.  It's the bad sleep scheduling that's the problem.

[achtung]

I disagree; some of my most restful sleeps included long lucid dreams.  It's the bad sleep scheduling that's the problem.

Well I tend to feel less rested when I experience it. The people I've talked to that do it lots say it makes sleep less restful, but it is highly dependent on the person I would guess.

[Klaustrophobia]

lucid dreaming and semi-consciousness aren't really the same thing.

[Dragon]

Exactly. I had a few experiences with lucid dreaming. While I never bothered training myself to do that all the time though, I think I could do that with a bit of practice. One thing's for sure, it was restful, though hard to wake up from. Semi-consciousness happened to me on a regular basis (I described the usual situation when I've gotten this) and the only thing I got from this was just enough rest to somehow make it to the end of the school, travel back and fall asleep the moment I got home.

[Kopachris]

It seems no one here knows a lot about sleep.  I wonder why.

Apollo, what you experienced is hypnagogia.  Everyone experiences hypnagogia during the onset of sleep, though in bed, with its lack of sensory input, it's less likely to include interesting "effects" like you describe than when active during the day.

[Apollo]

*reads page*

So I was actually hallucinating while at the edge of sleep.

I've often had minor tactile hallucinations like feeling my skin crawl, but not this horribly disorganized mess--maybe my very thin hold on consciousness explains that?

[Kopachris]

*reads page*

So I was actually hallucinating while at the edge of sleep.

I've often had minor tactile hallucinations like feeling my skin crawl, but not this horribly disorganized mess--maybe my very thin hold on consciousness explains that?

Yes.  Hypnagogia is generally the borderline between conscious and unconscious, where sensory input is still accepted and processed, even when only simulated by the brain waves associated with sleep.  Your senses start out as nervous signals, which are then passed on to specialized centers of the brain to be turned into patterns that your frontal lobe (and other parts of the brain) can process.  During the onset of sleep, those specialized centers can still accept input from your nerves and generate semi-random patterns themselves.  Your Spanish class probably provided enough input for your conscious mind to remain active, your frontal lobe continuing to process both genuine sensory input and the semi-random patterns together.  When your frontal lobe tries to make sense of mixed up data like that, the result is usually confusing hallucinations.

Okay, I'm making this **** up, but to someone who has a vague, but accurate, impression of how the brain works, it makes sense, doesn't it?