Because it is, according to my doc. You’re looking directly at your inner thinking machinery, and moreso you can interact with it by simply asking yourself a question just before this state kicks in.

I have a little success story of using it. Previously I’ve had a fear of being late, with a heavy protective behavior, almost OCD-like. Doc wanted me to answer when and how did I get the idea that being late is so terrible. I tried hard to recall, but only simple reinforcement events came up to mind. Then he said that I should either fall asleep in that session (failed it), or repeat the question before I go to sleep at home. Just in few seconds my subconscious presented me the correct event from my childhood in full detail. One session later I was free of that fear, and now can easily plan 4-5 meetings in a row in different parts of the city, an unimaginable thing for me before.

During this time sleep paralysis is almost always in effect. Basically I can listen and think, but there is a gate on my muscles - small motions like twitching my fingers won't work, strong motions cut through (and immediately stops the paralysis). To me it generally happens when my mind is about to switch off and I am on the verge of falling asleep.

1) Weird things like this happen to me most often in the early morning hours when I'm still drowsy but I've woken up for a few minutes.

2) It is sometimes accompanied by a "whooshing" sensation that used to frighten me and usually caused me to "back out" into normal consciousness. Eventually I learned how to relax and let it unfold without panicking. Quite often I have the sensation of rolling out of my body, off the bed and onto the floor.

3) I am paralyzed when it happens, in the sense that if I move my hand, the hand that moves is a dream hand. My real hand of course doesn't move. It doesn't feel like paralysis because I can "move" in my dream. But I am consciously aware that my real body is lying still in bed.

4) I have to be very careful not to wake myself especially at the beginning (edit: and being careful is paradoxical because if I am too careful then that will wake me too, sort of like the paradox of needing to be both loose and tight in sports). I am also aware that if my wife coughs or makes some kind of noise, I might wake up. I have discovered an odd remedy for this however: if I make "dream noise" - for instance, if I shuffle my feet loudly in the dream - I am less likely to be woken by real noise from the real world.

I have this too, i asked around and people just found it weird.

Most also don't remember their dream, but i can remember the last one for about 10 minutes before it fogs away.

If i want to continue it. I need to remember the last thing that happened and the first moments i can control what's going to happen until something else takes over. It's the only reason I would go back to sleep again, if the dream was really "nice".

I also think I can control a dream and I mostly realize that I'm dreaming. Then I think about: "hey, this is really weird what's happening here, I'll wake up now. Since this is just a dream. It can't be real."

There's also one time I totally didn't realize it at all. And something embarrassing happened. But I drank alcohol the night before and it must have been related to that.

Sometimes people say they can have conversations with me, while I definitely was sleeping. You could ask any question than and I'd answer ( even the kind that you shouldn't ask)

( Didn't read the article yet)

I can't remember the last time I had a dream. Months ago probably.

Random question but - do you consume any caffeine?

My sleep is like blink of an eye. It's night, I close my eyes, then I open them, and there is morning already. I's always the same, no matter how long I have slept, whether I am well rested or tired.

Since the time feels so compressed during my sleep, I can't help but feel that sleep is, kinda, a waste of time.

Usually I have 2-3 coffees per week. I drink a lot of various types of tea daily, though.

For me, I usually will wake up once in the night, and fall back to sleep quickly. This adds to a sense of time. Also, waking up in the morning it's distinctly more cold, I feel distinctly more groggy, etc. I definitely get a sense that time has passed...

But if you're asking if I am ever aware that I'm sleeping and conscious of the minutes passing by? No, never. I fall asleep, time passes, I wake up (but, unlike you, I do feel like time passed...)

And just to be clear, I didn't mean that I fall asleep as soon I close my eyes. It's just that there is no "transition" between being conscious and sleeping. And then, suddenly, I'm awake.

I have that idea that my mind suppresses the memories of dreaming and falling asleep, because when I was a kid I had two recurring nightmares that I dreamed of almost every night. Still, never did proper research on this topic.

edit: typo

My suspicion is eventually the brain says “oh you care about this? Okay cool I’ll hold on to them for longer.”

Give it a couple of weeks you might be surprised.

edit:grammar

Or quitting cannabis, in which case I have vivid and wild dreams for a couple weeks and then back to normal.

Then these shocks also started happening before sleep, before entering or inside this N1 state, basically I would "hard on" consciously notice I am drifting which kind of catapulted me back into full consciousness. Though, it wasn't hard to start slipping back into sleep unless nervous for next day stuff.

I am not a lucid dreamer, I think I experienced that once but it was very ...murky, like a typical dream afterwards. Same for sleep paralysis, happened few times but it's rare and as far as I remember, it wasn't fear inducing.

Also, needs to be noted that my "sleep organization" is pretty fucked up and I often end up sleeping less hours then I would normally need, for days, refilling the deficit thru weekends.

Yes, often toward the end of this near-dreaming state, just before entering deeper sleep. I experience a sensation like entering a free fall and lose the ability to move. It takes quite a lot of energy to climb back out of it and regain the ability to move.

Just curious as someone who has never had any of these N1 experiences, what might I be missing...

> The images are sometimes so absurd and creative that I almost laugh to myself.

For me the images and thoughts are absurd but in a terrifying way. I usually wake up when this happens. I analyze the thoughts and images after waking up and they make absolutely no sense, yet in my sleep they make me very very afraid/upset, disturbing enough to make me get up terrified. I have anxiety disorder, and that's most certainly causing me to feel this way.

I also get voices speaking random gibberish that gets progressively louder which forces me to get up from my sleep. After getting up I'm usually like 'wtf was that' and go back to sleep.