Is it normal to hear voices right before falling asleep?

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26 Comments

Every night, well most nights, when I lie down and begin to fall asleep I hear voices. I feel like the word "hear" is probably a misnomer. I "hear" the voices in my mind not physiologically with my ears. Imagine that you have super hearing abilities and you are in a very crowded train station and you can hear hundreds of voices all talking at once. At first the voices sound faint and I can't distinguish one voice from another but as I slip further into sleep I can actually focus on one voice at a time. The things the voices say never make much sense in the typical way sentences do. The things they say are "word salad" and they often sound like they have an urgent message they are trying to send me but there is a problem in translation. Is this normal?

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70% Normal
Based on 105 votes (74 yes)
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Comments ( 26 )
  • NoraBaker
    11 years ago

    Ha! I love your post. This always happens to me, especially when I've had a very busy day or just spoken to too many people and my brain is still trying to process the load of information it's been exposed to. A long time ago, I remember it being as you described it, a word salad, as if I were in a huge crowded ballroom and everyone were speaking to me at the same time, and I couldn't make any of it out. With time, I realized I could focus on recognizing the speakers, sometimes the voices are of people I know, others are of strangers or famous people. Then I started paying attention, I wanted to "hear" what they were saying. Oftentimes I'd get angry at the others and try to shush them, without success. Eventually, it worked. That's when it got interesting. It's so hilarious sometimes, because it's not exactly a dream state yet, nor is it being awake anymore; and I've heard some of the most absurd shit that I would never have come up with when fully conscious. I've gotten everything, from jokes, advice - both useful and completely useless, solutions to simple problems, to incredible made-up words. Hope you start translating your voices and having fun! ;)

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      Yeah I totally agree with this comment. I have done the same thing and not only that. I actually have learned how to dream and still be aware that I am dreaming. You are able to enter a whole other world where you know that everything around you is not real. This can lead to some amazing insights that will always stick with you. I am able to do this very frequently. I also "hear voices" at night and they definitely do have relevance and meaning to the real world a lot of times often times in only a purely metaphorical sense. I agree with your advice to not fight it or see it as a problem and to just listen

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    • tobealive
      11 years ago

      you sound cool as hell, norabaker. I always forget what I "hear" but I'll start writing it down. Like you I've heard some jokes, and advice, and jibberjabber.. but when I wake up and try to think about what I just heard it comes out all weird.

      For example.. I'll doze off and hear a wise old man tell me something that makes my life makes sense. Advice to live by and something utterly reassuring. Then I'll "come back" to consciousness with this infinitely wise phrase and it'll say.. "Yes the round shadow walk walk blue."
      and I think to myself.. "so the meaning of life is 'yes the round shadow walk walk blue' nice. Way to go, me. You've figured it all out."

      ps. I've never heard the sentence "yes the round shadow walk walk blue" it isn't random enough.

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      • NoraBaker
        11 years ago

        Hey!!! I'd already forgotten about this and figured you'd left to never come back, but I'm so glad you did! It's funny, because a couple days after the reply, I thought of you! It was while I heard two very posh rich ladies talking to each other (about me and to me), sitting at a fancy café, over drinks. I can't remember crap right now, but it all made such sense at the time... Haha.

        I remember thinking about this post and about the fact that there is no turning off the voices. I was extremely tired and really wanted to go into nothingness in my mind, but they simply would not shut up. It's so annoying sometimes, isn't it?

        Yes the round shadow walk walk blue. :D

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  • Geldsmaggen
    11 years ago

    It sounds like you are somehow conscious of the beginning of your dream cycle. It means your brain's natural DMT(the dream chemical) is kicking in before the endorphins and melatonin put you to sleep when usually it happens the other way around.

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  • Larrybird
    10 years ago

    I sleep under your bed and i talk to myself.

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  • Allistalla
    11 years ago

    I do that too .

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  • myboyfriendsbitch
    11 years ago

    I did this a lot when i was a kid.when i was very young I'd see faces too, like tins of faces surrounding me... I also sometimes hear these "sounds", but they actually seem real, but somehow i know they see just in my head. It's like pooping sounds or the sound of something dropping our something.... It's weird, but it has to be really quiet and i have to be really tired to hear them.

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  • SeriouslySerious
    11 years ago

    1-800-PRIEST for your local exorcist!!

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    • tobealive
      11 years ago

      We are currently entering the mind of the person you love the most. Watch the havoc we'll wreak. Just remember. They will be "in there" with us. mmmwwaaah hahahaha!

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  • junosluttt
    11 years ago

    This happens to me sometimes, especially when I'm really tired before sleeping.

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  • Drakewolf
    11 years ago

    Its happened 2 me

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  • Avant-Garde
    11 years ago

    Sounds like me and I think it's audio hallucinations steaming from mental illness (schizophrenia to be specific). The hallucinations I hear are varied. One was bigs bunny. Another was a boy screaming at the top of his lungs at a woman. He was wearing a blue shirt, ugly fashion sense and the woman he was screaming at was blonde in a black sweater. He screamed so loud that I couldn't sleep, it was horrible. Another, was a fat British woman asking a thin and much younger British man, "Is she Irish". He said "no". Mind you I've been have rather "severe" hallucinations since I was a small child. I urge you to look up the symptoms of schizophrenia and see if they match you. The sooner the better or the condition could worsen over time.

    Good Luck!

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      im perfectly sane and this happens to me all the time. i honestly enjoy it and i find it kind of relaxing in a sense. its just part of myself so i can control it and i kind of like it. my advice is to just relax, let yourself listen to it and enjoy it, and go to sleep, get some fresh air and hang out with friends and stop worrying. If you feel you are going mad, see a doctor, but they cant solve your problems because only you can

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      • Avant-Garde
        10 years ago

        Actually, I did see a doctor, a neurologist to be exact, on the suspicion of a brain tumor. I had an MRI, but I'm still waiting for my doctor to call. :/ I haven't heard the "sleep sounds" in a while and I think that wouldn't mind them as much if they were less distracting, more gentler.

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        • [Old Memory]
          10 years ago

          I wish you luck in your battle with cancer. Hope you feel better. I'm fortunate enough to have never had such a thing as cancer but if your voices are waking you up i can say that it's best to just think of them as part of yourself. If you do that they won't seem scary and you will be able to control it. Honestly, the hearing things before bed may not have anything to with a brain tumor, it may be just part of yourself that has nothing to do with the cancer. If it bothers you, just know that they are not anything harmful and that it's part of yourself and you will likely be able to control them (in my experiences at least). Also, and most important this does not make you crazy. I am not crazy and I have had this happen before a lot

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          • Avant-Garde
            10 years ago

            I don't have cancer! Nor, do I have a brain tumor, which means that its pretty much back to square one. But thank you for your kind words anyway.

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    • tobealive
      11 years ago

      I've researched it. I think I might be borderline. My mother suffers from mental illness (never properly diagnosed) I am certain that she has multiple personalities. (no joke) I just try to use logic to tame my mind. I have felt myself slipping off into "the darkness" and I've noticed it only happens when I have been alone for long periods of time and haven't been sleeping properly.

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  • Musician
    11 years ago

    It's your consciousness, and you're actually controlling the voices and making them say whatever nonsense it is you're hearing. The sooner you realize that, the less insane you will feel. :)

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    • [Old Memory]
      10 years ago

      I agree. you can definitely control it, but you do not always know what it is going to say. its basically a waking dream really

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    • tobealive
      11 years ago

      I've felt like that before. I can imagine a voice in my mind saying what ever I want. I think most of us can. I think you have a valid point. It just blows my mind how random my brain can be if I don't fight it. It is weird how my subconscious and create sentences and relay them to my conscious at such a rapid rate. It isn't like I'm consciously imagining random sentences. I'm just listening.

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  • starkid
    11 years ago

    I've never heard of that happening. Do you think your imagining it

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    • tobealive
      11 years ago

      I'm pretty sure I'm imagining it.. or am I perceiving something "on the other side", ha but no, really I don't know. I am aware that the voices don't exist in this "reality".

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