When I go to bed at night, it’s quite often the case that I experience an interesting illusion which I think probably qualifies as a hallucination of some sort.
Lying there with my eyes shut, in pitch darkness, I often find that I can ‘see’ the room - the walls, ceiling, light fittings, furniture, etc - as if I am seeing them lit by bright moonlight. It’s so compelling an illusion that the first few times it happened, I had to touch my eyelids to confirm that my eyes were indeed fully closed.
This isn’t the same as when I imagine the appearance of a room in my ‘mind’s eye’ (which is usually fairly tenuous) - this is just like actually seeing a room lit by dim moonlight - I can usually even ‘look around’ - moving my eyes (under my eyelids) and looking at various parts of the room.
I’m sure I’m not actually seeing through my eyelids, or experiencing any sort of genuine perception of reality (I suppose this could be tested by asking someone to place an unfamiliar object somewhere, but honestly, I don’t expect I would ‘see’ it).
Has anyone else heard of this phenomenon? I’ve been experiencing it for years, but only just thought to mention it when I saw that weird locked FQ thread about ‘why do people only see with their eyes open?’
One thing I probably should mention - for quite some years, it has been the case that I am the last one to retire to bed at night, and so I find my way there in complete darkness by a combination of touch and dead reckoning - I mention this because it does mean visualising the environment so I can navigate it - could that be what’s happened?
I’ve been using a blackout shade in my bedroom window for the last 1.5 years, and when I say blackout, I mean it—there’s not a speck of light in the room after I’ve pulled the shade down. I’ve noticed a couple times recently that I’m certain I can see the table next to the bed and the items on it, but if I sit up the “illusion” goes away and it really is truly pitch black in there. It’s not the entire room as you describe, but maybe just the portion I’m actively thinking about at the moment. I’ve chalked this up to my brain trying to fill in my surroundings with something to replace the darkness. And it didn’t start happening until recently, so for over a year it was just blackness. Maybe my brain has started to become bored in the dark.
I mean I don’t think I am seeing in infrared or something weird like that; I wanted to make it clear that I am not claiming to actually ‘see’ anything in any real perceptual sense.
Also, ‘pitch darkness’ might be a slight exaggeration - it’s dark enough that I can’t actually see anything much in the room even after allowing my eyes to adjust. I can maybe make out some shapes around the windows from stray moonlight leaking around the curtains, but I can’t see the whole room in the same way as I do with my eyes shut
Maybe you have 1) an unusually vivid ability to visualize and also 2) are highly familiar with your bedroom?
If you were to be taken to a bedroom that you’re unfamiliar with, given only a few seconds to glance around, then told to lie down with eyes closed, maybe you could still visualize it similar to your own home bedroom, but with much poorer memory recall.
I do know what you are talking about, and if you mean, as I believe, what you can see when lying in bed, trying to fall asleep then it is a hypnagogic visual effect. You may see a variety of other things, or distinctly hear music; same idea. People (especially 7/8-asleep people) cannot see clearly in a pitch-dark room with their eyes closed, btw!
Yeah, I can do that sometimes. It’s not quite of what I think of as a hypnogagic state, though perhaps it is. I’m pretty conscious throughout it and can open my eyes and get up quite easily. I don’t have them spontaneously, but have to kind of will myself into them. I can also have the formless blobs that sometimes appear as I’m waiting with my eyes closed to form into realistic visions of people or places, but those are very transitory – I can’t hold those for long. It’s very different than imagining something – more something like lucid dreaming and actually “seeing” what you are imagining on the backs of your eyelids (or whatever) but still being in a fairly conscious state that you can control and snap out of at any time. It’s a weird feeling. Maybe it is just a hypnogagic hallucination. I’ve had auditory ones of those, and those are quite fun, but only last about two minutes for me before I fall into sleep.
I have seen parts of my room with eyes shut going to sleep, but it’s due to my eyelids not shutting all the way (it seems they are, but obviously not). Doesn’t sound like this is the same as OP though…very interesting phenomenon.
Are they in color? I sometimes see blob-like swirls of purple when I close my eyes. Sometimes there’ll be other colors, but mostly it’s purple.
Hope this isn’t too much of a hijack, but I just looked that up, and found a very interesting article about it.
This happens to me but it’s always that it feels like I’m seeing the curtained window near the bed. But if I open my eyes, I’m not really looking there but somewhere off to the side of it. It’s more of a feeling, like the window is not where it should be in relation to my position. Like my mind made a map of things in the dark but it’s just a little off.
I don’t know - I think it might be the familiarity that’s making it possible - we moved house recently and the new bedroom has a different layout - I don’t recall experiencing the phenomenon until just recently (several months after the move)
My ability to visualise in my mind’s eye seems generally a little weak - I can do it, but it sometimes requires mental effort and the results can be tenuous and elusive. Only rarely do I picture something very vividly in my head.