Recently while crashing at a friends house after a party. I saw something strange. My friend was sleeping, and when he was nudged he seemed to wake up. We could ask him questions and he would give answers. (mostly jibberish, occasionally coherent). When he woke up he didn’t remeber anything and said that he slept soundly throught the night. He only answered questions when we started them with his name, and some of the answers made sense and were correct. my questions are…
Is there a name for this half-awake/half-asleep state of consciousness?
Does anyone know what parts of the brain are active during this quazi-sleep?
I’ve got an old friend, Hernan, who used to purposely induce this sleep-awake state, claiming it was a cheap, harmless high. So my friends and I call it the Hernanzone.
I remember times when i’ve half-woken up and thought on a problem and come up with some really wierd answers. (Most of the times it seemed like the logic was ok but it was based on some really wierd assumptions.) How do you create this condition by yourself? (other than sleep deprivation, which i would think is something else, though i could be wrong there.)
When I was 14 yo or so, in a holiday camp, I remember having had with some other boys some debate about people speaking and possibly answering during their sleep. I got the idea to feign an agitated sleep some moments later, with the expected result : my friends, as soon as they were convinced I was asleep, began to ask questions. I mixed incoherent gibbership and seemingly half asleep responses.
When I had enough of it, I mimicked a sudden awakening. I had a point in doing that (apart from enjoying their attempts to conceal the fact they attempted to extract some personnal informations while I was asleep), but I don’t remember which (though it was most certainly related to them testifying to some member of the opposite sex that I had “unknowingly” said something).
That said, I assume your friend wasn’t in the same situation. I’ve no specific response except that if someone doesn’t fully awake, or is awaken only for a very short time, this person usually never remember what he has done or say. It doesn’t “print” in the long-term memory.
My husband does this. he talks in his sleep, we have coherent conversations, and he doesn’t remember a word of it when he wakes up. I have to make sure that if I’m telling him something he really must know that he’s vertical when i say it to him.
I do this all the time. My sister plays games on me with it. It’s true you cant remember a thing. How on earth do you get yourself into the state though like one responders friend did.
My dad and I have this trait in common. At one time, he accepted a proposal from my now-stepmother.
My most amusing story is as follows:
Last year I was in one of the college computer labs typing up 2 15-page lab reports. At about 5:30, I dozed off at the keyboard. I took this as a sign that I should go home and go to sleep.
Fast forward to 10:30 that day. I woke up with the cordless phone in my bed. Now my bed last year was lofted from about 13 feet off the floor (we had high ceilings), so the phone couldn’t have just fallen into my bed. I find it odd, but didn’t dwell on it too much, because I had to hand those reports in at 11. On my way out the door, one of my roommates says “So was that your mom who called this morning?”
I was taken aback. After giving her a look that says “What are you talking about?” she elaborated. “It was at about 8:30 this morning. I’m sure I gave you the phone. I even heard you talking,” she adds. I had (and still have) absolutely no recollection of this conversation. After classes, I called my mom and asked her what I said. She didn’t call. I called my stepmother . . . still no luck. Eventually I discovered that it was someone from work, asking me to take a shift. Evidently I said no, and also said I was tired.
So there you go–I had an entire conversation in that state. I even remembered to turn off the phone when I was done.
Later on that year, I asked another roommate to wake me up from a nap. I specified to make sure I physically got out of bed, as I was entirely able to coverse without really being awake.
As to what state that is, I don’t know. Perhaps it is analogous to being hypnotized–I’m told that subjects have no recollection of anything that happened while under hypnosis.
Hmmmm. Still no answer for otto3883 but once I woke up in the middle of a phone call and didn’t know who I was talking to or for how long or what I’d said. I got a call for help from work during the night from our 24/7 operations center. I got my bearings pretty quickly and they never said anything to make me think I had been anything but coherent.
Yeah thats part of the reason i want to know about this too. If it is like the truth serum this would be incredible interesting for science. (Okay and personal, i adimit it.)
But can you trust what was said? I’ve seen research that says that says that “people can be taught to flip a switch at a tone in order to prevent a shock.” Answering questions with truthful information seems more complex than that. I want to know if they are actually responding, or just answering.
Anyone who knows any research on this? The brain is working, Parts of what controls memory is working, because my friend can remeber past events, or at least it seemed like he could. Maybe the “hey remember this” part of the brain takes time to warm up. Although we did keep him in this half awake state for a long time, 4A.M.-7A.M. with only brief breaks when it seemed like he was waking up.(yeah i know we’re cruel)
Also he seemed highly suggestible during this time. I would ask him to do something, like hold his hand above his hand. And he’d say “Okay” and do it. Also we told him that he was well rested and slept like a log. When he woke up, despite getting little to no good sleep, when asked how he slept he said great.
Now i don’t believe in that whole hypnotism thing, but it sure seemed like a post-hypnotic suggestion to me. So maybe they are just really suggestible during this time.
Thanks for the stories, i’ll take any info on this that i can.
I have that same “ability”, and have had 20+ minute conversations before that I wasn’t, at all, aware of.
I’m assuming the “truth serum” effect comes from the seeming similarity of a hypnotic trance. You’re ‘aware’, but it’s your subconcious doing the talking. Or something like that.
well not that i have an answer for ya otto, but i still experience these episodes. I can’t count the number of times i got in trouble when i was married because i didn’t do something i had agreed to during this rather annoying state.
My husband does this occasionally - though most of what he says is nonsense/dreamlike.
For example - he asked me if Aunt Helen (no such person) had come over.
Me: “Why?”
Him: “She was supposed to bring cookies”
Me: “What kind of cookies”
Him: “Raisin - and I don’t like raisin… mumble mumble…”
They’re usually quite brief conversations - but kinda fun…
I do this all the time. I’m not sure what causes it, because I do have times when I wake up like any normal person…
I don’t think all the answers people give in that state of mind are correct, either. I think that they don’t really understand what is being said to them, and may also mix up their answer with what was going on in their dreams, and such…
I once had a half hour conversation with my Marine boyfriend in this state. He called me from Spain in the middle of the night. The next day, my roommate (knowing what a fruitcake I am when somebody wakes me at that time of night) asked me if I remembered talking to him. I was so worried about what I’d said. He told me I’d just said “I love you” to him about a million times, but that he couldn’t get much else out of me. haha That’ll teach him to wake me up in the middle of the night. haha
My friends usually wake me to this half-sleep state and talk to me just to hear the rubbish I say and the wierd noises I make. I’ve also been known to sit in a swivel chair and run around in circles while being like this.