# Sometimes I hear flashes of music while semiconscious **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 8, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942 "2003-03-08T18:36:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/1 "2003-03-08T18:36:13Z")
Surreal thread title, but I do. Rarely, when either starting to sleep or waking up, I will ‘hear’ (as in, it doesn’t ‘sound’ like I am simply imagining it) bits of music. Always just a melody line, and its only for a few measures. Does this happen to anyone else, and is there a name for it? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@The\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Face)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/2 "2003-03-08T19:38:19Z")
slight HIJACK, sometimes when I’m falling asleep,I hear/feel a LOUD bang,kinda like clamping your hands on both ears fast and hard. what the? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/3 "2003-03-08T19:43:28Z")
I’ve had both of those phenomenons happen to me. I’ve also heard voices or talking. I’m either schizophrenic, or whatever kicks off dreams during REM sleep is short circuiting or something. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/4 "2003-03-08T19:48:10Z")
Appears your’e not alone. I’ve had this happen to me ever since I can remember. **Jack Betty** : I’m going with the the later. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/5 "2003-03-08T19:58:19Z")
I don’t hear music, but something like broken glass. I’ve heard the voices too. Right when I’m on the edge between awake and sleep. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/6 "2003-03-08T20:04:05Z")
Someone who knows all the technical terms will be along to give them in a moment, but it’s not as if there were only two states of consciousness, sleep and awake. There’s several, including a sort of twilight zone where you’re not exactly either. Many people who see ghosts or have encounters with aliens will start off their story by saying, “I was laying in bed, but I was wide awake.” No, actually they weren’t. They were having a hallucination known as a waking dream. The particular state of consciousness is universal; hearing music or voices during it is common. None of you are schizophrenic or experiencing abnormal REM based just on this. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/7 "2003-03-08T20:06:38Z")
**Face** , that might be a variation of myoclonic jerk. I experience that, as well as all sorts of audio hallucinations. ---
**Author:** ![lorinada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5e925/32.png) [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/8 "2003-03-08T20:09:34Z")
I have experienced the noises, music, and talking too. I have also been dreaming even though I was still awake, like sugaree described. It was not daydreaming, and I was awake, and the funny thing is I even began talking as if I were talking in my sleep! It was very weird, because I was still aware of what was happening in the room, but was simultaneously dreaming. It only lasted a few seconds, once I began talking to myself it stopped. It freaked my son out since I was still sitting up and my eyes were open, but I was very sleepy and had already drifted off once, so I know I was in that “twilight zone”. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/9 "2003-03-08T20:10:40Z")
I’m too lazy on this beautiful spring-like day to do any proper research, but here’s an article on [the hypnagogic state](http://trikuare.cx/~magenta/gallery/writing/Hypnagogia/ch004.html) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/10 "2003-03-08T20:18:15Z")
I often hear voices when I am slipping off to sleep. I assume that this is a pre-dream state and am not bothered by it at all. They of course, never say anything like “Kill your neighbor” or “Worship Satan.” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/11 "2003-03-08T21:01:38Z")
I think **sugaree** ’s got it. I’ve heard all sorts of voices, and other sounds, when I’ve been falling asleep. Seems to be pretty much normal, really. ---
**Author:** ![Infectious\_Lass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e56c9b/32.png) [@Infectious\_Lass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infectious_Lass)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/12 "2003-03-08T22:16:11Z")
I have often heard voices when in that transitional state between awake and asleep. Often they say my name, but often it is wierd snatches of things. I have forgotten most of the things they say but once I heard a man say “I was ill” and a few weeks ago I heard a female voice say “you just made a beautiful mistake”, funny things like that. And it only lasts for a couple of seconds, they can never get more than about half a sentence out. I don’t know what it is, the romantic part of me would like to think it is dead people, but it is probably dreaming/auditory illusion, but wouldn’t it be cool if it was dead people? Anyway I kind of like not knowing either way. It doesn’t scare me. ---
**Author:** ![FranticMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c68b51/32.png) [@FranticMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FranticMad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/13 "2003-03-08T22:18:50Z")
I hear my cat meowing – usually he wakes me up in the morning for food. Hearing him, I awaken fully and get up to feed him. Then I find him fast asleep 3 rooms away. He was never there. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/14 "2003-03-09T00:11:31Z")
And as an incidiental aside, during my university days I did some impromptu sleep deprivation experiments during a particularly nasty finals week (around 72 hours sleepless). Without getting near sleep, on account of coffee and No-Doz, I was freely hallucinating auditorily. Kind of fun, in a weird way, looking around the late night study area at the UCSB library and seeing no-one in spite of the fact I could clearly hear them. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/15 "2003-03-09T01:02:03Z")
You hear music and there’s no one there? Do you smell blossoms and the trees are bare? All day long, do you seem to walk on air? Do you wonder why? Do you wonder why? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/16 "2003-03-09T01:29:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robertliguori \* > \*\*Surreal thread title, but I do. Rarely, when either starting to sleep or waking up, I will ‘hear’ (as in, it doesn’t ‘sound’ like I am simply imagining it) bits of music. Always just a melody line, and its only for a few measures. Does this happen to anyone else, and is there a name for it? \*\* During (very) rare moments of true happiness (maybe I have seen someone very pretty, or been thinking about my future or something), And, like you, when waking up, I will hear vert faint distant music. Somehow I know it is in my head. It is very pleasant. It reminds me of the film ‘Shawshank Redemption’ (IMO one of the true greats) There is a discussion (can’t remember the details) about how the main character (can’t remember the name) remains sane, especially in solitary confinement. He reveals that he listens to mozart in his head. That was a particularly nice moment in the film. I wish I could do that when down. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/17 "2003-03-09T01:32:19Z")
:smack: crap! I should have spoilered that. Oh well. You live and learn. (oh, and ‘vert’ is not a real word. It should be ‘very’) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/18 "2003-03-09T04:34:36Z")
It’s just the Mother Ship calling. Nothing to alarmed over. Funkentelechy and all that, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/19 "2003-03-09T06:25:17Z")
Happens to me when I wake up. I’m usually dreaming that there’s some kind of situation or weird thing about how time is passing… hard to describe, I can’t remember it well enough, but in any case it’s something that I believe completely and I act accordingly… until I wake up and realize how implausible it really was. Wish I could describe it better. ---
**Author:** ![crinklebat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@crinklebat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crinklebat)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942/20 "2003-03-09T07:10:38Z")
I love auditory/visual hypnogogic hallucinations. They amuse me no end. Once I heard, quite distinctly, the voice from a friend of school saying, “Once we’ve gotten _you_ out of the way…” It scared me half to death. I believe in _Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman_, Feynman talks about an interview with the draft board in which he mentions his hypnogogic halluciations. I thought it was really cool that he bothered to tell them about them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sometimes-i-hear-flashes-of-music-while-semiconscious/159942.md?page=2)