Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works • Hacker News Board

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#91

Post by c0nducktr » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:01 AM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #14

I think I once got into this hypnagogic state by accident. I was having a nap and my dogs woke me up because it was time for their walk. I felt sleepy while walking the dogs but also had a clarity regarding anything I examined in my mind. It's as if my regular state of mind was like walking in a forest with limited visibility, and now I could see the territory from a bird's perspective. This lasted for about 15 mins…

I wonder if other changes, not just sleep, but quick changes to environment can create this effect as well.

Your description regarding the feeling you had walking your dogs is very similar to something which happened to me once just as I was leaving work, as I was walking out of my office.

As I walked out the door, everything felt very crisp, my mind felt lighter, and it was as if my senses were working at 200%. At that time I believe I experienced that same "clarity regarding anything I examined in my mind" you described. I thought about several things and knew in that moment exactly what needed to be done in each of them, with what felt like more than absolute certainty. It only lasted a few minutes, and had left by the time I returned home.

It's never happened again. When I think back on that day, I can almost feel it, like I'm grasping at that sense of clarity, but it always remains out of reach.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#92

Post by tambourine_man » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:05 AM UTC

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

Something that happened a few times to me during this transitional state is “hearing” (more like hallucinating) music that I was singing in my mind while still awake. Except much clearer and vivid than ever before. I think that since the ordinary hearing function was just shutting itself off, the conscious brain could experience only its memory of the song and did it intensely so.

It lasted a couple of seconds only, while I was extremely tired, but it was an amazing experience.

It’s such a fascinating topic and yet it’s remarkable how little we still know about sleep, consciousness, dreams, etc.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#93

Post by Shared404 » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:06 AM UTC

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

> When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination.

I can trigger this in myself consistently. Usually, it's either by pushing myself to stay awake for too long on too little sleep or waking up after a full days work and only sleeping a few (2-4) hours.

I try not to, I find it terrifying tbh.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#94

Post by c0nducktr » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:12 AM UTC

avereveard wrote: post #63

ohiovr wrote: post #2

"As legend goes, Edison would sit in a chair when he got sleepy, holding a ball bearing in his left hand. Soon, he would enter the “hypnagogic state,” a stage between wakefulness and sleep where many people claim to have visual and auditory hallucinations." https://cityftmyers.com/1871/Standing-Thomas-Edison#:~:text=... . This technique should work if you can fall asleep without consciously thinking about what is in…

> Recently in a nap dream I come to a part that seemed to beg my belief even while dreaming. And I was somehow able to arise out of my dream state with conscious effort. I've had a similar experience, where discrepancies in dream raised consciousness and morphed into lucid dreaming. In time I've become better at working out dreams from reality, and decided reversed to trigger it voluntarily. To bad with age I almost…

> It might be extremely personal, but my best trigger was imagining walking down an infinite stair above a cloudy sky right before sleeping - imagination transitioning into dreaming as it went.

I remember doing almost this exact thing as a child! Every night I'd fall asleep thinking of descending an infinite escalator, which existed in an empty space. Sometimes I was with other people, sometimes alone, but I found that by keeping the escalator in focus, I was able to switch into what now I realize was a lucid dream, right as I was falling asleep.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#95

Post by caddemon » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:15 AM UTC

ohiovr wrote: post #2

"As legend goes, Edison would sit in a chair when he got sleepy, holding a ball bearing in his left hand. Soon, he would enter the “hypnagogic state,” a stage between wakefulness and sleep where many people claim to have visual and auditory hallucinations." https://cityftmyers.com/1871/Standing-Thomas-Edison#:~:text=... . This technique should work if you can fall asleep without consciously thinking about what is in…

There was some work making a version of Edison's technique that actually uses sleep stage data to decide when to trigger the wake up signal: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/sleep-creativity/overview...

One of my friends volunteered for an experiment with this a few years back and said it was pretty trippy. Not sure how the project has progressed since then though.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#96

Post by josefrichter » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:18 AM UTC

IWantToRelocate wrote: post #83

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

You just described exactly what happens to me and that "sleep phobia", I read somewhere, is linked usually to people with anxiety/panic attack issues. Not sure if that's your case but 100% accurate in my case.

Yes, same here, unfortunately

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#97

Post by josefrichter » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:22 AM UTC

t8e56vd4ih wrote: post #84

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

the state you describe i only, but then very clearly, experience when falling asleep while being stoned.

Interesting. I heard very similar description of similar state from people using LSD. I never tried LSD, so would be curious whether that indeed triggers the same state. I personally never felt any effect of weed, so I’m not really inclined to try “harder”.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#98

Post by karmakaze » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:39 AM UTC

tambourine_man wrote: post #92

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

Something that happened a few times to me during this transitional state is “hearing” (more like hallucinating) music that I was singing in my mind while still awake. Except much clearer and vivid than ever before. I think that since the ordinary hearing function was just shutting itself off, the conscious brain could experience only its memory of the song and did it intensely so. It lasted a couple of seconds only,…

A similar thing happened to me after some sleep deprivation in a noisy bar. I was moving to the music, and someone said the music had stopped. I listened while still moving to it, saying no it hasn't. They repeated that it had. I listened again and indeed there was no music in the air, only my mind. Cognition and perception is based on hallucination around stimuli--sometimes we fill in more than the gaps.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#99

Post by diatone » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:48 AM UTC

Anecdote: I distinctly remember being on the edge of sleep writing a song one night in 2019. I was about to fall asleep on the floor with a notebook in my hand, and just at that moment, the music came into my mind. For whatever reason, I was able to stay awake and flesh it out as a recording. After reflecting on it the next day I realised I had written an acoustic fingerstyle piece that moved across keys as if there were multiple voicings in the accompaniment all moving independently in polyphony. Far more harmonically complex than anything I had written before, or since.

Three weeks later my partner and I played it for the first time in a pub, and the normally cosy and laugh-filled room fell silent. We had the exact same experience in another open mic night a couple of weeks afterwards, where we took the first-place prize before the competition even finished. It was as if people were moved by it without any effort or coercion, like we cast a spell over people.

Now it makes sense! I’ve heard music play in my mind as I’ve fallen asleep before; this news explains this story almost perfectly. Unreal. Live on the edge of sleep and magic can happen. I wonder what health risks there are with prolonged use?

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#100

Post by op00to » Sat, Dec 11, 2021, 1:51 AM UTC

josefrichter wrote: post #79

Wow. I didn’t know this, but I was actually able to observe this state on myself. When going to sleep, my mind is wandering. But at one point it drifts from real world thoughts to completely abstract concepts and wild imagination that sometimes makes no sense. It’s almost like a hallucination. What’s most interesting is that sometimes I am able to notice the transition to this state and consciously observe it. Usuall…

Hope you fell asleep!