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Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

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Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#191

Post by dagurp »

Reflecticon wrote: post #66
novosel wrote: post #5

We must not forget to mention Einstein, who also was in the habit of taking naps in a an armchair while holding a rock in his hand.

Fo real?

> Luckily for Einstein, he also took regular naps. According to apocryphal legend, to make sure he didn’t overdo it he’d recline in his armchair with a spoon in his hand and a metal plate directly beneath. He’d allow himself to drift off for a second, then – bam! – the spoon would fall from his hand and the sound of it hitting the plate would wake him up

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170612-what-you-can-lea...

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#192

Post by jordanbeiber »

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…

My problem is that when I start observing my ”N1”, as I do when I’m in a cycle of low/bad sleep, I get worried I won’t reach deep recovery sleep. This really have become a bad pattern for me that is hard to break. I can spend a full night in and out of N1 sleep and be completely wasted the following day.

I seem to go through these cycles with 3-4 weeks of great sleep and roughly 2 weeks of getting stuck in N1, observing.

Really interesting things show up while in this state, but it’s thoroughly incompatible with three young children…

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#193

Post by rapnie »

rubicon33 wrote: post #142
distantaidenn wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I have this exact same experience before falling asleep. It feels like a direct shift in the thought processes, and as you described it, it feels as though you have become a passive observer of your own thoughts. The images are sometimes so absurd and creative that I almost laugh to myself. But I also, don't KNOW if the images are creative or absurd, but just my brain believing it so -- is there even a differenc…

I'm kinda jealous. I couldn't be more different. I can't remember the last time I had a dream. Months ago probably. Random question but - do you consume any caffeine?

I consume lotsa caffeine and still have weird, vivid dreams that I remember in the morning. I'd say in my case the caffeine doesn't inhibit any dream capability. I also have small fragments of lucid dreaming, but usually wake up quickly then (because of the excitement mostly).

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#194

Post by kwonkicker »

diatone wrote: post #99

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…

The people wants the link. so you better deliver.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#195

Post by amelius »

robbiep wrote: post #46
amelius wrote: post #44

Instead of holding a pencil, can't a smartwatch detect your sleep state and wake you up at exactly the right moment?

You’re not going to get that sort of fidelity from a smart watch, you need some brain traces

I suppose that dropping of the pencil is caused by muscles relaxing. I'm surprised a smartwatch can't detect this relaxation. But perhaps it's at the wrong location for that.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#196

Post by jbotz »

moj wrote: post #70
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 experienced such states on several occasions, usually randomly once every two or three years. I resolved to explore it if it happened again, and sure enough I was ready when it did. I soon discovered you don't have to wait years; it can happen a few times a week. Simple technique: - wait until you've woken up after a dream. (so technically hypnopompic, not hypnagogic, but more powerful imho) - Any dream will do, bu…

This is essentially lucid dream induction. Lucid dreaming is when you become conscious that you're dreaming while dreaming... and once you are consciously dreaming you can direct the dream actively rather than experiencing it passively. This can happen spontaneously during sleep, or it can be induced with techniques such as what you're describing.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#197

Post by tgb »

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,…

I get this too. While awake, the sounds I hear on my own mind are just basically the signs I could make with my own voice. I can imagine a song by imagining humming or singing it, but I cannot recall what the actual recording sounds like. Yet there's that switch that flips as I go to sleep that I notice occasionally where I can hear crystal clear music. It's beautiful and I can't recognize the music.

I also get this, much more rarely, with images. While awake, I can't truly picture what I imagine, it's like I just have a notion of what is there, like motion and shape, without really seeing it, or at best a momentary flash of a picture. But when drifting to sleep there is a moment where the images become real, with color and texture and detail far beyond what I can imagine while awake. It's shocking and wakes we up when I notice it happening.

What is this switch? How can my brain have such discretely distinct modes of operation? Falling asleep itself seems so much more of a continuum.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#198

Post by lrem »

djmips wrote: post #147
diatone wrote: post #99

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…

I did the same thing and no one would probably believe it except I recorded it as a MIDI stream. The next day I played it to my boss and he wouldn't accept that I composed it. (edit - it was a complex classical piano piece)

Can we have a link?

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#199

Post by pdimitar »

pier25 wrote: post #110
pdimitar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meditation, if you don't overdo it (namely no longer than 30 minutes) has the same effect.

I was into meditation for years and only once doing Zazen I remember experimenting something similar. It's certainly possible I was doing it wrong though, but even in one of those 12 day silent Vipassana retreats I never got that kind of clarity.

I'm definitely not qualified to claim what's the right and wrong way of doing it but I've never dedicated even a single day solely on meditation in my life.

Usually I was kind of like "phew, I feel tired and stressed, time to lay down with eyes closed for a bit", and it all evolved naturally from there (similarly to the so-called power naps of 30 minutes).

So at least the key for my success in mediation was to treat it like a damage mitigation technique and nothing else. And for me that works very well.

Re: Sleep technique used by Salvador Dalí works

#200

Post by tunap »

rapnie wrote: post #193
rubicon33 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kinda jealous. I couldn't be more different. I can't remember the last time I had a dream. Months ago probably. Random question but - do you consume any caffeine?

I consume lotsa caffeine and still have weird, vivid dreams that I remember in the morning. I'd say in my case the caffeine doesn't inhibit any dream capability. I also have small fragments of lucid dreaming, but usually wake up quickly then (because of the excitement mostly).

Ditto on "lotsa". To the point caffeine no longer amps me up but rather just keeps the migraines at bay. Pondering my addiction many years in the past, I decided to try an experiment where I drank a few sips of coffee before going to sleep. It did, and still does, increase my lucidity & retention during/after sleep cycles. I have vivid dreams with self awareness pretty much most nights, and a experience a surprisingly large amount of content during power naps(15-45 minutes). This is still a drop in the bucket compared to my dreams when I was a teen & 20-something, however. I haven't been able to 'fly away' or soar like I did when younger, nowadays I merely wake-up when things start down a dark path(*Covid induced nightmares, were a rare exception; the 1st night terrors I've had in decades).

edit:grammar

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