Late Night Hallucinations

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I was wondering if anyone else here tends to have vivid visual hallucinations at night when their eyes are closed. Anyway, I tend to see really vivid and often gorgeously ornate animation and cartoons that are often my own characters, these animations being sometimes as insane as the Pink Elephants on Parade or Heffalumps and Woozles bits from Dumbo and Winnie the Pooh respectively, sometimes nothing more than simple SpongeBob and Patrick Star walk cycles. Sometimes they'll resemble old R. Crumb underground comix as well. I have never done LSD or any other hallucinogens but I take Trazodone and used to take Seroquel and took Saphris before that so maybe these medications are the only reason this happens. Like I said, this only occurs when my eyes are closed, and as soon as I open my eyes, the animations instantly go away. Much of the time, the "screen" in my head will go black at the end of one animation and another one will usually take its place (unless they stop entirely which also happens). I highly enjoy this and see no reason to stop them from happening, I'm just curious about them.

Not sure its a hallucination if it only occurs when your eyes are closed...seems more like a visualization, I've just always thought you had to perceive things with your eyes open for it to be a hallucination. Also with LSD it doesn't really cause you to have hallucinations of things that aren't there at all, it more changes how things look.

Either way doesn't seem like anything to be concerned about, especially if you enjoy it...and can make it stop at will by opening your eyes.

I have something similar happen but not to the intensity you describe , it's more like shapes and patterns and very little colour ( more like shades of black ) , it's a bit like cloud watching in that you can sort of make it to seem like something else. I'm pretty sure I can still see my eye floaters when my eyes are closed so it might have something to do with that and you can sometime change what your seeing by closing your eyes tighter .

I was also curious if AS people tend to have these more frequently than NTs.

Those are closed-eye hallucinations. Some medications can cause them, but they also occur naturally. That fuzzy TV-static stuff most people see when they close their eyes is an example, but there are different levels, some more complex than others. You can see shapes, or colors, or patterns - even images. I primarily see motion, and it's not limited to when I start to fall asleep, either. It happens more often when I'm stressed during the day. Personally, I've always believed that it's linked to ND, since I and my older sister (whose Aspie traits are strong) have them to a greater extent than our other siblings. I don't know of any studies done on the subject, though.

There's a couple of different phenomena mentioned in this thread - these are closed eye halloucinations, not mechanical phosphene patterns (caused by putting pressure on the eye). There's also another phosphene pattern that is probably the result of neurological processes. Phosphenes are just a name for the light that you perceive that isn't created by photons hitting your eye.

Specific to the OP - I can't remember where I read this now, but I recall it was something to do with the neurophysiology of falling asleep - that the brain goes through 4 distinctive states before it reaches sleep, and they can be observed if you stay aware during the process - The first is the typical state when you're eyes have just been closed, this gradually moves to a second state with vivid swirling phosphene patterns, the third state is an abrupt transition to blackness, eventually moving into the fourth where you percieve the black state evaporating and start seeing dream visuals. This whole process takes a few minutes, but I wonder if it is what you're experiencing.

Sorry- I called you a he. I meant she