Many neurological disorders can lead to decreased cognition and an overall feeling of confusion. These sleep based disorders can, in some cases lead to increased levels of confusion and disorientation stemming from the tricks that the brain plays in those moments right before someone falls to sleep or fully wakes up. These increases in the phenomena, known as hypnagogic hallucinations, can lead to loss of coherency throughout the day and can greatly inhibit a person’s ability for productivity, but treating the actual disorder can bring everything back into focus.
Disorders such as sleep apnea and narcolepsy can be devastating conditions. In these sleep based disorders, hypnagogic hallucinations become a very regular occurrence for the sufferer. In small doses, hypnogogic hallucinations can be a good thing, but as their frequency increases, the effect of each hypnagogic hallucination becomes more profound.
These hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations can be very mind in a lot of cases. For the average person, simple auditory or visual changes happen. From light sounds to simple visual patterns, these hallucinations are usually nothing that the sleeper will take with them, and will have no real effect. In other cases, these hallucinations can be much more vivid, and according to some, quite useful.
Researchers have found that the mind is more susceptible to suggestion in these moments before and after sleep, due to the fact that these hallucinations are typically caused by the sleeping mind starting to dream before the body has fully fallen asleep. Typically, this means that whatever the conscious mind is thinking of will become full sensory hallucinations, similar to what happens in dreams. However, unlike dreams, these images and sounds are occurring while someone is still actually awake. A lot of times, an abstract problem in the mind of someone affected by these hallucinations will be represented in concrete terms, and a lot of notable people have been quoted as saying that some major accomplishments were the result of insight gained from a hypnagogic hallucination.
The problem, however, is that coupled with these hallucinations is slight amnesia, disorientation, and loss of concrete comprehension. When a disorder such as exhaustion is causing large numbers of “microsleep” sessions throughout the day, these increases in hallucinations can lead to an overall disorientation that cannot be shaken. In these situations, hypnagogic hallucinations treatment must be found. Unfortunately, however, there is no specific treatment to halt the actual hallucinations. The only option will be to address the problem that is causing the actual increase in the hallucinations. When a disorder progresses to the point that it is causing an increase in these hallucinations, it has come to a point that treatment must be started.
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