Hallucinations

[mememe123]

Hi there,

 

I am interested in hullicinating. I understand that sleep depriviation is a cause. i was wondering how long you must not sleep for to hallucinate?

 

Also, I understand when you hallucinate, you see/hear things... Are these things that you desire/fear? Or visions of your past/present/future?!

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks!

[CraigD]

I understand that sleep depriviation is a cause. i was wondering how long you must not sleep for to hallucinate?

This is a surprisingly complicated question.

 

Most people will begin to “feel weird” after a fairly short period without sleep – 20 hours or so – and may experience minor visual and auditory hallucinations.

 

Although waking periods as long as 250 hours are claimed, there’s strong evidence that, even with the aid of stimulants and more powerful drugs, no one has actually remained awake and alert for more than 30-40 hours.

I understand when you hallucinate, you see/hear things... Are these things that you desire/fear? Or visions of your past/present/future?!

Common visual hallucination include motion in the periphery of one’s vision (eg: the false perception of bugs darting under furnature), misrecognizing objects (eg: vaguely perceiving human faces in leaves of the grain of wood), and patterns where none are actually present (eg: “hieroglyphics” or “grids” on an unstained white wall). A common auditory hallucination is hearing one’s name called, either in a soundless setting, against background noise such as wind, or against a background of music or multiple voices.

 

When one has been awake for a long time, one is prone to suddenly falling asleep, then waking – “nodding off”. During these brief periods, one can experience “dreamlets” – very brief experiences of typical dream imagery. In practical terms, it can be difficult to distinguish these brief dream states from waking hallucinations.

 

Even without sleep depravation, brief hallucinations are not uncommon in psychologically normal people. Prolonged hallucinations, with or without sleep depravations, are unusual, and difficult to distinguish from abnormal thoughts, such as mystical ecstasy or paranoid delusion.

 

When self-experimenting with sleep depravation, take care to be in a safe setting. Because lack of sleep causes physiological stress, one should be careful to remain warm, well nourished and hydrated, and avoid unnecessary exposure to germs and viruses, or one can become ill.

[Fatstep]

Although waking periods as long as 250 hours are claimed, there’s strong evidence that, even with the aid of stimulants and more powerful drugs, no one has actually remained awake and alert for more than 30-40 hours.

Actually, when on an amphetamine, such as methamphetamine, people can stay alert and super-energetic for more than 5 days. I have stayed up over 48 hours when my great-grandfather was in the hospital and I never felt the need for sleep; I never went into a state like a zombie either.

I will try and find a study or something similar.

*** Also the USMC (Marines) is infamous for making new enlistees stay up over 2 days on a last "mission" to become a marine. No explaining is needed on if they were alert or not.

Edit: Here is a study that is testing sleep deprivation on drivers, the subjects went as much as 2 days without sleep.

Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivation On Driving Performance

[mememe123]

Thank you for the replies :) I have found it very interesting.

 

I am still curious as to how long the human can stay awake for? Or does it depend on the situation?

 

Regarding my first posts... What do hallucinations mean.. your desires/fears? Or visions of your past/present/future?

[Fatstep]

Thank you for the replies :) I have found it very interesting.

 

I am still curious as to how long the human can stay awake for? Or does it depend on the situation?

 

Regarding my first posts... What do hallucinations mean.. your desires/fears? Or visions of your past/present/future?

 

This is not a sleep deprivated hallucination, but when I tried LSD (first and last time) I felt alive in a way. The tv characters seemed to pop out and talk to me in weird ways, you do not feel much pain, if any and sometimes you even feel like you can fly.

I have seen people jump off of roofs because they believed they had wings, and another punch a telephone pole and break his hand, not feeling it due to his "high"

It would more than likely be very hard to do a study on true hallucinations because the people being studied would not really participate in the way most studies are done.

 

I also know that you can die from sleep deprivation, so I suppose you can stay awake until you die?

[InfiniteNow]

I am still curious as to how long the human can stay awake for? Or does it depend on the situation?

It absolutely depends on the situation, the person, the environment they are in, the food they ingest, the energy they expend, etc., ad infinitum...

 

Regarding my first posts... What do hallucinations mean.. your desires/fears? Or visions of your past/present/future?

A hallucination is all of those things. We interpret the world around us and the world within us via the electric firing and connections of our physiology. A hallucination, in my mind, is an experience in the present moment whereby interpretation of the stimuli around you is somehow phase shifted from your median/normal experience or consciousness.

 

It gets confusing, because so many of these terms lack adequate and consistent definition... consciouness, hallucination, past/present/future...

 

I can note, however, that if your perception of time is altered, it is likely a change is the usual processing of your memory systems and the temporal region of the cortex.

 

I think staying awake too long essentially causes your body to redirect it's resources to the more important aspects of existence, such as breathing and heartbeat, thus taking away energy normally directed to the higher functions and neo cortex areas responsible for things like lymbic inhabition and absraction...

 

Please understand, there are lots of guesses and personal interpretations above, but I wanted to share since you seemed to pose your question with a sincerity that fosters a desire within me to assist. You will, however, ultimately be coming to your own understanding of the topics, regardless what the rest of us share. :)

 

 

Cheers. :)

[mememe123]

I see. but any idea how long you need to starve from sleep to hallucianate?

[Fatstep]

I see. but any idea how long you need to starve from sleep to hallucianate?

 

I believe this pertains to your question.

 

It absolutely depends on the situation, the person, the environment they are in, the food they ingest, the energy they expend, etc., ad infinitum...

[Fatstep]

Although the longest a human has remained awake was eleven days rats that are continually deprived of sleep die within two to five weeks, generally due to their severely weakened immune system

The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior

 

There is one of your answers.

 

Maybe this will give you an idea.

In many respects Gardner’s symptoms were similar to those experienced by a New York disk jockey, Peter Tripp, who endured a 200-hour sleepless marathon to raise money for the March of Dimes. During the course of his ordeal his thoughts became increasingly distorted and there were marked periods of irrationality. By the end of four days he could not successfully execute simple tests requiring focused attention. In addition, he began to have hallucinations and distorted visual perceptions. At one point Tripp became quite upset when he thought that the spots on a table were insects. He thought that there were spiders crawling around the booth and even once complained that they had spun cobwebs on his shoes.

Sleep Deprivation IS Torture « The Good Democrat

[InfiniteNow]

I see. but any idea how long you need to starve from sleep to hallucianate?

 

Try not eating. When my blood sugar gets low, I hallucinate like a son of a *****.

 

Your question is a bit like asking, "how much food is enough to satisfy a hunger." Well... it depends on just how hungry you are, what else you've been doing (running around and riding bikes, or sleeping or playing PS3), and what type of food you eat (rice cakes or bowls of pasta or steaks)...

 

No absolute answer on that question, friend, except that it's relative. :)

[mememe123]

thank you for the replies. So I guess the best way to hallucinate is to either reduce sleep or starve (for how many days?1)

 

Also, the main question is what do you experience when you halluciantate? .... desires, fears?

[Fatstep]

thank you for the replies. So I guess the best way to hallucinate is to either reduce sleep or starve (for how many days?1)

I will probably be wrong, but I am going to assume Infinite is a diabetic. That being the case the hallucinations are warranted, if he is not diabetic then I do not know, I've never heard of someone hallucinating from not eating food for such a short period of time.

 

If you are going to starve yourself you may have to go over a week, plenty of people have not eaten for 2 weeks and lived without hallucinating, IMO, if you start to hallucinate because you've stared yourself for that long then it's one of the last signs of your body dying.

Also, the main question is what do you experience when you halluciantate? .... desires, fears?

 

As Infinite said, it all depends. Everything around you and what you've done in the past all effect a hallucination. If you have never heard of nor seen spongebob then you will not see him in a hallucination.

There are many types of hallucinations, aswell.

Sense hallucinations affect your senses in different ways.

• Taste
  
• Visual
  
• Touch
  
• Smell
  
• Hearing
  

 

Mental hallucinations are hallucinations that combine one or more of the above types.

Taste

This hallucination gives you the sense of having a taste in your mouth from a substance that is not truly there.

 

Visual

This hallucination causes you to see objects, people, or places that are not truly with you.

 

Touch

This hallucination makes you feel as if something is crawling on your skin when in fact there is nothing. The textbook spiders crawling on your hand.

 

Smell

This hallucination causes you to smell fumes of something that does not radiate fumes or is not actually there.

 

Hearing

This hallucination causes one to hear things such as voices or random noises that are no actually happening.

 

Mental

Often called Extreme Daydreaming , this is the combination of any or all of the sense hallucinations combined into one episode.

 

The mind informing the senses, instead of the senses informing the mind

 

Some also call dreaming an unconscious hallucination, there is a fine line between normal dreaming, often during REM sleep, and psychotic dreaming, such as dreams of you killing someone. Whether these are truly hallucinations is your own opinion.

[CraigD]

Actually, when on an amphetamine, such as methamphetamine, people can stay alert and super-energetic for more than 5 days. I have stayed up over 48 hours when my great-grandfather was in the hospital and I never felt the need for sleep; I never went into a state like a zombie either.

I will try and find a study or something similar.

*** Also the USMC (Marines) is infamous for making new enlistees stay up over 2 days on a last "mission" to become a marine. No explaining is needed on if they were alert or not.

Edit: Here is a study that is testing sleep deprivation on drivers, the subjects went as much as 2 days without sleep.

Effects of Partial and Total Sleep Deprivation On Driving Performance

There are reports of people apparently staying awake for impressive periods of time. Randy Gardner’s 1964 Guinness world record of 264 hours is, I think … well, the world record. Various witness observed Gardner more-or-less continuously during his 11 day effort, reporting that he appeared awake the entire time, though not cognitively normal.

 

It’s arguable, however, if Gardner or other people who report staying awake for extraordinary durations are actually, neurologically, awake the whole time. A difficulty is that it’s hard to tell if a person briefly drifts into sleep, or is just tired, confused, or distracted. Though there are a variety of measurements, include EEG “brain wave” measurement, that can give indications of whether a person is awake or asleep, but these occasionally indicate that a self-reported sleeping person is awake, or an awake person asleep.

 

I’ve some experience with driving a car for very long periods without sleep (30+ hours). It’s a bit spooky – though I don’t recall any loss of alertness, occasionally I’d note a “jump” in odometer reading of a couple of miles, evidence that I was DWS. Also, roadsigns would sometimes appear for town I’d later realize were nowhere near where I’d been, and on one occasion I have a distinct memory of driving for the better part of an hour beside a vast lake nestled in the mountains of West Virginia, although there’s no lake in WV wider than about a kilometer.

 

My wife once drove a car into a reservoir while crossing an imaginary bridge under the influence of sleep depravation. DWS is certainly not a safe activity.

[CraigD]

thank you for the replies. So I guess the best way to hallucinate is to either reduce sleep or starve (for how many days?1)

I don’t think fasting commonly causes hallucinations. I’ve personally fasted for 7 days, and read accounts of people who have fasted longer, without reporting any effects more severe than light-headedness, mild euphoria, and lethargy.

 

Dehydration can cause hallucinations (Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is by most accounts a second-hand account of a dehydrated 18th century sailor) but is very dangerous – a day or two without water can prove suddenly fatal.

Also, the main question is what do you experience when you halluciantate? .... desires, fears?

Though there are some typical hallucinations, such as those I mention in post #2, I suspect hallucinations and “waking dreams” vary a lot among individuals, so the best that people can offer is their own varied experiences. I’ve never personally experienced, nor heard a firsthand account of, an hallucination or waking dreams that clearly involved a hope or fear. These experiences are, I think, usually fairly ordinary-seeming, whimsical, or creepy and disturbing (“faces in the leaves”-type hallucination/misperceptions can be very creepy).

[maikeru]

Try not eating. When my blood sugar gets low, I hallucinate like a son of a *****.

 

Your question is a bit like asking, "how much food is enough to satisfy a hunger." Well... it depends on just how hungry you are, what else you've been doing (running around and riding bikes, or sleeping or playing PS3), and what type of food you eat (rice cakes or bowls of pasta or steaks)...

 

No absolute answer on that question, friend, except that it's relative. :)

 

Hmm, interesting. I never hallucinate when my blood sugar drops too low (and this happens more often than I'd like, if I'm not careful, because sometimes I'm too physically active in my exercise or dance practices; don't always eat enough to cover calorie expenditure). But I do become dopey, sleepy, and very, very slow.

[maikeru]

Some also call dreaming an unconscious hallucination, there is a fine line between normal dreaming, often during REM sleep, and psychotic dreaming, such as dreams of you killing someone. Whether these are truly hallucinations is your own opinion.

 

I don't believe normal dreaming is strongly connected with hallucination. Both may access memories or fabricate pseudo-memories or sensations, but REM-related dreaming seems to be part of an integral process of how the mind sorts, stores, and modifies learning and experience of the previous day or days. I don't think hallucinating helps a person to learn better.

 

Hallucinations may be more related to "out of body" experiences or the experiences some people give of their encounters with the "afterlife" ("tunnel," "door," or "ladder" visions people claim to see when on the brink of death or having died and been brought back to life.) I think those are caused by oxygen and nutrient deprivations to the neurons and a failure of homeostasis, as the brain and all of its constituents, begin to fail and lose control, so that organization, communication, and sensation become skewed.

[InfiniteNow]

I will probably be wrong, but I am going to assume Infinite is a diabetic.

That's affirmative Fatstep, you're spot on. :) (btw, that was a very nice post. ;) )

 

Hmm, interesting. I never hallucinate when my blood sugar drops too low (and this happens more often than I'd like, if I'm not careful, because sometimes I'm too physically active in my exercise or dance practices; don't always eat enough to cover calorie expenditure). But I do become dopey, sleepy, and very, very slow.

 

Maybe I should clarify what I mean, as it's perfectly reasonable that the concept of a hallucination (while defined in multiple dictionaries) is different to us all.

 

I've been extraordinarily low (hypoglyc) on a few occasions. To the point where I was laying on the floor, sort of awake, but unable to will myself to move. A strange feeling, very much akin to those dreams people describe where they are being chased but cannot run. (A quick mention to my dog, Galiath, who has helped me wake up on more than one occasion by barking intensely and licking my ears... good boy! :D ).

 

It's super strange, like the simple act of moving toward the food is taking too much energy away from breathing and heart beat, that I must move inches then stop to rest, then move inches again, then stop to rest... then, calmly mind you, ingest something with high sugar density (i.e. panic is really bad because it burns away the remaining energy too quickly, so everything must be smooth and steady...)

 

The hallucinations vary, and hallucination may not be the right term, but I usually connect to the environment in new ways, have a sense of unity or oneness with the universe, and have even had the sense of watching my own consciousness as if it were a movie. Like I'm there, but my body and mind are on autopilot, no intentional control from me... It's so hard to capture in succinct words the vastness and bewilderment of these experiences. I've rewritten this paragraph like three times now and still don't think it gets across adequately my intent...

 

I've worked out too hard as well, and see what happens during a hypoglycemic episode more as the shutting out of non-essential stimuli, internally directing all available energy to the functions required for life and finding food quickly. In some ways, it's a bit zen... ;)

 

Love that honey. Cheers. :(