Sunday, November 16, 2014

Wierd nightmare and awakening last night - "hypnopompic state"?

Had a nightmare, where I was drinking at a table, in a nautical situation (maybe a deck beside a body of water with lots of sailing going on).  A cop came by for second time to see how I was doing, and I told him I had quit drinking and was alright. Just afterwards, I awoke, and had to go pee. I found myself almost falling down and had to lurch to the bathroom like a drunken sailor. I was confused and had to lurch back to bed, confused - feeling like I was drunk and had nothing to drink since a glass of wine three days ago. I decided to call VA and told nurse of my symptoms, and she convinced me I may be having a mild stroke and to "get to hospital before it gets worse." She convinced to call 911, which I have never done. I hated to do this being so stubborn and independent, but I knew I was in no condition to drive. My first ambulance ride just for me. The paramedics checked my vital symptoms and installed a drip needle -"just in case"! 
At the ER, I told them about my Mienere's diagnosis (inner ear disease causing vertigo), however, that was same diagnosis that I gave them for my blocked heart a few months ago leading to my Pacemaker. I was very clear that I really wanted to be checked out for a stroke, as that really devastated my Father when he was 62. After a lot of  blood tests, EKG, and chest x-ray, they determined it was not a stroke and gave me the Hypnopompia diagnosis. I still think it was Mienere's disease and whatever? I am thankful it was not a stroke!

A hypnopompic state (or hypnopomp) is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep, a term coined by the psychical researcher Frederic Myers. Its twin is the hypnagogic state at sleep onset; though often conflated, the two states are not identical. The hypnagogic state is rational waking cognition trying to make sense of non-linear images and associations; the hypnopompic state is emotional and credulous dreaming cognition trying to make sense of real world stolidity. They have a different phenomenological character. Depressed frontal lobe function in the first few minutes after waking – known as "sleep inertia" – causes slowed reaction time and impaired short-term memory. Sleepers often wake confused, or speak without making sense, a phenomenon the psychologist Peter McKeller calls "hypnopompic speech".[1] When the awakening occurs out of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, in which most dreams occur, the hypnopompic state is sometimes accompanied by lingering vivid imagery. Some of the creative insights attributed to dreams actually happen in this moment of awakening from REM. In Deirdre Barrett's The Committee of Sleep, Margie Profet's McArthur-award winning biology experiment is shown to be one of these.[2]

 
I do sleep with books, but otherwise no resemblance.


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