Incredible pre-sleep thoughts and revelations

  On 2/9/2016 at 11:02 PM, Polytrix said:

Bit of an odd topic but could lead to some interesting conversation. I'm probably leaving myself open to trolling here but that's funny too so whatever :P

 

I think it's related to what's going on chemically in your brain before you fall into a deep slumber but I've recently found an incredible sense of clarity and realisation about things just before I fall asleep. It's often related to my goals and dreams or simply about living well.

 

It's a shame I can't document these fleeting thoughts of inspiration, realisation or wonderment. You get them for a split second and then bang they are gone.

 

My Dad for instance solves really complex maths related stuff in his dreams related to his work which is kind of incredible right! It seems we are at our most ingenious when we are fully switched off from outside interference. Mad how we know so little about the brain and how to optimise human intelligence.

 

Ever experienced the same? Care to share what you thought of?

 

 

this thread is 1 whole William Burroughs style association block:

ripped an audio interview segment by Cormac McCarthy on Oprah of all things for a new mix and this very subject is the central theme....

Cormac postulates that as the subconscious is older than language its 1 of the reason why problems can be solved through dreams, citing Kekule's "Benzene Dream" and the MIT maths bod who co-authored a maths paper with John Nash..... if you click on to about 1min20secs the interview gets more direct:

cant edit further but cheers for the Kekule details Joshua

Yikes, what he said about the subconscious being a committee making decisions for you and feeding you information when you are ready for it seems so true. I've been thinking about that idea a lot lately.

We don't understand what we are truly capable of as the mind is still a massive mystery.

Related to this idea of committee intelligence, I'm not sure why I agree it's not just one force that's feeding you information but is rather a group, but I honestly think that many of the failings of human kind are due to the fact that we are not fully in control or truly understand ourselves. In time, I see the world governed by a higher intelligence rather than simply politicians who themselves and their teams are totally capable of error. An optimistic future of science, logic and the ultimate fulfilment of every human's potential.

Oh dear, I better stop talking now. Thanks for contributing people. I like in depth discussions like this and I don't get them elsewhere right now.

  On 2/10/2016 at 12:17 AM, Bread said:

I have strange moments before I drift off to sleep where I think of the nature of reality, death, the universe etc. in a very deep way

It's quite fun, but sometimes it can be daunting. And this happens only when I'm about to go to sleep.

Yes, I get this often. I's somewhat scary.

I used to take modafinil frequently, in the morning. On the following nights this hypnogogic/pre-sleep phase would get stretched out, and I was able to be "consciously aware" of the falling-asleep process for a longer period of time, experienced some interesting quasi-hallucinations (sometimes auditory), etc. These hypnogogic experiences are more fleeting and bizarre than the dreams that I have later on during REM sleep.

I also have pretty fucking weird/incredible hallucinations. My REM dreams are pretty tame in comparison.