Does anyone else experience hypnagogic hallucinations?

[Dap1948]

These are mainly visual, creatures in the bed, things falling on me, but can also be aural, like a loud noise. They happen in the first hour or so of sleep and cause me to leap out of bed and rush to the bedroom door. I first had them about 25 years ago, 15 years before diagnosis. Then they were infrequent but now they’re once or twice a night. I rarely drink alcohol so that is not a trigger. Anyone experience these or got any tips?

[parkie13]

Melatonin before bed, 5mg.

[Dap1948 in reply to parkie13]

Thank you! Not an over the counter product in UK I read. Do you take it?

[parkie13 in reply to Dap1948]

Yes I do. I stopped for over a year I started getting moving faces at night in my bedroom curtains , a large flower print.

I took 10 mg for a long time and I started getting headaches in the morning. So I stopped for over a year. I started again it didn't take very long for faces to go away. I also was screaming in the middle of the night. That also went away. Never had anything like that before Parkinson . And that was a recent development. Perhaps you could talk to your doctor and also mention Sundowners syndrome to him you can Google it. Maybe he'll give you a prescription. With 5 mg I haven't had any kind of a headache. Mary

[Dap1948 in reply to parkie13]

Many thanks. I've found some melatonin drops online, so will try them.

[chartist in reply to Dap1948]

Dap,

Pistachios are among the highest foods for melatonin content at 660 ng per gram of pistachios, but even at that, it only comes out to .00066 mg per gram of pistachios. So if you ate 20 grams it would still only be .0132 mg per 20 grams of pistachios. I think the lowest effective dose of melatonin I have seen is .33 mg / night.

Cherries (Montmorency variety) have 13 nanograms per gram of cherries by comparison. The drops sound like a good way to go!

prnewswire.com/news-release....

naturalmedicinejournal.com/....

Art

[Dap1948 in reply to chartist]

I smiled at your message imagining myself surrounded with buckets and buckets of pistachios! Thank you for working that out.

[MarionP in reply to Dap1948]

What a nut. (Couldn't see that one coming, eh?)

[pvw2 in reply to Dap1948]

The Five Most Important Melatonin Rich Foods

eunatural.com/five-importan...

[Dap1948 in reply to pvw2]

Thanks.

[1066dpk in reply to parkie13]

For the last 18 months I see snakes on or near my bed at first it would terrify me,

but now it still gives me the willies but as I live in the UK which has little to no venomous snakes. I think I am safe, lol

[parkie13 in reply to 1066dpk]

Yes, lol Is Right

[Tempest22]

Try taking niacinamide, noflush niacin(inositol Hexicotinate) , or start with 25 or 50 milligrams of regular niacin. The books of Abram Hoffer Md. healing Schizophrenia; and Healing Children’s Attention and Behavorial Disorders explain the chemistry of the two pathways of breaking down adrenaline. In the absense of enough niacin in the tissues Adrenachrome is produced, which causes hallucinations. The same thing happens with dopamine. Processing excess or left over dopamine in the absense of niacin related chemicals , you get Dopachrome, which like adrenachrome is simular to LSD.

[Dap1948 in reply to Tempest22]

Thank you. Interesting...

[parkie13 in reply to Tempest22]

On this list, few years ago, there was a wife of a man that had Parkinson's. She was a great spoke person for using niacin. The man has died and she has not been on the list for a while now. You can Google Abram Hoffer and his study with Parkinson's patients. Her husband literally swore by it, his hallucinations went completely away and he would ask for his niacin. Niacin is benign, compared to the heavy-duty mind-altering, addictive drugs.

[Dap1948 in reply to parkie13]

Thank you. However, Hoffer seems to be talking about mental illness and schizophrenia. I am certainly not mentally ill! Anyway I do take niacin in a strong b-complex pill. But thank you... I’ll be trying your first suggestion melatonin as soon as they arrive.

[parkie13 in reply to Dap1948]

Boy, I thought he also dealt with Parky's and their hallucinations, have not looked it up in a while.

Sounds like we're having some exciting nights. I always thought of myself as the most level-headed person.

[Dap1948 in reply to parkie13]

I don’t think my hallucinations are Parkinson’s connected now. I had them so long before my pd diagnosis. It’s easy to blame Parkinson’s for everything!

Obviously it’s only really level headed people who get them!

[LeuraPark]

I had hallucinations early after diagnosis before starting on any medication. They were hypnopompic hallucinations which only came upon waking. The neurologist sent me to see a psychiatrist who prescribed an anti-psychotic med. I refused to take it and just trained myself to not open my eyes as soon as I woke, to count to 10 and figure out what day it is. After that, when I opened my eyes all I saw were the remnants of the hallucination. Shining a flashlight gets rid of them quickly too.

Ii have no idea why that worked seeing as the visions are behind the eyes (I think). I should still have seen them, eyes open or shut! Go figure.

Anyway that was 2 or 3 years ago and they no longer are scary. What is scary is the fact that the neurologist said that hallucinations that appear soon after diagnosis could mean Lewy Body Dimentia! Something to look forward to! I have been on Azilect and Sinemet for a year now and common misperceptions are becoming frequent. I just tell my brain to shut it! So far, it has complied.

Maybe there’s something to that psychosis diagnosis after all...

[Dap1948 in reply to LeuraPark]

I’ve always been told that some people just have them. Even my GP said she gets them from time to time! Having had them for 25 years, I don’t worry that they are a sign of anything worse to come. Fortunately they go when I put the light on and I go straight back to sleep. It’s just that sometimes I choose to put the light on a long way from the bed which I have left in a hurry taking the bedding with me! Otherwise my sleep is brilliant!

[movinngroovin1]

I did on Sinamet!

[Dap1948 in reply to movinngroovin1]

Presumably you changed medication and they stopped. Mine began 15 years before diagnosis when I was on no medication so nothing to give up.

[aspergerian13]

?

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/273...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Dap1948 in reply to aspergerian13]

Thanks for those. I’m pleased to read that 'normal' people often get them and to read that melatonin works! I’m just waiting now for the drops to arrive! In the mean time I’m trying cbd oil!