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Comment by monknomo | Hacker News Reader

I don't have tinnitus, but I do have this thing where when I'm falling asleep, my eyes (despite being closed and in a dark room) will start to feel like they are looking at a brighter and brighter light. This is very irritating for me.

For that I usually open them really briefly and imagine some kind of equilizer level-set thing happening and that makes it dark behind my eyes again. I wonder if there is a way to do it without opening them

These feedback things are interesting, thank you for sharing

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This is actually an experience that people that engage in the tantric practices in Vajrayana Buddhism -- of which Tibetan Buddhism belongs to -- cultivate. I've encountered the instructions as part of the dream yoga practices, to cultivate it so that you actually watch yourself fall asleep and enter the dream state completely lucidly. I've only ever been able to "catch" the dream and become lucid when already in the dream. Maybe you're way ahead of the rest of us! [1][2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_body

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_yoga

I was able to do it once with the simple exercise of barely typing my name on an invisible keyboard while keeping the rest of my body completely still, only moving the tips of my fingers maybe a centimeter or two. Something about that repeated motion allowed me to keep some subset conscious as the whole transitioned into sleep. It was a very spooky transition! I descended until I felt a cold hand on my shoulder and whispers all around me, crescendoing to me opening my eyes to the lake in the neighborhood i grew up in. The fidelity of the simulation was very high as well, certainly beat my ability to distinguish! Eventually, as i was flying down the street a giant sand worm emerged from a darkness and closed in on me until i woke up. I could control some things but it felt like the dream telling me it'd had enough.

That's awesome, thanks for sharing that. I've gotten to the point of hearing dream sounds like you described while falling through the sleep stages, but it startled me enough to wake me up! I'll give the slight movement thing a try -- which actually reminded me of how Tesla claimed to curl his toes 100 times per foot before going to sleep [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Work_and_dining_h...

> I don't have tinnitus, but I do have this thing where when I'm falling asleep, my eyes (despite being closed and in a dark room) will start to feel like they are looking at a brighter and brighter light. This is very irritating for me.

Me too, just started happening recently too. Brains are weird.

You may be experiencing this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

I have read a few anecdotal experiences of people allowing these kinds of hallucinations to continue and they have reported that they can become quite vivid and even interactive. Maybe try waving your arms around when this happens to see if it goes away? That should indicate if it's sleep-related or not.

Sure, why not, though I fail to see much difference between that and dreaming

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