Audio and visual halucination with pain

[DrP]

I have the onset of arthritis. This is what the hospital told me when they x-rayed a suspected broken toe a few years ago. I have been to the doctors for years with chest and back pains that have always been declared as muscular and skeletal. (presumably partly to do with arthritis)... I can deal with pain.... but it gets a little scary when in the sternum. I might go back and get checked out again as it has been a while.... Anyway....

 

Monday morning, after sitting in bed playing a PC game all night, I laid down to rest. As I was drifting off I suddenly heard a loud crack as my mind gave me the image of a man stabbing me with a ivory blade (about the size of a nail file)... I did not get the change to see who it was, although it might have looked a bit like Tom Hardy as I had watched episode 2 of Taboo the night before. I clearly saw the blade and heard the crack of it as it hit my sternum... it was about half inch wide - had an organic bone look to it and went in only a little way (about half inch). The experience was coupled with a nasty stabbing pain in the bone of my sternum which caused me to sit up suddenly, fully awake, with a gasp of breath and a cry of 'ARRRRRGH' as I clutched my chest and rolled over. It took a while to relax again and trust laying straight back and I was a little sore after for a while.

 

I am not sure if I have a question other than to see if anyone else has had this type of visual and audio experience accompanying pain before. I was on the verge of sleep so the hallucination might have been a dream state or something. It was a little scary. I had a similar pain (less intense but lasting a few days) a few years ago and the doc said that it was joint pain in my sternum. This was very strange though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lord Antares]

This sounds like sleep paralysis to me. It happens most often when you lay on your back too. Google it if you're not familiar with it.

Were you able to move during this?

 

Sorry that you feel pain.

 

EDIT: Just realized how old this thread is. Any update?

Edited February 8, 2017 by Lord Antares

[DrP]

It wasn't sleep paralysis - I have experienced that though - it is quite scary until you figure out what is going on.

 

I think it might just be a touch of tendonitis or arthritis coupled with me being an idiot and sitting up in the same position all night long. I get aches and pains (sometimes quite severe) in joints all over my body.... it is just more scary when it is in the sternum as your mind starts playing tricks on you... you know, it is close to the heart.

 

Thanks for you concern and the pm.

 

I think the audio visual effects were because I was drifting into a dream like state... I think my mind made me dream something to match the pain.... I had it once before many years ago when I twisted a ball.. (sorry - quite personal)... It was painful...It must have got worse as I was sleeping because I had a dream where I was mugged and was pinned up against the wall with some bloke squeezing and twisting my bollock whilst saying horrible things to me.... I woke up trying to head butt him... lol... I stood up and, er, straightened myself out and all was fine.

[StringJunky]

It wasn't sleep paralysis - I have experienced that though - it is quite scary until you figure out what is going on.

 

I think it might just be a touch of tendonitis or arthritis coupled with me being an idiot and sitting up in the same position all night long. I get aches and pains (sometimes quite severe) in joints all over my body.... it is just more scary when it is in the sternum as your mind starts playing tricks on you... you know, it is close to the heart.

 

Thanks for you concern and the pm.

 

I think the audio visual effects were because I was drifting into a dream like state... I think my mind made me dream something to match the pain.... I had it once before many years ago when I twisted a ball.. (sorry - quite personal)... It was painful...It must have got worse as I was sleeping because I had a dream where I was mugged and was pinned up against the wall with some bloke squeezing and twisting my bollock whilst saying horrible things to me.... I woke up trying to head butt him... lol... I stood up and, er, straightened myself out and all was fine.

I think it's quite common for our brains to turn what we experience into a metaphorical narrative in certain stages of rest and sleep. I think it's trying to make the data it receives into something tangible based on what's in its memories at the time because the necessary external sensors - ears and eyes - have been cut off or diverted and those parts of those neural circuits been reassigned for dreaming. It's a bit like pareidolia where the brain will turn random shapes or arrangements into something it recognises.

Edited February 12, 2017 by StringJunky

[DrP]

I think you are right - getting mugged in your sleep is no fun at all though! lol.

[Lord Antares]

I'm not saying that pain or anything like that is connected to sleep paralysis, I just think a hallucination just as you were falling asleep matches the description of sleep paralysis. Were you able to move while you were seeing the man?

[DrP]

. Were you able to move while you were seeing the man?

yes - I instantly rolled over with a gasp of breath clutching my sternum... The visual was very brief. I had to sit up (or roll onto my side and ease my self up) - I didn't want to lay back because the stretching hurt. It was sore for a little while after. I have been fine since apart from the usual aches and pains. Might have been a very slight partial detatchment of ligament.. I do not know.

 

The cases of sleep paralysis I have experienced in the past have been like I was totally awake and laying there completely paralysed. I have had that with audio and visuals too (many years ago) - couple of times with a smokey demon looking thing sitting on me tring to enter into my mouth (I was a christian at the time and prayed it away) and once with the sound of partying girls outside my room. Very strange.