Usually, when I fall asleep there are gaps in my consciousness. It goes: awake, gap, dream, gap, awake.
In other words, there is no continuity of consciousness between the wakeful state and the dream state.
However, last night there was a continuity. I was able to have conscience of myself falling asleep, entering dreamland, dreaming, coming out of dreamland, and being awake again. This cycle repeated itself three times.
Previously, the closest I came to this was that sometimes I'd be conscious of pulling back at the last minute. In this case, I wouldn't actually fall asleep, I'd progressively go towards sleep, but pull back at the last minute.
@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic could be. If you have a more analytical brain you are more likely to notice things about how your own experience is put together. One of my earliest memories is catching me lying to myself, effectively rewriting my memory of an event that happened that I didn’t like (like when Winston is holding both versions of an event before destroying one in Nineteen Eighty Four). I think I was 6 at the time. It really shook me that my brain can do that.
@yourautisticlife
Hmmm, interesting. I'm not autistic, but I often find myself trying to catch the actual instant that I fall asleep.
I've never been aware of a consciousness gap like you mentioned. Unless that's just the unconsciousness of sleep?
I used to keep a dream journal: have a dream, wake up, write it down, go back to sleep. I suppose the high tech is version would be to wake up and speak my dream to my smartphone... @actuallyautistic@n69n
When I was younger, for a long time it was completely normal to just start dreaming as soon as I fell asleep, it was just thoughts slowly becoming dreams.
Even today I usually remember that my dream stopped with waking up, if I remember the dream.
It's impossible to tell, what even is a gap in consciousness and what is just a gap in memory.
For example I have a few memories of dreamless sleep, or the time before a dream started and how it "formed".
@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic@pathfinder it could, but I can tell you that we’re supposed to have periods of deep sleep, REM (when we dream) and light sleep, along with maybe some awake time. I’d think the time you describe as gaps would be the deep sleep. It could be that you didn’t get much of that on the night in question. Here’s a image from the app which tracks my sleep, in case that helps.
And "consciously" falling asleep is basically the main topic of "WILD" lucid dreaming: Letting the body fall asleep while the mind stays kind-of awake.
@stevenray@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic@pathfinder
When I was in my 20s and trying to fall asleep, I would occasionally get poked or shaken and told I was snoring, which always surprised me because I was certain I hadn't lost consciousness, and that obviously my partner had set the clock 10 minutes faster than when I had gone to bed.
same. Once I was lying in bed, awake and pissed off about it, aware of every little noise and such - and then slowly realized my alarm had been going off for ten minutes. Dreaming of insomnia, what circle of Hell is that 😀
@Jwharrison@stevenray@yourautisticlife@actuallyautistic@pathfinder
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thinking about this, that was a long time ago. I think it took many years for me to figure it out, but it meant I don't know if I'm asleep or not?
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So now, when I'm lying in bed awake and pissed off, I stay there, because I might actually be getting my beauty rest and I just don't know it. 😂
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I mean, really, I'm up every night, but I do that too, I think, until the acid convinces me.
😇