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24 May 2007 I'm no schizo. Nor am I

[Rant] I found this article a long while ago that claims that hearing voices in your head is a common thing:

Voices in the head 'are normal'

One of the key points it makes are that it's not the fact that hearing voices in your head is the problem, but how the person interprets those voices.

I find this to be an interesting idea. People hearing voices in their being a common thing? It almost removes some pressure about being crazy.

One thing it doesn't really make clear is the definition of hearing voices in your head. After all, does giving yourself a pep talk in your head count? What about day dreaming? Technically you hear the voices in your head and not with your ears. Or is the definition of voices in your head simply that you hear voice that sound like they are coming from outside yourself but there is nothing there to cause it?

I quite often talk to myself in my head for things like pep talks and stuff. But I'm creating that voice with my mind on purpose. It's not something that's happening beyond my control. I've had incidences where I've been so tired that just before I fall asleep I hear my name being called by someone voice. When I lift my head to check there is no one there. It sounded just like the person was next to me, but it was something in my head. But those incidences are rare and I put it down to fatigue.

I wonder if anyone else goes through the same thing as me sometimes. Or am I the only crazy one?

Posted at: 14:05 PM

Your Thoughts

ELYSE said on Thursday 24th of May 2007 at 06:48:16 PM

Gravatar You're insane.

I hear voices in my head, not by ear but by brain. Sometimes I'm in control of them, but, more often than not, they're just there for moral support on their own. Of course, being an agoraphobic made me needy for any kind of human contact. I think that's why they're there.

Although, I must say that I've heard, by ear, my name called more than once during a fatigued moment. I think that's more of a voice matrixing thing. You see, our brain is naturally used to patterns (a term referred to as "matrixing"). It tries to make something out of nothing. I think that our brain tells us that our name is being called because our name is a distinctive word that we often listen in case it's said at all moments. So, you're lying there, dead tired, not really all there, and you hear a noise. Your brain tells you that it's your name being called because it wants to make that unknown noise something you can recognize.

TA DA! I'm brilliant.

Dennis said on Thursday 7th of June 2007 at 10:54:55 PM

Gravatar Don't worry ... you're not crazy. Many people occasionally hear voices or noises just before falling asleep or just as they are waking up. It happens to me once in a while too. For further reading, see:

http://www.discover.umn.edu/searchAndDiscover/index.php#5

which says, in part:

Why do we twitch when we’re falling asleep?

Twitching of the limbs and facial muscles while falling asleep, if not excessive, is a normal transitional wake-sleep phenomenon. Transitional states of sleep and wakefulness not uncommonly release brief and usually inconsequential motor and sensory phenomena, such as twitching, jerking (a prominent or nearly full body jerk is called a “sleep start” and is usually a normal variant), head or body rocking, tooth grinding (bruxism), making sounds, sleeptalking, hearing sounds/voices, loud bangs, or even explosions, or seeing things that are not there, which can be very unsettling. Also, brief moments of paralysis can take place during entry into sleep or arousal from sleep.

Any of the just-described events, when too frequent and/or intense, then becomes a clinical symptom that needs to be evaluated and perhaps treated. The brain is programmed to initiate state transitions and so with billions of neurons shifting gears during a change of state, it is not surprising that all sorts of little (or at times big) misfirings in the neurons are taking place, resulting in these motor and sensory events. It can take a little while for the brain to settle into its new state.

I recently wrote a book that considers this question while also describing the ever-growing set of abnormal behavioral and experiential phenomena emerging from sleep (the parasomnias) and their interactions with common sleep disorders. The book is called Sleep: The Mysteries, The Problems, and The Solutions (Penguin/Avery Press). Also, I produced and participated in a documentary film, along with eight of my patients, called “Sleep Runners: The Stories Behind Everyday Parasomnias.”

—Carlos H. Schenck, Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center, Department of Psychiatry, Twin Cities campus

Nicole said on Monday 17th of September 2007 at 02:58:23 PM

Gravatar Well, I find that BBC article interesting in the least. I "hear voices" in my head, and I know exactly where to pinpoint when it started.

You're not insane. I hear my name being called, even chanted.
It's sort of strange.

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