NationStates Jolt Archive

I just had an epiphany: the cause of schizophrenia is likely people whose brains do not reorganize their thoughts properly during sleep, which is why people with sleep deprivation or insomnia show symptoms practically identical to schizophrenia.

This occurred to me after I've slept rather erratically, particularly recently. In the past, I've gone without sleep for 24 hours of more (I'm sure that's nothing to many of you). Well, when I'm awake and have had plenty of sleep, I'm fine. But when I go without sleeping for quite some time, I have bizarre delusions, hallucinations, awkward, "jumpy" body movement, and that creepy, "crazy eye" expression.

To give you examples... For delusions, once, I thought that there might be a lion or a tiger in my bedroom, because I could've sworn I'd heard one make noise. Another time, I thought that a snake in might get into the basement, through a wall that's down here. Earlier, I took a sip of coke, and then, I thought I felt something extremely small and crunchy in my mouth. I looked for it with my tongue and teeth, but couldn't find it. So, I freaked out and decided to just swallow, because I thought it might be some kind of insect (don't know why I didn't spit). Then, I thought I felt a lump in my throat... So, I kept drinking coke over and over, to get it down.

With hallucinations, in the past, I've seen momentary bright spots or "shadowmen." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowman) And, when finally going to sleep after staying awake, I've heard faint voices and what sounds like a radio in my head (which made me wonder if that's where the band, Radiohead, got the name--another schizophrenic with the same experience). I also somewhat view things with a sort of surreal, 3D-vision, with the illusion of enhanced senses, like what you experience when severely drunk or high. In other words, merely watching my hand move in front of my face is amazing. Looking at walls or shower curtains, they seem to have significantly more detail than normal. And earlier, I was in the shower, I turned around, and the blue rack attached to my shower, for a moment, was a large, bluish-blur.

And I also experience paranoia; that an alien, a ghost, a demon, or some exotic animal is watching me, and is going to find me and "get me."

If I'd experienced these symptoms while awake, I would be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. But I don't.

I still need to research the sections of the brain that LSD and psilocybin affect, and what happens to the brain during sleep deprivation, and then compare that with the sections of the brain controlling sleep, particularly dreams. If there is any correlation, then that is significant.

Because schizophrenics, aside from their typical delusions, are easily-irritated, have jumbled thoughts, and trouble concentrating. When I don't sleep, if I am in a crowded room, I get the same sense of not being able to tune the voices in the room out.

Well, the cause of schizophrenia is currently not really known. But if their brains are unable to properly reorganize their thoughts during sleep, that would explain the jumbled thoughts, and psychotic behavior, which resembles sleep deprivation. If there are any psychology majors here, who have more information on this, please share it. But spare the snide, intellectual insults, because I recognize my ignorance and realize I may be (and probably am) wrong.

And I also experience paranoia; that an alien, a ghost, a demon, or some exotic animal is watching me, and is going to find me and "get me."

Well this part is completely normal anyway so don't feel to bad about it. Who hasn't had a fear of animals coming to get you? Have you seen that "Cows with Guns" clip? Just might make you afraid to go to sleep at night.

You seem to be in need of serious mental help. I hope you get it before it's too late.
Why? It's perfectly natural to exhibit symptoms of that sort after prolonged lack of sleep, as far as I know.

You seem to be in need of serious mental help. I hope you get it before it's too late.
Haha. Only when I'm awake for quite some time, though!

Such symptoms are natural during sleep deprivation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_deprivation). Anyone, if they stay awake long enough, will show the same signs of schizophrenia. And if you stay awake long enough, especially through drugs, you can cause brain damage and permanent psychosis. For whatever reason, I seem to just be far more prone to it.

Why? It's perfectly natural to exhibit symptoms of that sort after prolonged lack of sleep, as far as I know.
Exactly.

Unless you're depriving yourself of sleep for long periods on a regular basis, I think you should look into getting some help. Sure, it doesn't sound like it's a major biggie for you, but hallucinations can be fucking dangerous if they happen at the wrong moment. I know I wouldn't want to work anywhere near you.

Just so you guys know, I'm not a crackpot conspiracist or new age spiritualist or anything else. I'm a regular person, that's recently started researching some very unusual things.

You have to realize a few things about reality. First-off, our perception of it is not absolute. We see the dimensions our minds are prepared to see. There are more than 5 dimensions, some have proposed as many as 16, and we cannot think outside our scope of perception. Certain creeds and groups in history have challenged themselves to expanding their minds, most recently Carlos Castenada who wrote an entire book series.

We only utilize about 6% of our brains in our regular state, and this state constitutes what we consider our 'regular' world. Certain mind-expanding drugs and meditative practices put you in tune to other things, such as the shadowman and certain aspects of the world we do not normally attune ourselves too, such as telluric currents- Low-frequency magnetic waves that are present everywhere and pretty much are a key to many of life's supposed mysteries, which were known to many ancient cultures. Lack of sleep also alters our brains, in ways mostly unknown to us, jsut as being sleep does. This puts us in a different place. This may seem all new age and stupid, but it has way more too it than I ever thought. Just as time is a dimension which we have almost no understanding of, so could everything else. Time, just as the universe, at one point did not exist. As Albert Einstein proved, it too was created. In a sense, time as we know it is only our perception thereof.

This lack of sleep that we perceive as unnatural is actually used in Zen Buddhism, in addition to certain drugs, to put oneself in a divine state. Needless to say, other cultures use peyote, salvia, and many other drugs to reach this different level. Same goes with sex. At the moment of a man's climax all his brain activity literally STOPS, for a fraction of a second, and many pagan religions believed this was the state in which one received messages from gods or divine spirits.

I hate to sound stupidly cryptic, but there is a reason we had prophets in our past and amazing works such as the Sybilline books and the Torah, which are incredibly wise and unnatural. Now, I'm not disputing their origins, it may have been divine inspiration, or the divine itself, or anything, but you can't ignore these things. Certain people in history are just more attuned to the supernatural, to other dimensions, to other time periods, to other creatures and energies we do not normally feel.

In conclusion, we don't really know why things happen to us as they do. But don't be fooled, there's nothing wrong with you if you hallucinate under other than normal circumstances. You just become attuned to different forces. I truly hope soon science can resolve all these questions.

Why? It's perfectly natural to exhibit symptoms of that sort after prolonged lack of sleep, as far as I know.

i have no idea if i was hallucinating from lack of sleep or what but read this- ok i have cleaned my room, no roaches. I get a tissue box from another room, put it on my bed. A coachroach runs out and under the bed. look under the bed-no coachroach.

One time, due to a nasty string of influenza, I was quite convinced that there was a brontosaurus in another room in the house.

Another time, due to the combination of lack of sleep and exceedly high fever, I woke up in the middle of the night yelling and screaming about some TV episode I had seen right before bedtime. It wasn't a scary show. It was Rugrats. :eek:

When I was 5 and 6 years old, I was absolutely positive I could levitate approximately 1 ft off the ground if no one was watching.

<snip>
This occurred to me after I've slept rather erratically, particularly recently. In the past, I've gone without sleep for 24 hours of more (I'm sure that's nothing to many of you). Well, when I'm awake and have had plenty of sleep, I'm fine. But when I go without sleeping for quite some time, I have bizarre delusions, hallucinations, awkward, "jumpy" body movement, and that creepy, "crazy eye" expression.
<snip>


The schizophrenia angle is interesting, but I can't contribute. I have had some experience with involuntary sleep deprivation on a scale that would probably interest clinicians.

I had to endure periods of time, from several days up to 7 days once in a bad situation over a few months. Heat, lack of food and water, constant stress of being killed. Maybe a few hours available to doze, but I really couldn't - just kinda black out for a few seconds or minutes.

i experienced auditory and visual hallucinations, vivid ones. But the problem is that it stayed with me. Some kind of change occured in my brain, I think, and I am prone to having them now, years later, if I let myself get exhausted.

If I go without sleep for more than 36 hours or so, or drive late at night when I'm very tired I have visual hallucinations. Usually just a quick image, but potentially dangerous. It only happens at night.

I won't drive when I'm tired and make sure I get sleep. I take Ambien when I have insomnia - just self-protection for me. You might want to consider that too - or don't push yourself so hard you have problems.

If your having hallucinations or delusions it's your body telling you something. Don't drive a car, run equipment, or do anything that might endanger others.

I just had an epiphany: the cause of schizophrenia is likely people whose brains do not reorganize their thoughts properly during sleep, which is why people with sleep deprivation or insomnia show symptoms practically identical to schizophrenia.

This occurred to me after I've slept rather erratically, particularly recently. In the past, I've gone without sleep for 24 hours of more (I'm sure that's nothing to many of you). Well, when I'm awake and have had plenty of sleep, I'm fine. But when I go without sleeping for quite some time, I have bizarre delusions, hallucinations, awkward, "jumpy" body movement, and that creepy, "crazy eye" expression.

To give you examples... For delusions, once, I thought that there might be a lion or a tiger in my bedroom, because I could've sworn I'd heard one make noise. Another time, I thought that a snake in might get into the basement, through a wall that's down here. Earlier, I took a sip of coke, and then, I thought I felt something extremely small and crunchy in my mouth. I looked for it with my tongue and teeth, but couldn't find it. So, I freaked out and decided to just swallow, because I thought it might be some kind of insect (don't know why I didn't spit). Then, I thought I felt a lump in my throat... So, I kept drinking coke over and over, to get it down.

With hallucinations, in the past, I've seen momentary bright spots or "shadowmen." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowman) And, when finally going to sleep after staying awake, I've heard faint voices and what sounds like a radio in my head (which made me wonder if that's where the band, Radiohead, got the name--another schizophrenic with the same experience). I also somewhat view things with a sort of surreal, 3D-vision, with the illusion of enhanced senses, like what you experience when severely drunk or high. In other words, merely watching my hand move in front of my face is amazing. Looking at walls or shower curtains, they seem to have significantly more detail than normal. And earlier, I was in the shower, I turned around, and the blue rack attached to my shower, for a moment, was a large, bluish-blur.

And I also experience paranoia; that an alien, a ghost, a demon, or some exotic animal is watching me, and is going to find me and "get me."

If I'd experienced these symptoms while awake, I would be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. But I don't.

I still need to research the sections of the brain that LSD and psilocybin affect, and what happens to the brain during sleep deprivation, and then compare that with the sections of the brain controlling sleep, particularly dreams. If there is any correlation, then that is significant.

Because schizophrenics, aside from their typical delusions, are easily-irritated, have jumbled thoughts, and trouble concentrating. When I don't sleep, if I am in a crowded room, I get the same sense of not being able to tune the voices in the room out.

Well, the cause of schizophrenia is currently not really known. But if their brains are unable to properly reorganize their thoughts during sleep, that would explain the jumbled thoughts, and psychotic behavior, which resembles sleep deprivation. If there are any psychology majors here, who have more information on this, please share it. But spare the snide, intellectual insults, because I recognize my ignorance and realize I may be (and probably am) wrong.

Schizophrenia is caused by improprer brain chemestry. Just as most mental illnesses are. If you suspect this, you need a consultation with a good psychiatrist.

I've gone 16 days with no sleep and experienced nothing unusual other than moodiness and anxiety. Yes, 16 days. No hallucinations, nothing.

I would say you should really get yourself checked out. You could also have sleep studies done to see if you have a bizarre sleep pattern, but I am not aware of any type of sleep disorder that causes this. I think it is crucial that you get an evaluation by a good psychiatrist. It may save your sanity.

There was something about radiohead syndrome in the paper because it was occurring to old people who had entirely lost their hearing. It involves memory and the same thing that happens when a song gets stuck in your head

Ihatevacations']There was something about radiohead syndrome in the paper because it was occurring to old people who had entirely lost their hearing. It involves memory and the same thing that happens when a song gets stuck in your head

Like my husband playing "I'm Sailing Away" done by Cartman and now it's stuck in my head! :headbang: Sorry for the spam....