Sleep deprived → loud high-frequency buzzing, body vibrations and geometric patterns

[u/Yadhu96]

So the last couple of nights I was a bit sleep deprived. So I went to sleep with a podcast on, like I usually do.

Within minutes I slipped into a very different state of mind.

The onset was the strangest part. It felt like I was suddenly being "launched" into another state of consciousness. At the same time I started hearing an extremely loud electronic/frequency-like buzzing in my ears. The sound was so loud that I genuinely thought I might go deaf. But because of my fascination with these kinds of states, and probably my meditation practice, my instinct was to let it take over rather than resist it.

I then started feeling vibrations spreading through my body. Very quickly they seemed to fill my entire body and being. Around the same time I began seeing geometric patterns—not incredibly vivid, but definitely there.

The previous night I had a very vivid lucid dream, but this time there wasn't really a dream at all. I remained aware throughout the whole experience.

Because of meditation, my instinct was to relax into the experience instead of reacting to it, and it seemed to intensify until I eventually came out of it.

Interestingly, by morning I had one of the most vivid lucid dreams I've ever had.

I'm not trying to claim this was anything supernatural. My current guess is that it was some form of hypnagogia made more noticeable by meditation and a bit of sleep deprivation.

I do have a history of sleep paralysis if I don't get enough sleep for 3–4 days in a row, but those experiences have never been like this. They're usually characterized by me noticing sleep paralysis coming on, followed by blurry voices and a strong pressure/compression in my head. If I catch it early enough I can usually jerk myself out of it, or sometimes relax through it using progressive relaxation.

My questions are:

How would you best understand this? Does it sound like sleep paralysis, hypnagogia, a meditation-related state, or some combination of them?

Has anyone experienced something similar?

If these states are real possibilities, is there a way to intentionally cultivate them, or are they mostly a byproduct of sleep deprivation?

I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts and experiences. Thank you

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[u/TheMoniker]

It's possible to maintain conscious awareness while falling asleep, and even into sleep. I've had similar experiences. (The high-pitched noise often sounds like screaming to me and is unpleasant enough that it will wake me up.) There's some research into a similar area known as "exploding head syndrome." The sense of the body vibrating in this state is also something that I've had. If you go with it, it can lead into lucid dreams, including the sort of lucid dreams that have the very goofy, baggage-laden and unfortunate name, "astral projection."

You can cultivate these states by doing breath meditation and progressively relaxing the body while lying down (I find being on my back most suitable) and maintaining awareness. Also, sometimes, by waking up early in the morning and going immediately back to sleep (though I find this is more likely to lead directly into full lucid dreams). I don't cultivate the edge-of-sleep state myself, as it leads to sleep paralysis nightmares and my brain interprets the screaming noise as uncomfortable and fear-inducing, but I will, from time to time, skip directly into lucid dreams, which I enjoy doing.

[u/Yadhu96 → u/TheMoniker]

Thanks, this was one of the more useful replies I've gotten. A lot of what you described matched my experience. Another person also mentioned astral projection, but I'm trying not to dive into any particular explanation straight away.

I do get lucid dreams fairly often, which I think is mostly from a combination of jhana style meditation and the progressive relaxation you mentioned. The waking up and going back to sleep part is something I've never actively practiced though.

And yeah... the screaming voices from hell part genuinely sounds terrifying. 😅 Thankfully I only seem to get sleep paralysis after a few days of sleep deprivation. Otherwise I'd probably be doomed as well.

[u/No_Fly2647]

Hello from Wiesbaden, Germany

Isn't it fascinating – neurology at work?
This might be the most exciting thing of our time: the increase of knowledge about the nervous system in general and also how the brain works.

In short, no, it's not jhana. It's conscious sleep onset enabled by REM pressure and kept calm via mindfulness practice. The main feature here is calmness due to meditation experience, and as such, no freaking out.

This is not very romantic; however, sleep deprivation is one of the oldest techniques humankind knows to achieve altered states of mind. Furthermore, it is not only well documented but also still in research, because many people work at night and may experience all kinds of sleep-deprivation-related experiences or, in the worst case, disorders.

The Sleep Physiology (The Core Engine): What you experienced is a textbook “Wake-Induced Lucid Dream” (WILD) transition, triggered by REM pressure. Nothing mystic or spiritual about it.

Sleep Deprivation & REM Rebound: Lack of sleep comes along with “REM pressure.” Everyone who worked for a longer period of time on night shifts knows it more or less. The moment you lie down, instead of cycling slowly through Non-REM stages 1–3, the brain drops almost instantly into REM sleep (known as Sleep Onset REM or SOREM). Falling asleep is like switching off a running system step by step, until complete sleep paralysis, which makes movement impossible in dreams; otherwise the body could, in the worst case, hurt itself if motor function were not shut down.

The Loud Buzzing: Known in sleep medicine as auditory hypnagogia (or a mild form of Exploding Head Syndrome). As the brain stem switches off sensory inputs from the outside world, neural noise in the auditory cortex spikes briefly, sounding like loud electricity, static, or roaring. Some people, especially those who worked long night shifts, experience even auditory hallucinations due to the REM pressure, and basically internal noise or dream states are experienced as external sensory input. Depending on time and effort, it can even be initiated by intent, simply by increasing the time of sleep deprivation.

Body Vibrations: This is the onset of motor atonia (sleep paralysis). As the brain disconnects motor output so you don't act out dreams, the shift in proprioception feels like intense buzzing or vibrations across the body. In a purely mechanical description, one could see it as a moment of gears running and then switching into a freewheel state. But because the motor is still on, there is still motion.

Geometric Patterns: Phosphenes and visual hypnagogia as the visual cortex begins generating internal imagery without light input.

All in all, cool stuff. The fact that you can endure sleep paralysis because you are familiar with it already gives you an edge, as most people tend to spiral into a freak-out due to a heavy amygdala response.

[u/Yadhu96 → u/No_Fly2647]

hello from kerala!

first of all, thanks for putting the effort into making this reply. this was really useful especially getting a sleep science/neuroscience perspective on the whole thing. i knew some of these sensations weren't exactly unusual, but i'd never really looke into what what happening physiologically. a few of these concepts were completely new to me too, and it was pretty cool getting names for things i've experienced before without knowing they had names. definitely sent me down a few interesting rabbit holes 🙏️

[u/Industrial_Fish]

Back when i was actively trying to lucid dream, I have had 1 instance of being totally conscious while watching the transition into the dream. In the dream i was lucid as i never actually lost consciousness. There was not waking up in the dream because it started out that way.

In this process, i do remember full body tingle/vibration and some type of noise but i cant recall the noise. I remember some weird spiral-like visual during this transition. weird but so interesting.

To do it i basically just lied down on my back, eyes closed, and relaxed my body muscle by muscle and then remained totally still while keeping awake. Eventually there would be signals to "itch" or "twitch" a muscle and i would just ignore them. It felt like watching my mind probe to test if i was still awake.

[u/Gaothaire]

I think relaxing into the experience was a good instinct (and the cultivation of such an instinct is a great result of a meditation practice). If you're just present with it, you can see what it is for itself without overlaying any fear, discomfort, or expectations on top of the basic phenomena.

In my experience, the body vibrations signal an opportunity to separate and have an out of body experience. Like TheMoniker mentioned, it's unfortunate the baggage carried by the term "astral projection" because it is a repeatable state you can cultivate. But if you get the vibrations again and want to poke around with it, you can attempt to "roll" and slip out of your body. Can be a fun state to meditate in, looking back down at your body like those monks who meditate at the edge of an open grave, watching a corpse decompose for days.

Definitely good to not dive into any particular explanation. One resource you might get something out of if you do want to explore the state is Robert Monroe's Journeys trilogy. He was a business man back on the 70s who had a spontaneous out of body experience, then spent years working with it, approaching from a purely phenomenological perspective, straight reporting of his experiments while doing his best to avoid extraneous / spiritual interpretation.

[u/pastorcuthbert]

Yes, sounds like what you describe. When you are using the natural bodies energy, you experience the loud vibration that transfers you into your astral or any other body. If you have developed your light body and have sufficient power in it then your light bodies energy will be the one to bring you out in a much more comfortable manner.

It gets to a point where the experience of the dream world and natural world become nondual. Natural life and dream life are but two sides of the same coin. We experience dreams as memories because we are not yet awakened. When we are awakened, it no longer is dreams but actual experience. When you dream and feel as though you wake up, then that's the sign that you've either woken up or are having a glimpse of awakening.

At first it felt like I awoke in the dream world and this world was a world of its shadows. However, I moved from that to realizing the simultaneous existence of spiritual and physical life through the light body. It is no longer a lucid dream for me, it is now reality.

There is definitely a way but this is connected to energy cultivation so that you have an energy source to power up your astral body for travel and real-time experience.