Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment

There can be two cases when thinking to treat sleep disorders like hypnagogic hallucinations (or hypnopompic): one is when you are aware of the cause behind the hallucinations and the other is when the cause is unclear, difficult to determine or all attempts have failed. Below we will discuss a number of treatments for hypnagogic hallucinations, but it is important to understand that with such a complex brain issue there might not be a positive outcome always.

Let’s begin with the easy one:

Treatments for Unknown Causes of Hypnagogic Hallucinations

As the title might suggest a specific targeted treatment or medicine will not be possible to use in these cases and therefore the only options remain are to use generic medicines. These usually include:

• Anti depressants
• Sleeping pills
• Anti psychotics

When assigning the above drugs to patients the assumption would be that there is something wrong going on such as depression, insomnia or whatever unclear mental condition, which are creating physical disruptions in the body of the person and creating all kinds of mess including manifestations of hallucinations. The hope would be that the removal of possible depression or good quality sleep would allow the body the time to gather forces, repair or regenerate itself and recover.

But please understand that this option is like shooting in the dark = low chances of success of treating this or any other sleep disorders.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment for Known Causes

As you may have seen in my other article called Hypnagogic Hallucinations Causes there are a number of various items which can trigger hypnagogic hallucinations or general ones. Therefore, it stands to reason that treating these triggers should have positive effects.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment: Drugs & Medication Side Effects

Here the treatment would be to stop taking these drugs and test to see if the hallucinations have stopped or not. In case of illegal and addictive drugs this may be very difficult to do and therefore rehabilitation centers might be needed. However, with prescription medication you always can ask your doctor for an alternative or you can perhaps stop taking it for a certain period to see if the frequency and intensity of the hypnagogic hallucinations have reduced.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment: Brain Damage or Injury

For permanent damage clearly nothing can be done, however, not all cases are so clear cut. Sometimes the brain is able to treat itself by adapting non-injured areas. Otherwise checking with your doctor + doing research yourself to try to find possibly treatments for whatever brain damage or injury would be the option here. Even partial treatment or a minor improvement may result in hypnagogic hallucinations treatment.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment: Sleep Deprivation & Exhaustion

When talking about sleep deprivation the treatment is very clear – you have to go from a condition of someone deprived from sleep back to normal quality sleep. Therefore hypnagogic hallucinations treatment in this case would be equivalent to the treatment of sleep deprivation. Once this root cause has been taken care of then hypnagogic hallucinations, which are, in this specific case, a direct consequence, would be expected to just disappear.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations Treatment: Meditation, Prayer, Sensory Deprivation & Stress

It is important to understand that meditation, prayer and stress are actually actions that we do or allow being done to us. When looking at it from this angle then you can understand that you can choose to stop meditating or praying for a period of time and test to see if the frequency and intensity of the hallucinations change. Likewise, you can stop allowing yourself to fall into stress by either getting away from the place which stresses you (such as going on a holiday) or by taking actions to remove stress from your life (such as quitting your job or getting rid of a negative partner). Again, you need some non-stress time to test if there are any changes in the frequency of hypnagogic hallucinations and their intensity. Therefore, hypnagogic hallucinations treatment in this case would be carried out not by doctors, but by yourself, by watching and understanding consequences of your actions. Keeping a diary with events and results should help in understanding.