Ceiling fans

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This is our first summer in a house with a lot of ceiling fans. Yesterday DS said he sometimes isn't sure whether he's awake or asleep. When I asked him what he meant, he said that the breeze from the fans makes him zone out. His main sensory issues are with touch (both seeking and avoiding) so I can understand how an ongoing breeze could have some kind of effect on him. I was still surprised, though, because we've been using the fans all summer and he's only now mentioning it. He's like that, though - doesn't mention things that are affecting him for weeks or months. I think it takes him that long to understand and find words for what's going on.

We had oscillating fans when I was a kid. I would crave the moment the fan's breeze hit me directly. I would be immersed in and lulled by the counting of seconds between times the fan would come back to blow in my direction.

My son was highly drawing to spinning objects, ceiling fans being one of them, when he was 2 years old. If we passed by a restaurant with one, he would demand to be taken in to watch it and would have a hard time leaving.

a breeze like that of a ceiling fan can be hypnotic, just like the hum of an engine or the rocking of a boat.

i think that that is what your DS ment, becoming hypnotized to a point where you are still aware but fully in your own world, i personally refer to it as "awake meditation"

i myself am able to enter such a trance-like state without external stimulation, which helps a lot if i'm, for example, travelling by public transport, it makes the time fly by and i'm not bothered at all by anything that happens around me.
it is also relaxing and it allows me to mentally recharge as if i had an equal amount of sleep.

Interesting! My daughter zones out from feeling the wind from any fan in general. The air conditioning in the car makes her zone out even more when she's sitting in the front seat right in front of it.

My younger son loves watching the fan spin. He lies underneath and does very excited hand flapping. I've never thought of it in terms of the noise or the breeze... I always thought he just liked watching it spin. Hmm...

We put one in my sons room as sort of a white noise generator to help him fall asleep and stay asleep. I don't know if the actual feel of the air moving across the skin affects him though. His sensory fixations seem to focus more around water, watching it splash on things and watching the light glint off of it.

I thought everyone was mesmerized by fans.. But I don't know if I was ever mesmerized to the point of not being able to recognize if I was awake or asleep.

Interesting. Frames Per Second. I could always tell if a computer monitor wasn't in sync, a tv off, bad lighting, etc. I'm not sure why it would be different, as long as the same senses were in play.