On sleep, art and nostalgia

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(If this is in the wrong section, feel free to move it. I just woke up so I placed the thread in the board I found most relevant.)

This thread is a discussion of my experience with fleeting ideas and their inspirations, and how I possibly can record them before they vanish.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that when I am in the transition between sleep and just waking up, I hear original music (sometimes accompanied with lyrics) and by the time I've fully awaken, I forget it! Is there any psychological explanation behind this phenomenon? I can't be the only one to whom this happens!

I don't know how to play any instruments, and frankly humming into a voice recorder doesn't cut it for me. In a perfect world I would be able to at least play guitar and / or bass to some acceptable ability. But that's not a reality for the moment.

This morning in particular a great "song" came to me. And as usual, I forgot it. All I can say is that it sounded like a cross between Linkin Park and Dream Theater... it came with lyrics. I wanted to at least jot them down.

Also, I have a feeling that old memories long forgotten and buried beneath the conscious mind have something to do with it. That's where the "nostalgia" part comes into play. Images of scenes from my old hometown of Springfield flashed by as the song was playing.

That aside, is there some method to make these songs persist in my head longer so that I have time to record them?

If anyone can relate to this unique occurrence, thank you!

I'm afraid I only can relate to some extend, but I can't help you.
Allow me to say that it sounds amazing how you can connect music and images so vividly. Do those images stay though the whole song, or do they appear and go like bulb flashes intermittently? When I ""compose"" (and lets say it's not exactly a master piece) I usually do it lucid but when I'm slowly entering into my own world inside my head, imagining people that doesn't exist and so on. Specially when I listen to a sound that I like or I watch a drop of water that I like, for example, I start humming and trying to make the humming sound like the thing I saw/heard, and then I proceed to make lyrics on top of them when the humming is in the background of my mind. Like you, I forget about it just as I finish to sing/hum the song. I wonder if is possible for us to anticipate the fact so one can tape-record it, as I find that more viable than trying to remember by memory.

For dreams or thoughts I always carry a mini sketchbook or make notes in my phone. Do you think you could keep your song long enough in your mind to write it afterwards?

By the time I'm fully awake, I've forgotten the song. (I'm slow to wake up unfortunately)

If I recall correctly, the images stay with me the whole song. (This also reminds me of how when listening to music I envision original music videos relating to the themes of the songs I listen to. If the song is instrumental then I just imagine whatever I see as fitting.)

The part of my mind that "sees" things is VERY active.

Thats sounds relaxing. I get slapped by images but I have always struggled to make them stay if they're welcomed.

I believe I've felt what you describe.

I don't do music, but I do write.

There have been a few times what occurred at the moment, a dream, or just being really out of it upon waking, I'm haunted by something. Not an actually haunting by a ghost or spirit. It's just that whatever it was, a picture, a feeling, an idea feels like it's so powerful, so important, that it sticks with me, sometimes for days. I'm rarely ever able to fully process it. Sometimes I just get a snapshot, a single scene, or a single word to describe it. Most of the time I know that something like this occurred but I don't know what.

The haunted feeling is a distinctive feeling. There is no other feeling like it. I think that if I could replicate this feeling, I'd be addicted to it and would probably die from lack of doing anything else.

If I'm lucky to even remember the tiniest part of it, I may do something with it. I've actually had five stories I came up with come out of a dream as I woke up that I could remember.


The nostalgia part is a thing. I talked with my psych about this and she confirmed it. I describe it that when I listen to a song repeatedly in the background while I do something else, I store the imagery in that song. Songs will play and I remember something so random, so off the wall that it makes no sense other than the events recorded occurred while I listened to this song.


My laptop is kept plugged in by my bed when I sleep. If I can remember what I dreamed and get an idea off it, I type it out right away.

Actually, writing is my art activity of choice as well. It's just that I compose music when I sleep.

In fact, on a related note, I heard that it's impossible to visualize text in your dreams, but I have been able to do that before.

When I go to bed thirsty I have nightmares, and can often remember them when I wake up enough to write them down.

It's due to the different parts of the brain handling the dreaming and interpreting text and numbers. Usually there is writing of some sort, but because the part of the brain that allows you to read isn't always active in the dream, it's unreadable. There are exceptions to this, but it's more a matter of your brain just tells you what it is even if it is unreadable.