Hallucination?

I had a really weird experience driving home today. Kinda has me worried and also confused. I was driving just fine and then noticed a car in front of me changing colors. It was like a rainbow- one after another. Kind of pulsating. Didn't even register that what I saw made no sense. Then I realized and snapped out of it. Really odd.

Now I know I sound like a druggie or something. I swear no drugs or anything. I haven't slept as much as recommended lately. I'm super confused as to why I'd randomly see something. I get home and google it and there's things saying that tumors can cause color hallucinations. Or smoking pot. I now it's not the latter and hope it's not the former.

I've felt fine all day.

Any thoughts? Or just share random things. I don't know the point of this thread.

Migraine maybe? I have a friend who gets migraines with auras and that kind of sounds how she describes them. The kind I get are pain + nausea + light sensitivity but apparently you can have none of those symptoms and just crazy visual things happen instead.

Maybe they had candy paint?

I've had minor hallucinations before and with a history of mental illness, it's always really freaked me out, but the doctors have all said that it's very common and nothing of concern if they're mild hallucinations after lack of sleep, or immediately after waking up.

I've never had anything like you just described though...closest thing I can think of was when I was riding in a car in the middle of the night and saw a road sign but the letters looked like completely unreadable symbols, and as we got closer they started moving and exploded...that one really freaked me out because I had been feeling fine, no drug use, wasn't drifting to sleep...it was just from staring at the side of the road for hours on a long car trip.

If it happens again I'd definitely see a doctor. But if it's a one time thing I wouldn't worry.

I have hallucinated with a migraine before and this reminded me of then. But today my head feels perfect.

That doesn't sound like an aural migraine at all...with aural migraines the colors aren't set on one object and they usually float around if you move your head. They're more like splotches of color in your field of vision or focused on an object with a certain light, but it's not JUST one object as far as I know

It was definitely just the car changing colors. It started out green then warped blue and through the rainbow that way. I was so nonchalant about it too- just didn't register for a good few seconds. When I realized it made no sense and snapped out of it, the car was a greenish color.

Mias woken me up multiple times the past few nights. << Obnoxious dog.

Maybe it was something like this car...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqU_1PNrX8Q&feature=fvwrel

It's not unheard of for people to have really mild hallucinations when they're very sleep deprived.

I'm pretty sure those only change between two colors

I watch too much grey's anatomy. So I will refrain from giving medical advice because I think EVERYTHING is a brain tumor

but, sleep deprivation does some weird stuff..

You need to be pretty seriously sleep deprived for that to cause hallucinations on it's own, though. Like, awake for days or running on an hour or two of sleep. I don't think just waking up throughout the night would cause that.

Were you drinking more caffeine than usual, by any chance? If you're upping your caffeine to make up for lack of sleep, the combo could do it

Most people that I knew who experienced it were up for 3+ days straight, but then again everybody's body is different. Adding caffeine or even other OTC medications when sleep deprived could definitely affect it though.

I had some caffeine today but not more than usual. I really have no idea. But it was WEIRD.

Don't have too much to add. But

My friends who are super in to cars have a couple that are candy painted. You can go the cheapo way with two colors but if you go all out there are a TON of colors that can come out.

It really depends on the person. I'm quite tolerant of just a few hours of sleep a night, but there was a time when I was working December for USPS and averaged about 2 hours of sleep per night that I started hallucinating on the drive home one night. The road just...disappeared in front of me. I kept driving because I drove the route hundreds of times before and KNEW the road wasn't really out, but it was very weird.

You can have migraines with no headache. I don't think I've ever heard of them causing such specific hallucinations before, though.

Daydreaming? Or sort of half-sleeping or something? I know when I nap I tend to mix my surroundings in with my dreams, even to the point of dreaming that I'm awake lying in bed in the same room I'm actually sleeping in.

With the history , call your doctor.

safe than sorry.

hugs.

Stress, lack of sleep, migraine...

I thought I might be having aural hallucinations the past few days, because I kept hearing things like waves crashing/gushing water or rustling right next to my ear (and I just went off all my medication, and even though I don't really have a history of hallucinations they're not uncommon with my condition) but turns out it's just a sort of tinnitus and it's from a blood pressure issue/heart arrhythmia.

I have something similar at night fairly often, but it's called Exploding Head Syndrome (which is the most awesome name for anything ever lol). It can range from anything from doors closing to pans clattering as I drift off to sleep. Often I hear "fireworks." Come to think of it though, I haven't had it happen in some time now. Once (a couple months ago) I SWEAR I heard the TARDIS :rofl1: