Im abit worried. The past few nights when Im just dozing off to sleep l begin to hear voices in my head, mainly voices of my friends and family saying really weird random stuff.
Im not dreaming because there is no visual but the only way l can make them stop is by opening my eyes, turning on the lamp and reading a few pages of a book, l literally lie there trying to clear my mind but it wo not go away.
l know this is a sign of skitzaphrenia which is why Im worried but l also wonder could this just be a stage of REM sleep.
Is it nothing or should l take myself down to a doctor?
Has anyone else ever experienced this?

get some help

This is what use to happen to my mum before she'd drift off into sleep.. l think your just dreaming to be honest darling. Normally it is a sign of madness, but before you go to sleep l think it is fine. It use to happen to my mum but she was high on stuff, so l am not particualy sure.

Read a good book until you are sleepy. Or a boring book that will put you to sleep. Even the dictionary will work.

Try going to sleep listening to yourself breathing slow and deep.

l wake up a lot, but without voices. Tho recently l was chasing crickets in my dream.

how often does this happen you might want to see the doctor ??? but maybe your dreaming but you just do not see the visual stuff

It happens to everyone when they fall asleep, it is called auditory hallucinations.

In a sense, it is portions of your brain firing off causing you to interpret the signals as familiar sensations.

They usually occur right before you drift into unconsciousness, but you can train yourself to become aware of them and actually keep your mind conscious as your body falls asleep.

It is an interesting gateway into lucid dreaming.

It is called a hypnagogic hallucination. When a doctor is evaluating you for schizophrenia he will ask if you were falling asleep or waking up when you had the hallucination. That is because it is totally normal to have these hallucinations and it rules out schizophrenia.

Your normal !!

That happens when your tired, It means your getting ready to doze off

l do not think this is a sign of schizophrenia, more like over active brain, l gt a similar thing when l been listening to music, the songs start playing l can hear th voice of the singer quite clearly, so you are not alone
Try focusing your mind on your breathing make it Loud to start with by doing this it will help to block out other things

''Just because u have a hallucination.does not mean u have a full blown psychotic disorder [like schizophrenia]. .Another common example of this is there r types of hallucinations folks will have when you're just drifting off to sleep--it is common in people with obstructive sleep apnea--have u heard of that?--it is where folks start to fall asleep & their airway shuts down on them--these folks, when they start to go to sleep & sometimes when they wake up, they come out of a deep sleep & start to wake up--actually, they're not in deep sleep much if they have obstructive sleep apnea--but u know what l mean: when they're starting to become more awake, they will hallucinate sometimes, they will see something or they will hear something. The fancy word for that is ''hypnogogic halllucination'' [spelling?] where they're going to sleep & ''hypnopic hallucination when they're waking up. Those, again, r not--it does not mean u have schizophrenia. It is probably from like the sleep apnea or from some other..it can be just a normal thing in some people.''~psychiatrist David Henley, M.D.