As the web producer for Coast to Coast AM since 2002, Lex ‘Lonehood’ Nover has become a valuable resource for anyone studying the paranormal, fringe science, and alternative theories. He discussed the darkly mysterious world of dreams and sleep featured in his new book Nightmareland, including phenomena such as sleep paralysis, parasomnias, and Ambien "zombies," and real stories of those who kill while sleepwalking. Lex described the classic sleep paralysis episode as "a superimposition of the REM or sleep state with a waking state" and mentioned that he'd had personal experiences with the phenomenon. He said that another strange aspect of human sleep could be observed when people are deprived of it. In his research, he uncovered an example of a New York City DJ who staged a "wake-a-thon" for charity in 1959, which resulted in hallucinations of "spiders and critters crawling around the studio" and the delusion that doctors assigned to watch him were actually undertakers coming to take his dead body away.
Lex also described horrific instances of "night terrors," which are dreams that occur during deeper, non-REM states of sleep. One man saw a figure in his room that told him, "If you don’t leave now, you are going to die." He climbed out of his second-story window and wandered the neighborhood in a daze. So-called "psychic attacks" can occur, Lex said, if we accept the idea that we are more vulnerable to certain entities while we sleep. He described the experiences of people who have encountered apparent creatures in dreams that are "feeding" on them and seem surprised that the sleeper is aware of their presence. One concept from his research that surprised and fascinated him was the idea that when we are in non-REM sleep, we are still dreaming-- we just don't remember it. He concluded that "it’s like a hidden part of ourselves."
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Open Lines occupied the second half. Will from NYC began with a request that Coast "keep politics out of the show." George replied that this was not an aspect of the program. Frequent caller JC Webster believes that Donald Trump "is selling us out to the Soviets" and announced that he is running for president in the next election and that "God has anointed JC Webster as next president for life." Karen from Virginia said she was warned by two different people that she would be "attacked through my dreams," but that apparently it was her mother-in-law who suffered this fate when staying at her home as a guest. June in Ohio said that she is periodically startled by "faces that flash at you" when she is about to go to sleep.
Gordon in Florida urged George to take a look at his research paper on solar flares and warned that "when the magnetic field collapses, we will have no protection from radiation and solar flares." Joe tweeted from California to ask what actor (that hadn’t won before) George thought should win an Academy Award. George suggested that Joaquin Phoenix should win for his recent role in The Joker. Renee in Texas said that she had a Black-Eyed Kids sighting at age 12 in Detroit-- they had "black eyes, grayish-white features and were shabbily dressed." Ken called in from Colorado to describe how the temperature "dropped from 80 degrees to 15" in a few hours yesterday. The last 30 minutes featured an encore segment with skeptic Joe Nickell.
News segment guests: Charles Coppes, Peter Davenport, Tim Binnall.