The Bloodshot Brain

Written by craig

Well, it should come as no surprise that the brain, when it tries to shut down but can't, tends to get a little bloodshot too. We call those things "microlesions," where the smaller vessels kind of pop from overwork.
The longer that poor brain goes without sleep, the more bloodshot it gets and, eventually, information starts getting misfiled. The awake and the dreams get mislabaled and when your brain's thoughtgrabber starts getting sloppy, the "daymares" begin.
These daymares can come through any of the five senses, and they're usually pretty common stuff. You could hear a door slam, your mother calling, a phone ring, "see" a shadow/person/rat/whatever, "feel" something crawling on your skin, smell something strange, or even taste something, although that last two are pretty rare.
Now this doesn't mean that anybody hearing voices has to just lay down and get some sleep and the things will go away. First of all, we're talking about bigtime insomnia, where you try to sleep but can't. With most people most of the time, when they try to stay up a long time the brain eventually takes over and shuts down on its own (often during some boring lecture or show).
Secondly, anything that beats up the brain can trigger the voices bit. If something happened your mom was in her first trimester (when your brain really starts to develop), it could cause damage that wouldn't necessarily show up for the next twenty years. In those cases, all the sleep in the world won't make the voices go away.

Bottom line: bigtime insomnia => bloodshot brain => hallucinations
(Yes, in a lot of cases it's just that simple.)