Hypnagogia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hypnagogia (also spelled hypnogogia) are the experiences a person can go through in the hypnagogic (or hypnogogic) state, the period of falling asleep. Hypnopompia are the experiences a person may go through in the hypnopompic state, the period of waking up. The term hypnagogia often encompasses hypnopompia as well. Hypnagogic sensations collectively describe the vivid dream-like auditory, visual, or tactile sensations that can be experienced in a hypnagogic or hypnopompic state. These sensations can be accompanied by sleep paralysis, the sensation that the body is temporarily paralyzed after waking or before falling asleep.

The term “hypnagogic” is derived from the French word hypnagogique, coined by the 19th century French psychologist Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury from the Greek words hupnos, meaning sleep, and agogos, meaning leading. Frederic William Henry Myers coined the complementary term hypnopompic, from hupnos and pompe, meaning sending away.

Contents 1 Hypnagogic sensations 2 Artistic and cultural references 3 Further reading 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Hypnagogic sensations

Hypnagogic sensations are vivid dream-like experiences that occur as one is falling asleep or waking up. Accompanying sleep paralysis can cause the sensations to be more frightening. The features of these sensations generally vary by individual, but some are more common to the experience than others:

Most common

• Vividness
• Falling sensation
• Fear

Common

• Sensing a "presence" (often malevolent)
• Pressure/weight on body (especially the chest or back).
• A sensation of not being able to breathe
• Sense of impending doom/death

Fairly common

• Auditory sensations (often footsteps or indistinct voices, or pulsing noises). Auditory sensations which are described as noise instead of sensations of distinct or comprehensible sounds, are often described to be similar to auditory sensations caused by nitrous oxide by persons who have experienced both.
• Visual sensations such as lights, people or shadows moving around the room

Less common

• Floating sensations (often described as out-of-body experiences)
• Seamless transition into fully immersive lucid dreaming, also associated with out-of-body experiences
• Tactile sensations (such as a hand touching or grabbing)

Rare

• Vibration
• Involuntary movements (sometimes the feeling of sliding off the bed or even up walls).
• The feeling of being pulled in different directions

During the hypnagogic state, an individual may appear to be fully awake, but has brain waves indicating that the individual is technically sleeping. Also, the individual may be completely aware of their state, which enables lucid dreamers to enter the dream state consciously directly from the waking state (see wake-initiated lucid dream technique). Many artists, musicians, architects, engineers, and others demanding creativity to be successful have benefited from hypnagogia, where the mind can be free and open to creative and new ideas.^{[citation needed]}

An experience of the hypnagogic state is not an uncommon occurrence with 30 to 40 percent of people experiencing it at least once in their lives.^{[citation needed]} However, it could be a sign of a sleep disorder, such as narcolepsy and insomnia, or associated with temporal lobe epilepsy.

The hypnagogic state can be accompanied by or associated with anomalous phenomena such as alien abduction, extra-sensory perception, telepathy, apparitions, or prophetic or crisis visions. This conduciveness to anomalous phenomena can be correlated with the initial increase of alpha and the later increase of theta brainwaves.

[edit] Artistic and cultural references

The Serbian comic book artist Aleksander Zograf, catalogs his own hypnagogic visions in his series dubbed Psychonaut, and in self-published editions titled Hypnagogic Review.

[edit] Further reading

• Leaning, F.E. (1925). An introductory study of hypnagogic phenomena. Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 35, 289-409.

• Mavromatis, A. (1987). Hypnagogia: the Unique State of Consciousness Between Wakefulness and Sleep. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

[edit] See also

• Threshold consciousness
• Lucid dreaming
• Sleep disorder
• Sleep paralysis
• Hypnagogic jerk
• Nightmare
• Segmented sleep
• Hag in folklore
• False awakening

[edit] External links

• "Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations: pathological phenomena?" article in the British Journal of Psychiatry
• "Waking Sleep" article in the Fortean Times
• "Relationship between the hypnagogic/hypnopompic states and reports of anomalous experiences " Simon J. Sherwood, Department of Psychology, The University of Edinburgh