Thread: hypnagogic?

at first i thought it was those random brief dreams you have before actually falling asleep. am i confused?

Originally Posted by lucidspark64

at first i thought it was those random brief dreams you have before actually falling asleep. am i confused?

Well, the hypnagogic phase occurs in the transitional phase between wakefulness and sleep, but strictly speaking the "dreams" are not really dreams but hypnagogic hallucinations.

There are various types of hypnagogic hallucinations. Some might seem like daydreams, some are lone visual, auditory or kinesthetic hallucinations. They come in different shapes and sizes. Personally I get small images that float around behind my eyelids, slowly growing in size and complexity as I get closer to REM, sometimes the daydream type, beside that I get the usual floating and spinning or bed melting sensation and other random audio hallucinations.

i get both audio and visual but never really kinestetic. i even recorded one in my dreamjournal. something like "deal it with a spoon", i remember seeing 2 jamaican guys dancing around (completely random), and peggy from King of the Hill was saying something. i even went out of my way to wake up and take notice of them. coincidently i had a lucid dream that night.

sometimes i catch audio phases before i even hit the bed if i'm tired enough. but these are hypnagogic? i wouldnt really call them hallucinations. just my minds images roaming freely before i fall asleep.

Originally Posted by lucidspark64

sometimes i catch audio phases before i even hit the bed if i'm tired enough. but these are hypnagogic? i wouldnt really call them hallucinations. just my minds images roaming freely before i fall asleep.

If you haven't yet reached the hypnagogic phase yet they can't be hypnagogic. When you are saying "minds images roaming freely" it sounds like you are talking about images that are imagined, similarly to a daydream for instance. If this is the case, then they are not hallucinations.

Hallucinations, including hypnagogic ones, are experienced as if you had actually perceived them through your senses. If you fully believe it to be real it is a true hallucination, whereas if you have some insight that it's not real it's a pseudohallucination.

I've had terribly amazing hynagogic hallucinations.
I've woken up many times covered in bugs.
Another time I was shaken awake and I thought it was my mom, so I looked up and its this asian kid standing next to me with his hands on my side just staring at me.
another time, my pillow fell off my bed and when I reached to get it, some person lying on the floor was staring at me holding my pillow. I thought it was my brother for some reason (haha) so I turn on the my light and, nothing there! i even checked under my bed. . .for the first time in like, 18 years. . .

the freakiest part is that I feel completely awake during these episodes.

the way I see it is that hypnagogia is basically a hyperactive sleeporalysis minus the paralyzation. you're awake for the most part, but part of your brain is trying really really really hard to freak the mother loving crap out of you....and usually it does a fairly awesome job.

. . .is the way i see it