Ultimate Sleep Aid

You know that state where you’re not completely awake, but you’re not fully asleep either?  The name for state is called hypnagogia, from the Greek for “sleep inducing.”  It refers most specifically to the onset of sleep, but some people experience a similar state upon waking (when it is known as hypnopompic), or remain in hypnagogia for extended time periods while dosing in and out.

There are a number of different sleep-related experiences which can occur during hypnagogia, including lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis, sleepwalking, out-of-body experiences, and hypnagogic hallucinations.

What are hypnagogic hallucinations?  A hypnagogic hallucination refers to any particularly vivid mental image, sound, or sensation which can occur on the threshold between sleep and wakefulness.  If you aren’t used to experiencing hypnagogic hallucinations and states, you could find them surprising or disturbing at first, but they are no cause for alarm.  Sometimes they are associated with narcolepsy, sleep deprivation, and other disturbances, since not getting enough REM sleep can cause your body to go into dream-like states while you are partially or fully awake.  Some professionals think that hypnagogic hallucinations may be associated with mental illness or the use of drugs, but in the majority of cases, hypnagogic hallucinations indicate nothing unhealthy, and are indeed a completely normal function of the brain.

A simple way to look at hypnagogic hallucinations is this:  before your body is completely asleep, and while your mind is still lucid and aware, you start to dream.  There is nothing wrong with this—it really just means part of your brain is a little bit smarter than other peoples’ and knows when it’s falling asleep—but takes a little extra time to follow suit.  Lucid dreamers may experience hypnagogic hallucinations as a regular occurrence as well; in fact, many lucid dreamers are able to follow the entire process of falling asleep from the onset of hypnagogic hallucinations to full immersion in the dream environment.

What form do hypnagogic hallucinations take?  There is infinite variation on hypnagogic hallucinations.  Some examples might be hearing voices speaking, or feeling as if gravity has shifted or you are swimming in water.  Sometimes you may feel ground beneath your feet, or you might see assorted random images (which are often rather psychedelic in nature).  Images and sensations will usually shift very quickly—hypnagogic hallucinations may last minutes, seconds, or fractions of seconds.  Most of the imagery you see will probably be from your unconscious mind, but sometimes you will see imagery related to whatever you’re preoccupied with, and another common type of hypnagogic hallucination is known as the “Tetris effect.”  If you’ve been doing a repetitive activity all day, particularly one involving motion (riding roller coasters, playing a video game, working on an assembly line), you may have hypnagogic hallucinations concerning the activity.  As with other hypnagogic hallucinations, these experiences can be auditory, visual, or involve sensation.

If you are unhappy with hypnagogic hallucinations, you can try to treat them by making your sleep schedule more regular and ensuring you get plenty of REM sleep every night.  This may or may not prevent hallucinations from occurring—sleep medications may also help you to skip this stage in falling asleep.  For some people, avoiding stress can prevent hallucinations.  It is completely normal and natural though and should not alarm you—it may even be an indication you’re on your way to becoming a lucid dreamer, and for some sleepers it is an indication of good sleep to follow.