Thread: What is hypnagogic imagery?

Now I've decided, based on a lot of criteria, that the best LD induction method for myself will be WILD/WBTB.

However, I've come to face a problem. I haven't seen this question asked or answered anywhere else before (sorry if I missed a topic...or two, heh) so I guess I'll ask it here and hope to get an answer.

What is hypnagogic imagery?
When you close your eyes and relax, lay there falling asleep will you literally see the imagery with your closed eyes or will it come in the form of conceptual thought?

I've been attempting WILDs for a short while but I'm not sure if I've ever seen hypnagogic imagery.
I've read that hypnagogic imagery appears on the brink of wakefullness and sleep, thus I suppose I need to stay aware for longer to see it or am I wrong and is hypnagogic imagery realized as conceptual thought that comes to one sooner than that?

O_o I googles hypnogogic imagery and found DreamViews at #4. I read a wonderful explaination of what is was, but cannot find it again.

Here is a go at explaining it. On the border between sleep and wakefulness, you will experience hypnogogic imagery, of HI. It is the point where your conciousness is letting go and dreaming begins.

HI are those small snippets of dreams you catch yourself having as you are falling asleep. They may be in the form of a visual image, sounds, smells, or short dream sequences. All of us at one time have experienced them.

You will be lying in bed, trying to sleep and suddenly startle into full wakefulness because of an image or dream sequence. This was an occurance of HI

Hmm, then it seems I need to stay aware longer...though the problem with that is that when I dedicate myself to staying aware while relaxing and such I don't even get close to falling asleep, once didn't sleep for a whole night because of it and when I don't dedicate myself to staying aware...well, pretty obvious what happens there.

All the different techniques I've read about (counting, thinking of WILD but not obsessively, etc.) don't seem to work yet. Now if I could just throw away all thoughts and think of nothing merely waiting for HI (which might require a very small layer of thought about HI) then I suppose I'll get there but I constantly keep drifting off to thoughts just as someone in one of the latest new topics stated, drift off into stories/imagination/etc.

They seem similar to what happens when you overstimulate your eyes, like when you're briefly exposed to a bright light, or stare at a bright object for too long. HI could be from understimulation of the eyes. You're sitting there, doing nothing, and your mind starts to fill blanks into your sight. This happens when you're awake, as well, because you have a blind spot in your eyes, that your brain fills in from information around it.

try this: take short naps when you're not overly tired, and try to locate the exact moment when your thoughts start to get crazy and dreamlike, or recognize the exact moment when you start to dream. If you wake up soon after you'll remember how you felt right as you went under, and it'll be easier to get back there. A friend recommended that I try this and it's helped get me started with wild.

i used to lay there for up to an hour, then suddonly i would find myself in this really weird dreamy awareness. at this point i always stop because i think this means i have failed, and just waken from a dream and missed a chance to LD or something. now ive realized this is part of it! its not that i had failed at my WILD attempt, but that it was just starting! from there i have recently found myself entering what seeker calls HI. those short little dreams. im excited about that seeker.

make sure you get to this state of awareness before you expect much. dont give up because WILD could be around the corner.