Thread: hypnagogic?

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

Originally Posted by HonerableMoUsE

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

I wouldn't say that it is "sleep paralysis" without the paralysis. Hypnagia is hypnagogia just as SP is SP. There is no need to create a new definition if it already has one and, obviously, a name as well. I doubt that there is a mechanism to make you scared. It's just internal and external information clashing together and that makes it scary. In the end, fear is subjective. In essence hypnagogia is just an in-between state, when you're about to enter or exit a dream.

[ Hypnagia is hypnagogia just as SP is SP. There is no need to create a new definition if it already has one and, obviously, a name as well. [/quote]

haha, I never knew I using the wrong definition . ..
I barely know anything about it in the first place. . .its really how I make sense out of the experience. . .

Originally Posted by Bonsay

In essence hypnagogia is just an in-between state, when you're about to enter or exit a dream.

yes, but isn't that what sleeporalysis is? is there a fine line that separates the two?

Ok, no problem if that's how you define it. It was just my personal view, the whole "why not just say hypnagogia" thing.
Sleep paralysis, as the name suggests, is when you get paralysed for the duration of the dream and can be felt when falling asleep or waking up. Yes it can be characterized with hallucinations as well, but it doesn't have to.
I have very strong hypnagogic hallucinations for example, but never get into SP unless I WILD. I never actually feel as if I'm paralyzed because I jump immediately into the dream (there is a transition phase, but I never feel myself lying in bed without being able to move). Just when I go to sleep I can watch these images and feel or hear other stuff. That's why I have this strong distinction between hypnagogic hallucinations and SP. In essence though, you could say that hypnagogia is the SP without the paralysis, but you could also say that hypnagogia is SP without the paralysis.
This is how I see it:
hypnagogia : Hallucinations in the transition stage
sleep paralysis : Paralysis in the transition stage

Originally Posted by Bonsay

This is how I see it:
hypnagogia : Hallucinations in the transition stage
sleep paralysis : Paralysis in the transition stage

yeah, before this thread, I didn't know if hypnagogia was an actual term or not. . .haha. I heard it mentioned once and sorta pieced my experiences into that catagory.. . it never really mattered because people didn't really know what i was talking about anyway . .
yeah i can say that i've had hypnagogia since childhood but I've never experienced SP ever... but ive never been able WILD either. . .

but with all this said. . .i dont think I'll ever get used to waking up to some stranger staring at me in my room. . .haha