Confused on some points of Hypnagogia.

What I know about Hypnagogia from reading Stephen LaBerge's book is that it is the transition from awake to sleep, and sleep to awake. I'm trying WILD now, and a lot of the techniques tell me to observe the Hypnagogic hallucinations, such as light and other shapes created by the state. But I don't really understand what they look like, so I find it hard to determine if it is hallucinations, or just my imagination creating light and other shapes in my minds eye. Does anyone have ways of determining hypnagogia from imagining things?

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Originally Posted by TofuBitz

What I know about Hypnagogia from reading Stephen LaBerge's book is that it is the transition from awake to sleep, and sleep to awake. I'm trying WILD now, and a lot of the techniques tell me to observe the Hypnagogic hallucinations, such as light and other shapes created by the state. But I don't really understand what they look like, so I find it hard to determine if it is hallucinations, or just my imagination creating light and other shapes in my minds eye. Does anyone have ways of determining hypnagogia from imagining things?

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You don't really have to do anything. Don't try to see or imagine. Just observe. Like going to the movies. Watch, don't analyze and enjoy.

Even if you can't tell if you just imaging it or if it's HH, just stay with it and once you see HH, you will know.

At first, when you start observing the back of your closed eyelids, you will see just grey 'fog' swirling around. Little later you may notice some shapes in this fog. For me, most frequent shapes are faces. But they are not real images yet. More like when you looking at clouds and part of a cloud resembles something. There could be also some colors. I sometimes see a yellow-green planet like sphere.

Later yet, you may start seeing some simple objects. These will not be formed from fog anymore, but they will be well defind. Or you may see some geometric shapes. Like whole field of view is filled with small triangles arranged in a grid.

Sometimes I have 'lights turning on". As if someone put the lights on in my room. So my whole field of view turns white.

You may also see some animations. Like I have seen a stick figure walk out from right side, take a bow, do something, and walk off again. This was like watching a cartoon.

Later you may start seeing some movies. Like I saw a man and a child decorating a christmas tree. It was like watching a real movie.

And when I start seeing these movies from a birds eye view, I know what I see is a dream and I enter it.

Please take into consideration, that you may not see what I saw. That some parts of these steps will be not there for you. Or, that you will not see any images at all.

Entering a lucid dream via images/dreams formed is just one of the possible methods of entering.

You could also enter just by realizing, that you can suddenly see your room through closed eyelids. Or you feel as if you were flying at very high speed. Or you just see darkness.

Here is more about Sensations and types of entry into WILD.

No it is not the transition itself. It is the sounds you hear and the images you see when you are transitioning to a sleep state. I don't think the transition itself has a name.

When I start to see images, they come and go at first and are hard to focus on. When this leads to a dream, the dream starts suddenly and I find myself in a real 3D environment. I think what gets it to turn into a dream from an image is when I start trying to reach out and touch things, or when I try to interact with the images I'm seeing in some way. This is when everything gains tons of detail and goes from an image to an environment around me.

Thanks guys, but Gab I don't really see any of these images. How long does it averagely take for them to start showing up? Usually, all I see is some light flashes and usual darkness.

It's different from person to person as far as i know, for me it usually takes 2 to 5 minutes of lying still to reach basic HH/HI(depending on how tired i am) and then i think 2-5 more minutes to reach images, etc. :dreaming:

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Originally Posted by TofuBitz

Thanks guys, but Gab I don't really see any of these images. How long does it averagely take for them to start showing up? Usually, all I see is some light flashes and usual darkness.

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HH - images may show between NREM and REM. So best thing to do this is after at least 4.5 hrs of sleep with WBTB. But even better after longer sleep, because longer you sleep shorter the NREM and longer the REM becomes.

So if your NREM is only maybe 10 min long, you have to get to falling asleep part and then maybe 10 min till the images. (This would be after maybe 7-8 hrs of sleep.)

But try not to rely on images too much. Sometimes you will not get images at all. Instead, you will get some different HH, like tactile or auditory, or none at all. But no matter what HH you get/don't get, you should not pay too much attention to them. Just watch them passively.

Here is a good WILD (sageous) tutorial that talks about WBTB timing, mantras, HH and everything else you need to understand the whole process so you can make some educated choices. :alien:

Another important thing people tend to forget is, when WILD'ing you still need to FALL ASLEEP. Now, I haven't WILD'ed a lot, but when I do attempt WILD, I'll let my mind drift off, and from pure will I "come back to consciousness" exactly when the transition occurs, feeling a surge and a tingling feeling in my body. When I've had HH its been a matter of just seconds before I was in a dream or had an FA.

My point being, you still need to fall asleep. You can't focus on what you see in your eyelids all the time, like Gab says, when you see HH, you will DEFINITELY know it, there's no way to miss it in my experience.