Fighting the onset of hypnagogia

Hello,

I wish to let hypnagogia come normally but lately I'm so aware that as it comes I snap back to reality. This is preventing normal sleep transition.

Last night this happened multiple times. Hypnagogia comes, I snap back to awareness and a long time passes before I can relax and let it return. Then the cycle repeats.

Part of it is due to bad sleep hygiene and anxiety - my wife is expecting and she tosses and turns in her sleep (and snores!) lately. I haven't got decent sleep for the past month but last night was extreme. Even though I moved to our guest room I just kept fighting hypnagogia for hours though I was very tired.

I'll be in the guest room from the start tonight - any suggestions to let hypnagogia take hold normally? Any thoughts are welcome!

Thanks a lot!
Ara

Hi Ara, welcome to the forum.

This is actually a pretty common problem which I'm sure must have some good psychological remedy though I'm unfamiliar with any. If I say "don't think about oranges" ...obviously, you're going to think about oranges. I assume that psychologists have good suggestions for how to deal with these sorts of issues when someone's mind starts reacting in this manner to a certain thing. Clearly, not thinking about hypnagogia is not going to work. Perhaps you could try thinking about it more? Like during your day, think about it and try to think of it as a regular occurrence and try incorporating it into regular thought so that you become more desensitized to it. Perhaps that way you won't become overly excited when you experience it to the point of keeping you awake at night. Again, I'm definitely no psychologist, and it would probably be better to do a google search for the best way to approach such a problem. But I can't help thinking that this is something which would have a relatively simple remedy if you put in a bit of effort.

Also have you tried sleep aids? Melatonin and Valerian are amazing natural sleep aids which really help you to fall asleep more quickly.

Hi,

Thanks very much for the feedback. It's great to hear from someone that this is common. I thought about hypnagogia in the way you mention. I also looked into the topic quite a bit. Happy to report that last night went very, very well. I'm going to continue on this track. Thanks again for the help!
Ara