Can someone please explain to me exactly what hypnogogia is and help me with my WILDs?

**bobberski** · 08-04-2012 09:21 PM

Sorry of it is so long but please bear with me-

So on some nights I wake up without an alarm and it's usually 3.5-4 hours after I fall asleep. What usually comes to mind is to try to WILD. So I at on my back with my legs uncrossed and my hands by my side and focus on my breathing. I like to picture an oval with a ball going through it when I breathe hahaha. So I can never actually get paralyzed but I do get tingly and hear the ringing in my ears get louder and sometimes light just flashes so Brit under my eyelids and my heart rate goes up but then it all does down. I get so many itches and needs to swallow but I get so far that I choose to lay still. I end up laying for maybe 1.5-2 hours with nothing. The last thing that happens before I just quit and roll over to try to get back to sleep is I get this weird.. Sequences. I'm not sure if they are starting dreams or if these are actually hallucinations. Like it's usually in someone's house (complete strangers) or I am looking at the back of someone. It's not exactly me but more like the feeling of a camera. I can't hear much but I kind of have a feeling of fading to sleep but my eyes just suddenly snap open (I can kind of feel them closed the whole time). None of the "sequences" are scary so i don't thinks it's hypnogogia. No matter how hard I try to stay calm, I snap out of every one. What's going on?

**Iapetos** · 08-04-2012 11:12 PM

One thing that have helped me and my friend succeed a WILD is to actually just give up and fall asleep...

When you have been laying there for a long time perfectly still and nothing seems to happen, just change your sleeping position to something comfortable and fall asleep. Sometimes you fall asleep and are more aware of your dreams, but sometime you actually remain awake even though you try to fall asleep. When this happens you are in the hypnagogic state what people may refer to as sleep paralysis, but it's not. Anyway what happen is the hypnagogic state is that, you start to feel your thoughts get more vivid and a daydream can transition into a vivid normal dream that you are aware of. Or you might hear a loud deep tone or even experience something that I like to call "dream flashes" which is micro fast episodes of a feeling of a vivid daydream.
Like for example if you are laying still and suddenly think "No Amilia the tomatoes shouldn't be green while you boil them..." and you get a WTF?-Moment

Note that sometimes you can even see that weird daydream vividly for just a microsecond, that's why I call it "dream flash".
Some people report seeing shapes moving in front of their eyes, heavy vibrations and lots of other stuff.

Just to clarify... sleep paralysis happens when you are unaware of your physical body and already dreaming, that is why I think hypnagogic state is a much better term to explain that state. Also the body can feel numb or vibrate a bit when your actually just getting relaxed, so don't trick yourself.

When you have been laying still for a long time, try to start daydreaming as vividly as possible, the more you focus on the non-physical (or dream) the more likely you are to end up in that focus more vividly. If you keep thinking of your physical body like (Oh now I have been laying still for hours!) then you will probably stay in that focus, AWAKE -> Insomnia.

So in summary: Focus on your mind not your body!

Good luck and I hope this helped =D

**paigeyemps** · 08-07-2012 11:50 AM

In layman's terms, hypnagogia is the state between wakefulness and sleep (in this case we will refer to the mind, and not the body). This state is usually accompanied by hypnagogic hallucinations, which can manifest in any of the five senses. Everyone perceives these hallucinations differently though – some have visual while others have auditory hallucinations. We usually get some sort of visual imagery, like when some random scene flashes in our mind without our control (as what Iapetos mentioned, the WTF moment

). When you have those moments, it means your mind is starting to fall asleep.

Personally, when I attempt a WILD, I don't try to stay really awake. I try to drift off a bit, and the trick is knowing how to pull back into consciousness at the right time. For me, it would make sense, since hypnagogia is the transitional state between waking and sleeping, then having your mind too awake may not allow you to go into hypnagogia. At the same time, being too sleepy can render you unconscious. That's why I try to drift off a little.

As for sleep paralysis, I barely notice the vibrations and sensations much anymore. Of course, it can be different for everyone. Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it's not happening. It is also recommended to not pay much attention to sleep paralysis, as it can distract you from focusing on the WILD transition into the dream – may it be through using hypnagogic imagery to form the dream, or imagining your own scene.

I hope that made sense to you, and I hope it helps!

good luck