Since the majority of sensations experienced during a hypnagogic state are negative (such as fear, the sensation of another often malevolent and invisible entity in the room, and abnormal movement sensations/distortion of normal gravatational sensation), perhaps the whole thing is an evolutionary brain "glitch", a conflict between the concious minds' fight-or-flight mechanism and the relaxed state required for restoratative sleep. The person is falling asleep, but the brain jumps ahead a little too far and the person mispercieves a threat. The natural lessening of concious movement during sleep is interpreted as one's self being restrained, and causes even more panic, and after some time the adrenal system wins the fight and the person is able to move again normally. Maybe the brain tries to do two essential opposite activities at once and the resulting sensation is felt because of a conflict?

Anyone know anything that could support this? Just throwing an idea out there.

As far as I know, hypnagogia is not related to REM sleep. It's a fragile experience and people that experience it can resist it and wake up. That's why WILD can be practiced without WBTB, because hypnagogia also occurs before NREM sleep. Only SP is strictly related to REM sleep.

Th third source says it is associated with SEM (Slow Eye Movement) Puddytang 00:13, 13 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hypnopompic is different - it happens while AWAKENING ... (while hypnagogic happens while falling asleep). Please see: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=hypnopompic

Also, below is correct - hypnAgogic is much more common than hypnOgogic.

Hypnopompic and hypnagogic are the same thing, they just happen at different times. All evidence about the two shows that they are an identical state. The begining of the book Hypnagogia by Andreas Mavromatis, which I mentioned below, attempts to resolve this issue. He states that in the past, hypnagogic experiences when going to sleep and awakening were misidentified as two different states, and that future writings on the subjects should just use the word "hypnagogia" to encompass both hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences. Since it was not only the last significant work published on the subject but also the most encompassing work on the subject, I think we should follow his lead and not continue to break up the two. -GamblinMonkey 22:51, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The main article should be "hypnagogia", and the variant spelling "hypnogogia" redirect to it, and not viceversa, because it's the former and not the latter which is the etymologically correct spelling. Check the AHD:

hypnagogic
Variant forms: also hypnogogic
Etymology: French hypnagogique, from Greek hupnos, sleep; see hypno– + Greek agōgos, leading (from agein, to lead; see ag- in Appendix I). http://www.bartleby.com/61/23/H0362300.html

Uaxuctum 17:35, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

As that extract says it's also from hypno [1]. I think it's alright as it is - Hypnagogia redirects here too. violet/riga (t) 17:53, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It seems you are not familiar with the way Greek and Latin compounds work. Hypno is not a Greek word; the compounded words are hypnos and agōgos, whose roots are hypn- and agōg-. The -os in hypnos and agōgos is a nominative singular ending (the citation form of Greek and Latin words). The -o- in hypno- is just the connective vowel used in Greek compounds (also in Slavic compounds) to avoid unmanageable consonant clusters (like hypn- + phob- + -ia --> hypnophobia instead of hypnphobia), and corresponds to the connective -i- of Latin compounds (as in centipede, from centum [root cent-] + pēs, pedis [root ped-]). That is, hypno- is the compounding form of the root hypn- to be used when the following component starts with a consonant. When the following component starts with a vowel, it's not the initial vowel of that second part what is to be dropped, because that vowel is part of its root and as such it is meaningful (unlike the connective vowel which is a mere meaningless epenthetic sound); so instead of dropping a meaningful vowel in order to add a meaningless epenthetic sound, the epenthetic vowel is simply not added in such cases. Thus, hypn[o]- + agog[o]- + -ia compounds properly as hypnagogia, while hypnogogia is a poorly formed variant introduced (probably prompted by a misunderstood analogy with hypnopompia) by people who were not aware that the second element in the compound was actually agog- with an initial a, and not just gog- (which is what the improper form hypnogogia would imply). Uaxuctum 18:54, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

You're right - I have no idea about such compounds. You seem to know a hell of a lot, so I say we go with you. violet/riga (t) 20:35, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Which spelling is more common in the medical literature? Since this is an English encyclopedia, not a Greek encyclopedia, that should be at least as important a consideration as etymology in deciding where the article should be. CyborgTosser (Only half the battle) 00:33, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Google gives 44000 results for 'hypnagogic', 19400 for 'hypnogogic', 7540 for 'hypnagogia' and 4120 for 'hypnogogia', the first of which is this page. Therefore hypnagogia is the more common spelling and should be the title.--Army1987 12:25, 10 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The OED concurs, as it ought to. Septentrionalis 17:35, 10 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'll move it then. violet/riga (t) 21:23, 20 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It is not an uncommon occurrence with 30 to 40 percent of people suffering from it at least once in their lives. However, it can be a sign of other problems such as narcolepsy or temporal lobe epilepsy.

Can anyone point source for that?

One source I used was from the website for the UK TV show Shattered, containing information from Chris French, Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths' College, the University of London. violet/riga (t) 09:50, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I think they mistitled their article. They are talking about Sleep paralysis (SP), not hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations. SP might happen anytime in the night, while hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations, by definition, only happen when falling asleep/waking up (SP might be linked to hypnopompic hallucinations, but the former feels more like a full dream, than the later... -even if you might think you are awake). Mathieu Bonnet 20:11, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

More important, why a phenomenon which 60 to 70 percent of mankind never experiences throughout their lives should be considered "not uncommon"?--Army1987 12:26, 10 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty sure most everyone do experience hypnagogic (and hypnopompic) hallucinations multiple times in their life... It's just that most of time, the hallucinations are very limited (both in time and vividness), and people would just say they were "falling asleep"... (which is indeed what happens; I'm just trying to say people would just not remember this kind of experience as significiant, which explains the "30 to 40 percent"). Every kid who stay up later than usual, should have this kind of hallucinations, when trying to fight the need to sleep... (I often had limited hypnagogic hallucinations, when me and my family were visiting friends for dinner. Now, it happens only when I'm up for like 22 or 24 hours, or when may day was very tiring...). Mathieu Bonnet 20:11, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to a study in the book Hypnagogia by Andreas Mavromatis, the occurance was around 70-80% of adults have had hypnogogic experiences. They assumed the occurance was probably higher (possibly 100%) but many people either didn't take note of what was actually happening or they were hesitant to admit to hearing things like voices as it's generally considered a sign of being crazy. I don't have the book in front of me right now, so I can't directly quote it, but I read it a few months ago, I'll see if I can get my hands on another copy soon. -GamblinMonkey 22:43, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

PubMed (MEDLINE) has plenty of references. Start with PMID 11166087, then try the new feature to find related articles. Jclerman 22:53, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I see three interpretations of these experiences, and each could be expanded upon.

• physical
• psychological
• spiritual

The statement, Some of these people cling to old world beliefs that what is called a hypnagogic state is more than a psychological experience, and is a spiritual one. rejects the spiritual interpretation as passe. --sparkit 04:23, 22 Mar 2005 (UTC)

An odd question, but, would anyone know a way to induce Hypnagogia? --Linktoreality 04:09, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

See what the WILD technique implies. You should check out sites and forums related to lucid dreaming.

See Dream Machine in wikipedia. I am working on a mobile Virtual Reality system using a Head Mount Display which might.207.54.189.107 05:49, 23 September 2006 (UTC)Sulik[reply]

Marijuana and Opiates as well as other substances induce "hypnagogia"-like hallucinations, but maybe these are technically something different. I find the best way is to not concentrate too hard on what you are seeing but just passively watch the back of your eyelids while you are falling asleep. The normal imagery in your mind becomes more and more vivid until it becomes a dream 00:23, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

"The individual is aware that these are hallucinations" I assert from personal experience that this is false. The first few times I suffered sleep paralysis and associated hallucinations, I was quite certain they were real. Is there any backing behind this particular statement? -- User:Glenn Willen

I don't know if what I had was hypnagogia or not, but I have experienced hallucinations many times while drifting off to sleep, some of which (say, involving large spiders coming to eat me) have actually made me get out of bed and stand in another room, while full awareness comes back. At no point during these hallucinations was I aware that they were merely hallucinations. If I was, I wouldn't have been frightened. El Pollo Diablo (Talk) 01:05, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

i experience a lot of what, judging from the description here, would be called hypnagogia. it's reccurant, usualy just a slide show of grotesque, disfigured faces, and they are very disturbing and frightening eventhough i am always fully aware that these are dreams (or hallucinations, if you will).

In the past, I have had hypnagogic experiences, and just last night I had quite a vivid one, but in most all of these experiences, I was well aware of the state I was in. I saw a hallucination of a white framed oval picture on the wall that was too blury for me to make out, yet I knew it wasn't there. As I was closing my eyes, I saw the door (closed) to my room moving around and heard a creaking noise that you would assosiate with that sort of occurence. I felt a fear because my upper torso was being pulled up, so I used all of my strength to keep my self lying down as opposed to sitting up. I felt pricks all over my body like it had all "falled asleep"--just as a limb would after sitting on it or w/e--and I heard a rolling, yet constant sound like a brush being moved up and down a piece of wood. Despite being a little disturbed at all of this happening, I was entirely aware of it being hypnagogia.

Since some of the occurences I described (like being pulled upwards) don't happen to everyone in hypnagogia, maybe awareness is the same. I hope this helps. CodeLabMaster 17 November 2006

I used to have many of these types of occurences when I was a child, but only two years ago I had two in the same week. Unlike when I was younger (I'm 22 now) I vividly remembered what happened and I felt as though I was wide awake. I was lying on my back and I couldn't move my arms or legs and I couldn't scream or shout. The first experence involved a shadowy figure. I considered it then and now to be a cat made out of smoke. It walked slowly up my bed on my right side until it reached my chest and just stared at me and started basically screaming. It sounded like a human voice, but it was as if it was on fast forward and chattering in a high pitched voice. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it and it remained there until I was able to shake myself out of it. The second experience was more of a UFO abduction feeling. I was lying on my back again before falling asleep and I opened my eyes. Outside my window was a bright red light, as if something was on fire. Again, I couldn't move my limbs, only my eyes. Slowly I began to lift out of my bed. I felt as though I was at least two feet above my bed when I started drifting closer to the window. Also, my upper body began to lift a bit, and my lower body lower. Again, I was able to shake myself up and it wasn't as if I simply woke up in my bed, I kind of floated back down. Each of these experiences felt as though I was wide awake. Each time, something in my head began to feel different than it normally does before I go to sleep. I can't exactly describe what that is, but it's a sensation as though something is just off. I felt fully awake, and to this day feel as though it was as real as how I'm typing here. A truly scary experience.

User: VidaBluePhoenix

• I don't have enough time to edit the whole article, but I think it should be edited to differenciate hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations from sleep paralysis (SP). "[...] the frightening part, in many cases, is the inability to react to them, even being unable to make a sound." typically is related to SP, not hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations. SP related sentences should be removed or moved to the SP article. Hypnagogic hallucinations might happen even when not lying in bed, if, for example, you are really tired. Most of time, they are very limited, and you just regain consciousness, saying "you were falling asleep" (which is indeed what happens). Of course, they might develop into something more vivid, but then, you are likely to just completely fall asleep (if you are not trained to stay conscious -see articles about wake-initiated lucid dreaming). Mathieu Bonnet 20:31, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • I thought the same thing about this article. I have had both SP and hypnagogia and hypnagogia was like crossing into unconscious. It was cool. (SP is scary becuase of no freedom like Mathieu above said). I just saw this pattern and felt being sunken down. SP and hypnagogia are alike but I think hypnagogia has nothing to do with REM sleep. Joerite 20:43, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In response to the earlier experiences;

I too have had my door pull me out of bed...it turned into a figure of a man who then grabbed my wrist violently and sat me up until i was able to "snap out" of it...my first experience was of a dog smothering me, making my hands push against nothing but as if something that felt like a ton...my 3rd or 4th experience was of the alien abduction kind where in many thin arms skittered over me bursting from under my bed holding me down with only the weight of the fear they induced, but no fiery lights...

it always happened when i slept on my back and concentrated on falling asleep...hearing all the silence the night had to offer, listening to my brain smoosh...i began to hear clear voices whispering to me...the ceiling crawled with black spots that converged into the complete darkness of having ones eyes closed, except having the feeling that they were open but only now you are enveloped in and heavy blackness... Stevesajor@yahoo.com

Many artists, musicians, architects, engineers, and others demanding creativity to be successful have benefited from the hypnagogia state, where the mind can be totally free and open to creative and new ideas.

This is the only sentence in the whole article that mentions "freedom and openness of the mind" as a side-effect of hypnagogia. It doesn't sound very factual. Please clarify or remove. Tronno (talk | contribs) 02:00, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hypnagogia differs from hypnosis in that under ordinary hypnosis, people are physically inactive, and generally find their mental stimulus to be absorbing to the point that they don't differentiate between that stimulus and reality. In hypnagogic states, a person may appear to be fully awake, but still has brain waves indicating that they are still technically sleeping.

As far as I know, hypnotized people can appear fully awake and are sometimes physically active, while in hypnagogia people are not normally physically active. Am I wrong, or is the article wrong? 67.51.131.37 06:13, 1 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Myself included, nearly everyone I know has experienced a sudden falling sensation whilst falling asleep, yet in the article it is classified as a rare occurence. Is this refering to the Hypnic jerk? I have lost count of the times this has happned to me! (A.Grace 22:07, 3 May 2006 (UTC))[reply]

No if what you mean is a slow floating like feeling, without jerks. The hypnic jerk implies a muscle contraction, sudden, sometimes painful. Jclerman 22:42, 3 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What it's called when I see something floating in the air and then try to repel it but it disappears, when I'm almost sleeping and then feel my body strongly vibrating and hear weird repetitive noises and feel I'm inflating and spinning arround something and floating but never see anything! Cuzandor 02:25, 12 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Twenty years ago I had my fisrt experience of this condition. I woke up and it was dark but found myself totally unable to move. Eventually, I was able to summon the energy to move my fingers and then the rest of my body. But, as soon as I lay back down the paralysis came up from my toes and took hold of the rest of my body.

Since then, I have had countless experiences like this and sometimes I am so terrified I have to sleep along side my children. This is so that when trying to get myself out of the paralysis I can either summon all the energy to my fingers, so that I can attract the attention of my children or try and get some sound out of my mouth-it is like I have had a stroke. Once I have their attention, the only way they can get me out of this state is by shaking my body or banging on my chest.

Posted unsigned at 08:31 on September 5, 2006 by User:193.195.42.197

-- I've had this happen to me three times. The first time was the scariest because I had never expierenced it before. During an afternoon nap, I thought one of my friends walked into my dormroom and was choking me and I couldn't breathe. I was convinced I must of left my door open and was being strangled to death and I tried fighting back. However, when I woke up I realized no one was even in the room and my door was locked. The second and third instances were identical to each other but different than the first. These happened during a normal night of sleep. During the second instance, I expierenced paralysis (I felt like I was up but couldn't move my body). I had incredible difficulty breathing and it felt like I was being strangled. I was trying to yell "Help" as loud as I could (again convinced I was going to die) and I felt as if I opened my mouth to scream but no sound was coming out. But the sensation was different -- it felt like someone from behind me put a rope under my chin and was pulling. At the same, I felt a "rushing" sensation as if a dark blanket or a hood was coming over my face (from below me to over my head). I awoke around 15 seconds later sweating. The third time was similiar to the second but was the only time I knew what was happening and stayed calm and I just let the expierence pass. For me, each expierence was extremely scary and lasted around 15-30 seconds. The first incident happened when I was 17 and the last one when I was 19. I haven't had another expierence in the last few years. Paradiseisland 08:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had no idea how common this was. I thought I was going crazy. It's actually normal and nobody ever thought to tell me?

--Brideshead 22:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC) I know that this is not the place for this, Wiki's not a blog, but I've just stumbled upon this article and am practically crying, i can't believe it's not just me. I've suffered from hypnagogia regularly for nearly 20 years, they are ussually just the pile-of-spider-in-bed kind but occassionaly incredibly vivid and frightening, usually involving some kind of coming-for-me event. So happy to have a name and not be alone!!!!--Brideshead 22:10, 20 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have had these experinces since I was a child. I also have sleep paralysis and also have some sort of different experience on occasions which is more like hypnosis while sleeping. At times, I will just have the vivid hypnagogic and hypnapompic hallucinations, but I also will wake up in the middle of a dream while actively doing something. I woke up once while dreaming there was a huge spider blocking the door and I awakened while grabbing a broom out of the closet to "fight off" the spider. I woke up another time in the kitchen in the middle of a dream while I was acting out the dream. I think it is interesting and I only have these experiences if I am very stressed out about something......65.120.174.42 16:01, 3 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The hypnagogic state can be accompanied by or associated with anomalous <phenomena?> such as alien abduction, extra-sensory perception, telepathy, apparitions, or prophetic or crisis visions. Consider change of PHENOMENA to NOUMENA. Phemomena are things outside the self, an observable event or physical manifestation, while noumena are things of the mind. Cite Noumenon From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 207.54.189.107 05:44, 23 September 2006 (UTC)Sulik[reply]

In case the reference to alien abduction and psychic phenomena aren't enough to set off alarm bells in people's heads, I'll just point out that User 207.54.189.107 clearly has no idea what the phenomenon/noumenon distinction actually amounts to, considering that he or she thinks that "noumena are things of the mind." If fact, this is entirely incorrect. The term "noumena" in fact refers to non-perceptual entities, or rather the aspects or attributes of entities which are beyond human perceptual or conceptual capabilities. This is the major innovation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, which differentiated between the world as it is experienced (the world of phenomena, i.e., of things filtered through our human perceptual/conceptual apparatus) and the world as it is, in itself (the world of noumena). Thus, noumena are by definition not subject to being spoken of in positive terms, and so are obviously not "things of the mind," as User 207.54.189.107 would have it. Buck Mulligan 21:57, 12 December 2006 (UTC) See Uni of Waterloo (USA) website for more useful info on hypnagogia. There's a questionnaire on it which Ifound informative & which helped to answer many questions about my own frightening experiences of sleep paralysis & visual/auditory hallucinations. It states that hypnic jerk/jerk reflex/ 'suddendrop' sensation (call it what you will) is a hang-over from our days as tree-dwellers, when relaxing too suddenly into sleep could induce a fatal fall. This seems to be a much more common occurence than sleep paralysis/haalucinations. It also discusses the question of the 'onion layer' effect of feeling that you have escaped a hypnagogic state and have awakened, only to re-awaken again and realise that your perception of being awake was false (this can occur more than once in the same episode - personal experience!) Kayti 22:58, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's good to see someone with some knowledge of Kant deflating that pseudo-intellectual. The link was helpful too - I had no idea that the "onion layer" effect was associated with this, although I have experienced both together several times. Why is it so damn hard to wake up? 74.225.130.13 07:06, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I couldn't find any Uni of Waterloo (USA) links when I search. There's one in Canada though? Do you have a weblink you could put here? --www.secularism.org.uk 18:14, 9 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]