Human Development
Hypnagogic consciousness
Description:
This is a state intermediate between waking and sleeping, said to occur before the subconscious attains dominance over the conscious. The subconscious does, however, begin to surface. As directed or analytical thinking ceases, the ego boundaries become loosened and perception is more diffuse and interwoven. There is a fearless acceptance of impressions, however apparently conflicting or ambiguous. There may be an awareness of fusing electric sparks, or clairaudient or clairvoyant perception which is forgotten as sleep takes over. Hypnagogic experiences occur more frequently than hypnopompic, although both hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery occur suddenly and are not under the individual's control. The imagery is realistic but bizarre. A frequent experience is of hearing one's name called, arousing the person involved. There may be music playing (so realistic as to arouse the person to turn it off), the appearance of highly coloured geometrical images or distorted faces (visual images are short-lived and surrealistic), kinaesthetic experiences, and (less often) olfactory or tactile experience. There is a holistic 'bodily awareness' or knowledge quite separate from mental knowledge, which combines inherent knowledge and feelings about a subject in total rather than in detail. Surveys relate degree of hypnagogic and hypnopompic imagery to favourable personality characteristics such as creativity. Absence of such imagery is related to rigid defence against impulse. This is the opposite of findings related to high dream fantasy ratings.