Today in PhiloPsycho Freedom, I shall be discussing that little area of consciousness between waking and dreaming! It's a peculiar area where weird psychological effects can come about. The brief area you experience between waking and sleeping has been labeled as the Hypnagogia (AKA Hypnogogia) and can lead you to have a wide array of experiences – including seemingly supernatural ones.

Supernatural Phenomenon?

Some of the seemingly supernatural phenomena that can manifest in this threshold of consciousness can be out of body experiences, sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and lucid dreaming. Out of body experiences have often been thought of as spiritual experiences, or some sort of psychic experience, but have been attributed to this particular part of consciousness. They also have been connected to Dissociating from reality.

More Examples

Visually, people can see things, particularly in their peripheral vision. One time I was working in a factory, I was exhausted due to an all-night party the night before, and it was pushing 40 hours awake. I was falling asleep walking, which was the only way I could keep myself awake when there was a lull in the work. Out of the corner of my eyes, I continuously saw brief instances of bats or figures hiding in the shadows (though they were probably entirely comprised of those very shadows). Similar things can happen with sounds. Both senses can have hallucinations happen that are either very subtle, or quite robust in their expression, from tiny speckles of light to a very loud bang from a particular direction.

Hypnagogic memories are thought to be attributed to the hallucinatory effects found within the Tetris Effect.

Why might this be?

It is thought that these hallucinations and other phenomena can occur during Waking Life due to a brief lapse in the wakefulness. These lapses are known as Microsleep, which are short episodes of sleep that happens suddenly and often briefly due to sleep deprivation or other sleep-related disorders. When microsleep happens, it can result in impaired cognition (confusion, etc.) and amnesia.

Are there Benefits to Hypnagogia Happening?

There have been several impactful occurrences where people have solved difficult problems while falling in between wakefulness and sleep. One such occurrence could be when Archimedes solved the problem of whether the King’s crown was made with enough gold or not while in the bath. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the story, this would be the one that concluded with him running through the streets – naked – shouting “Eureka!”. Another, as described in the wikipedia article, tells of how August Kekulé realized that benzene was a closed ring. There are doubtlessly millions of examples of problems being solved by people while dozing off after spending hours on a problem, though they probably aren’t as monumental as the two just mentioned.

Just one last bit before I finish: The alternative period between sleeping and moving into waking is known as the hypnopompic state, just in case you were wondering. That’s all for today. This is BoxMonkey of Philo-Psycho Freedom signing off. Have a great day!

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Tetris, Anyone?

Forer Effect