Hypnogogic State
Hypnogogic state also known as Hypnagogia, is the transition between sleeping and awake where dreams are mixed with reality including sight, sound, and other sensations. Hypnogogic state is the start of consciousness, and is responsible for the birth of lucid dreaming, hallucinations, out of body experiences, and sleep paralysis. It is possible to induce yourself into Hypnogogic state by deep meditation. People claiming that they experienced paranormal events like sleep paralysis, out of body experience, alien abductions, and night time visitions, and other ghostly encounters likely confronted Hypnagogia. According to Edgar Allen Poe “Only, when I am on the brink of sleep, with the consciousness that I am so…” (Turner, 2014).
Hypnogogic state was first studied by two important people. Bailarger studied Hypnogogia in 1846 and Maury in 1848.The studies showed that hypnagogic phenomena have been around by about 70% of the adult population (Dewey, 2007). Typical hallucinations when falling asleep are usually faces and geometric patterns. Some hallucinations are no sign of mental flaw, even though it can be scary if they appear suddenly. Psychologist Thore Nielson of Hospital du Sacre-Coeur in Montreal was fired with the topic of Hypnogogic state, so he trained himself to fall asleep at his computer.
The reason why he fell asleep at his computer is that he could immediately record its content after waking up from a hypnagogic hallucination. He resulted with 240 hallucinations recorded and most of the images involved movement (Dewey, 2007). The most common recurring image was “falling or stepping out in space” (Adler, 1993). He figured this out happening by finding an effect called Measurement Effect. T...
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...cases were said that even taking Halcion included wanting to contempt suicide and personality changes which is really dangerous for people. The sad part is that after a man in the early 1980’s killed himself, Dr. Oswald in his view were “covered up” by Upjohn a researcher you reported did a lawsuit against him.
Research Page
"Exploring Your Hypnagogia." Exploring Your Hypnagogia. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Hypnagogic Hallucinations and the Magical Half Awake, Half Asleep State."Udemy Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"The Hypnagogic State | in Chapter 03: States of Consciousness | from Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey." The Hypnagogic State | in Chapter 03: States of Consciousness | from Psychology: An Introduction by Russ Dewey. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
"Tetris Effect." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 12 May 2014.
Chapter 4 discusses the several states of consciousness: the nature of consciousness, sleep and dreams, psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation. Consciousness is a crucial part of human experience, it represents that private inner mind where we think, feel, plan, wish, pray, omagine, and quietly relive experiences. William James described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of changing sensations, images thoughts, and feelings. Consciousness has two major parts: awareness and arousal. Awareness includes the awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences. Arousal is the physiological state of being engaged with the environment. Theory of mind refers to individuals understanding that they and others think,
“I became restless and was afraid to sleep for fear that my suppressed thoughts would appear in my dreams” (70).
A hallucination is defined as a sensory perception in the absence of an externally generated stimulus (4). They are different from illusions in that in an illusion an external object actually exists and is perceived, but is misinterpreted by the individual (4). Main forms of hallucinations are be visual, auditory, and olfactory, but since we have been discussing vision and interpretation of reality lately this paper will focus only on those that are visual. And I will attempt through the examination of two different types of visual hallucinations - release hallucinations and those experienced by schizophrenics - to make an argument for brain equals behavior.
On the Internet, you can find all sorts of accounts of people doing some odd things in their sleep. One man creates beautiful pieces of art while he sleepwalks. On the other hand, one man murdered his mother-in-law and attempted to murder his father-in-law while he was sleepwalking. It’s an interesting sleep disorder and the range of behaviors that occur while people are sleepwalking is huge. It can be as simple as just sitting up in bed to things as scary as murdering others. Charles Brockden Brown captures the eeriness of sleepwalking perfectly in his short story “Somnambulism”. It is also the perfect example of an exceptional piece of literature because it meets plenty of the points that Poe refers to in his essay, “The Philosophy of Composition”.
Visual Hallucinations: Differential Diagnosis and Treatment. N. p. : Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc., 2009. PDF. The. Patrick, Christopher J., Don C. Fowles, and Robert F. Krueger. "
After doing a little research I have come across a very interesting topic which is Fear-Induced Hallucination. What this paper is going to focus on is How Sleep Paralysis Triggers Hallucination. After researching, I learned that hallucination actually starts during an episode of sleep paralysis. As stated in the textbook, sleep paralysis is often compared to being an evils work of art. It results from some errors of the neural transmission in the brain during REM sleep. Also, during a frightening state of sleep paralysis, one experiences total body immobility and cannot speak or move besides little eye movements and respiration.
THESIS STATEMENT: Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that has a specific medical definition, life-changing symptoms, and there are ways in how people treat it.
Renner, T., Feldman, R., Majors, M., Morrissey, J., & Mae, L. (2011). States of Consciousness. Psychsmart (pp. 99-107). New York: McGraw-Hill.
“… There is a feeling of strange intoxication and shifting consciousness with minor perceptual changes. There may also be strong physical effects, including respiratory pressure, muscle tension (especially face and neck muscles), and queasiness or possible nausea… After this the state of altered consciousness begins to manifest itself…..among the possible occurences are feelings of inner tranquility, oneness with life, heightened awareness, and rapid thought flow…these effects will deepen and become more visual. Colors may become more intense. Halos and auras may appear about things. Objects
2)Strassman, R. Human Hallucinogenic Drug Research: Regulatory, Clinical and Scientific Issues. Brain Res. 162. 1990.
Cartwright, R.D. (1978) A primer on Sleep and Dreaming. Massachusetts : Addison - Wesley, Publishing, Company
Did you ever awaken and find yourself unable to move? Perhaps you sensed a presence in your room or a pressure on your chest. This is sleep paralysis. It is a common disorder that affects millions of people. Most believe it occurs as we are on the edge of REM sleep. The disorder has been connected with such hallucinogenic events such as alien abduction or an evil presence. Sleep paralysis is an inability to move or speak, occasionally accompanied by hallucinations, for up to several minutes upon awakening or just before falling asleep.
Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs at either the onset or upon awakening of sleep. The medical terms for the two forms of sleep paralysis are hypnogogic and hypnopompic (1). When a person falls asleep, the body secretes hormones that relax certain muscles within the body, causing it to go into paralysis. Doing this prevents the body from acting out a person's dream, which could result in an injury. Sleep paralysis generally runs within one's family or in those who suffer from narcolepsy (2), but there is currently no explanation for why some people get it while others do not.
“Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).
In 2004–2005, the Penn Humanities Forum will focus on the topic of “Sleep and Dreams.” Proposals are invited from researchers in all humanistic fields concerned with representations of sleep, metaphors used to describe sleep, and sleep as a metaphor in itself. In addition, we solicit applications from those who study dreams, visions, and nightmares in art or in life, and the approaches taken to their interpretation. We also welcome proposals about the effects of dreaming on the dreamer, and the resulting emotions, behaviors, and actions taken or foregone in response to dreams. In this Forum on Sleep and Dreams, we will see how the diversity of academic disciplines can help answer important questions about sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the basis of human intellect.