Ever get woken up by a doorbell in your sleep? You’re not alone – it’s a hypnagogic hallucination. Just as your falling asleep, you’ve probably seen, heard, or felt things that weren’t really there. Most people don’t even remember these experiences, but they happen almost every night during a transitional state called hypnagogia. It’s part of your natural sleep cycle, and happens to be the best time to manifest.
What is Hypnagogia?
Hypnagogia is the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep. It happens every night, even if you don’t remember it. Hypnagogia is the opposite of hypnopompia: the transitional state from sleeping to being awake.
Right before you completely fall asleep, your consciousness shows you images (aka hypnagogic hallucinations) as it begins to lose sense of the real world and enter the dream world. Any of your 5 senses can be influenced by hypnagogia, but the three most common ones are your sight, hearing, and touch/feeling.
Hypnagogic Hallucinations
Visual
Visual hypnagogic hallucinations include flashing colours, shapes, and images. They are different from dreams because they usually don’t have a storyline. In my experience, I’ve seen balls of light appear before me, among other basic visual stimuli. Visual hypnagogic hallucinations are reportedly the most common.
Sensory
Kinesthetic hypnagogic hallucinations are the ones you feel or sense. I just label them sensory to make it easier to remember. These are also pretty common. Some examples include feeling weightless or like your flying, muscle jerks, or “tingles” all over your body (I’ve experienced those a lot). People have even recalled sensing a presence in the room when there was no one there.
Auditory
Auditory hypnagogic hallucinations are exactly what you think: things you can hear. Many people report hearing a doorbell in their sleep, or a phone ringing. For me, I experience auditory hypnagogic hallucinations the most frequently, despite them being the rarest of the three types. I once heard the sounds of a tropical forest, and even though my vision was black, it felt as though I was in the forest. The sounds surrounded me and felt extremely real – part of me thought I shifted to a jungle.
Hey reality shifters, here’s a thought: Some people believe that shifting symptoms are just hypnagogic hallucinations. It makes sense, since your body is falling asleep. However, I have experienced intense sensations while shifting, similar to what people report feeling while separating from their body during astral projection. By that point, I was completely asleep, so could it have been a hypnagogic hallucination? Let me know what you think!
What are the Uses of Hypnagogia?
Manifestation
The most obvious use for hypnagogia is manifestation, made popular by Neville Goddard’s teaching about the state akin to sleep (SATS). It’s much easier to visualize your desires when you are in this half-asleep state and your brain is less prone to negative beliefs. This is why most people talk about manifesting in bed before they fall asleep.
Lucid Dreaming
If you can get passed the hypnagogic hallucinations, you’ll probably find yourself in a lucid dream. Instead of “waking up” in a dream, you’re going into a dreaming state already awake. Then you’re free to do as you please in your lucid dream!
Reality Shifting
If you can lucid dream with hypnagogia, then you can most definitely shift realities! You can induce a lucid dream, then make a portal. Or, you can do the shifting method of your choosing while you’re in the hypnagogic state. Either way, hypnagogia is a simple way to shift realities with some practice.
Spiked Creativity
Thomas Edison famously used hypnagogia to come up with new ideas. He would sit in a chair, holding a metal ball. Just before he fell completely asleep, the ball would fall and wake him up, leaving him with a mind full of wild ideas to quickly jot down before he forgot about them. That’s the key – writing or recording your thoughts before they drift away like a dream.
Self-Discovery
Many people believe that hypnagogic hallucinations are reflections of our subconscious mind, and try to find a deeper meaning in them. By writing down what you saw, heard, and felt as soon as you wake up, you can analyze your visions and decode the symbolism within them.
How to Induce Hypnagogia
Although it happens every time you fall asleep, you usually aren’t aware that it’s happening. The key to inducing hypnagogia is to stay conscious while your body transitions from awake to asleep. Some people enter a hypnagogic state with the intention of sleeping through the night (for manifesting and lucid dreaming), while others choose to wake up right away to write down their experience. Choosing a goal can help you decide which method to use. I’ve added a few below to help get you started.
Blank Wall Method
This is great for people who fall asleep quickly, because you keep your eyes open. Stare into a blank surface (a wall or ceiling work great) and relax your vision so you’re looking through the surface. Eventually, you’ll start to see shapes – hypnagogic hallucinations!
Ball Drop Method
Some of the greatest minds used this method to induce creative spikes, another effect of hypnagogia. Just keep an object in your hand, and hang your hand so when you fall asleep you’ll drop the object. The noise will wake you up so you can write down what you experienced.
Piano Method
Move your fingers like you’re playing piano as you fall asleep. By focusing on the movement or song in your head, your brain stays active and you stay conscious. This is a common method for lucid dreaming and reality shifting too, since they also involve the mind awake, body asleep state of consciousness.
Summary
Now you know – every night, before you fall asleep, is an opportunity to manifest, lucid dream, or even discover something new about yourself! Like everything in this world, practice makes perfect. Don’t beat yourself up if you fall asleep right away or don’t remember your experience. Now, go get a good night’s sleep!
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