Some of the forms they may appear in include: These sounds can range from faint noises to loud crashes or bangs.

the appearance of random geometric patternsĪbout 8 to 34 percent of hypnagogic hallucinations involve sounds.

Some of the ways visual hallucinations can manifest include: In about 86 percent of cases, hypnagogic hallucinations involve visual stimuli. It’s not clear what causes these hallucinations, but some risk factors include:

Women are more likely to experience these hallucinations than men. They most often occur in young adults and teenagers and become less common with age. However, they can also involve your other senses and feelings of movement. Usually, these hallucinations are visual, auditory, or tactile. Hypnagogic hallucinations are imaginary events that seem real as you’re on the cusp of falling asleep. Hypnagogic hallucinationsįrench psychiatrist Jules-Gabriel-Francois Baillarger first described hypnagogic hallucinations in the 1840s.

The following are some of the most common effects you may experience. We’ll discuss each of these experiences in more detail below.ĭuring hypnagogia, you start to lose touch with reality as your body prepares to enter sleep. When this happens, people commonly experience: Hypnagogia occurs during the transitional period of wakefulness to sleep, when alpha waves are decreasing but you haven’t yet reached the first stage of sleep.ĭuring this period, your sense of “here” and “now” transitions from the real world to the dream world.

During this stage, alpha waves drop to less than 50 percent of your total brain waves and researchers can observe ripples of slower theta waves. Stage one is the lightest form of sleep and typically lasts for between 1 minute and 5 minutes. Once you become drowsy, alpha waves take over. When you’re awake, your brain produces measurable alpha and beta waves, with beta waves being predominant. From slowest to fastest, these waves are called: This electrical activity can be measured in waves with a machine, called an electroencephalogram (EEG).Īn EEG can measure five types of brain waves. Neurons in your brain communicate with each other through bursts of electrical activity.

How the hypnagogic state of consciousness occurs

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