You know those few minutes right before you wake up, where you can recall your dreams with wildly vivid accuracy? And then as the day progresses, someone could ask you what you dreamed about the night before and you couldn't even tell them the theme, let alone any details? Those dreams that we experience during that time are often described as being very emotional, vivid, and sometimes even downright disturbing. Well, there is an explanation for this phenomenon and scientists refer to this experience as hypnopompic hallucinations.

When you are in the hypnagogia state, it is an experience which can last for many minutes at a time. It might feel like sleep and wakefulness mixed together. Scientists say that alpha brain waves and theta brain waves are present during this state of being. This is interesting because scientists say that these brain waves don't typically occur at the same time but only separately.

In one Stanford University study, it was found that from a sample of individuals who were aged 15-44, roughly 8 percent of them had reported experiencing this phenomenon.

Another study in the UK, sampled roughly 4972 people who varied in age from 15 up to 100 and it was seen that roughly 37 percent of them reported experiencing these sorts of hallucinations.

When this experience occurs, it will feel like you are still asleep and you might experience some very emotional, intense, and very seemingly realistic episodes or visions. Physically, the body is transitioning from sleep to wakefulness, and you aren't technically asleep when these visions or dreams are taking place. Hence their being referred to as hypnopompic hallucinations.

3 Kinds Of Hypnopompic Hallucinations:

• Auditory
• Visual
• Tactile

The reason that these hallucinations can really frighten some folks is because they seem so vivid and so real. A number of things are said to contribute to fueling these experiences and they are things like medications, antidepressants, and sleep deprivation. For many folks, they don't really seem to cause a problem for them, but for others who experience these frightening visions on a regular basis it can start to really lower the quality of their sleeping experience.

Other researchers suggest that this mental state could be key to creativity.

It's said that for many centuries before there was even a term for this experience, many individuals had been utilizing this hypnagogic state in order to try and tap into their personal creativity. Allegedly, artists like Salvador Dali, Mary Shelley, and others, tried to use this state of being in order to foster new artistic ideas.

One US-based photographer, Alec Soth, credits hypnagogia with inspiring a number of his photographs and a subsequent collection. Soth had hoped to use the photographs in order to try and evoke feelings of this cross-over, transient state, through his unique artwork.

To this day, there is still said to be little research that has been conducted to explore this phenomenon. However, dream researchers and other scientists say that the experience can help to give rise to expressive detail and layers of sensations and personal memories. More research in the future will help us to better understand what's going on in the mind when this interesting state of being is increasingly explored.

Pics:
TedEd / Via teded.tumblr.com
WiffleGif
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival

The information that is posted above is not intended or implied to ever be used as any substitute for professional medical advice, or diagnosis or treatment. The above is posted for informational purposes only.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/169/4/459
http://www.menshealth.com/health/why-you-have-vivid-nightmares
https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinekee/wake-up-its-just-a-nightmare?utm_term=.gkEpZp8Ag#.kf5Z0Zn5a
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hypnogogia-dreams-creativity_us_56c5d16ce4b0c3c55053de38
http://www.universitytimes.ie/2016/09/a-narrative-exhibition-exploring-the-liminal-space-between-wakefulness-and-sleep-hypnagogia/