The hypnagogic state of consciousness is the experience of the transitional state from wakefulness to
sleep during the onset of sleep. Its opposite state - hypnopompic, is the transitional state from sleep into wakefulness. These are the borderlands of dreams - thresholds of consciousness with extreme potential and possibility.
Mental phenomena that may occur in this phase include hypnagogic hallucinations, lucid thought, lucid dreaming, and sleep paralysis. The latter two phenomena are themselves separate sleep conditions that are sometimes experienced during the hypnagogic state.
In this transitional time between the sleep self and awake self lies a precious void of self-regeneration. Threads between wakefulness and dreamtime weave into the tapestry of cognition and consciousness.
Moth Moon © K.A.K. Lecky 2018 @arctic.selkie
Waking up, in that moment,
coming from the dream world,
the real world,
to this one,
before rolling over,
before feet touch the floor,
the feel of other places
still swimming around me,
I am in between time.
Sometimes lost,
sometimes found,
leaping from one world
to another,
carrying in my rucksack
more secrets
in the hidden pouch inside,
waiting
for just the right moment to
empty them onto the page.
~ excerpt © Elise Stuart 2018
