hypnagogic

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Many people experience this borderland routinely when slipping into sleep -- "hypnagogic" hallucinations.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Inducing sleep; soporific.
  2. adjective Of, relating to, or occurring in the state of intermediate consciousness preceding sleep: hypnagogic hallucinations.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (28)

  • Then, you can think about flying while the machine induces theta waves, putting you into the 'hypnagogic' state characteristic of intense imagery and dreams. —  Omni: September 1993
  • Wikipedia lists the following possible representations of the effect: the form of a habit (when you catch yourself thinking about how different real-world objects could fit together, such as buildings or cars), the form of hallucination (for example when you close your eyes and see falling Tetris shapes at the edge of your visual field) and the form of hypnagogic imagery (for example when you "dream" about Tetris when drifting off to sleep). —  ReadABlog.com New Blogs and RSS Feeds
  • Those researchers were looking at what is called "hypnagogic sleep" - learning a task while asleep through the mechanism of dreams. —  BrianKaneOnline
  • In medical parlance, the twitching is called hypnagogic myoclonus (the first word refers to sleep and the second to muscle twitches). —  Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions
  • As the song slips from a dazed riff on the verses into a light disco reverie on the choruses, it feels like dancing about in a hypnagogic state, unsure of what's real or not, but moving about in a peaceful haze. —  Fluxblog
 

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French hypnagogique : Greek hupnos, sleep; see hypno- + Greek agōgos, leading (from agein, to lead; see ag- in Indo-European roots).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Greek ὑπνος, sleep, + ἀγωγός, leading, from ἂγειν, lead.
 

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/hɪpnæˈgɑdʒɪk/
by American Heritage

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