Medical Hypotheses (2004) 62, 166–168
http://intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/mehy
Daytime parahypnagogia: a state of
consciousness that occurs when we almost
fall asleep
E.B. Gurstelle*, J.L. de Oliveira
Department of Psychology, S250, William Paterson University, 300 Pompton Road, Wayne, NJ 07470, USA
Received 22 April 2003; accepted 15 October 2003
Summary Based on a series of self-reports of a previously undescribed and undocumented experiential event, we are
postulating the existence of a newly identified state of consciousness, daytime parahypnagogia (DPH). DPH is more
likely to occur when one is tired, bored, suffering from attention fatigue, and/or engaged in a passive activity.
Individuals describe DPH as a transient and fleeting episode that is dissociative, trance-like, dreamlike, uncanny, and
often pleasurable; but, unlike a daydream, it is not self-directed. A DPH episode is spontaneous and may consist of a
flash image, thought, and/or creative insight that is quickly forgotten. However, the individual remains aware of
having had a DPH experience. This paper details the experiential characteristics associated with DPH. Through a brief
review of the literature, the authors differentiate DPH from related phenomena and establish DPH as a unique and
distinct altered state of consciousness.
c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
What happens in the instant when we almost fall
asleep? This paper examines a particular form of
this unnerving and perhaps dissociative experience. A review of the literature suggests that this
phenomenon that we are calling daytime parahypnagogia (DPH) appears to be a previously undescribed state of consciousness.
Definitions
Mavromatis [1] has thoroughly explored the concept of hypnagogia, which he defines as
“hallucinatory and quasi-hallucinatory events taking place in the intermediate state between
wakefulness and sleep” [1]. Faure [2] appears have
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-973-720-2623; fax: +1-973720-3392.
E-mail address: [email protected] (E.B. Gurstelle).
introduced the term “parahypnagogic” to suggest
“marginal” or fringe forms of sleep. In the present
context we are using the term “parahypnagogia” to
refer to any extremely brief trancelike experience
bordering on sleep onset that has hallucinatory or
non-hallucinatory attributes accompanied by flashes of thought, insight and/or creativity. We are
using the term “daytime” to indicate that the
parahypnagogic experience is occurring during a
usual period of wakefulness.
Discussion
Informal discussions among colleagues and students over the past two years have revealed that
some individuals at times have had the experience
of an extremely brief dreamlike episode that apparently interferes with attention and alertness.
DPH is more likely to occur when one is tired,
bored, suffering from attention fatigue, and/or
0306-9877/$ - see front matter c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S0306-9877(03)00306-2
Daytime parahypnagogia
engaged in a passive activity. One is conscious of
having this fleeting experience, but as in a dream,
the memory of the content fades quickly as attention becomes refocused on the matters at hand.
We hypothesize that almost anyone may experience DPH.
Based on both the literature on hypnagogia and
the self-report of students, we are proposing that
there exists a previously undescribed state of
consciousness that has elements of relaxed
wakefulness [3], mind wandering, daydreaming,
hypnagogia, spontaneous self-hypnosis [4], everyday trance [5], dissociation, meditation, microsleep [6], dream scintillations [7,8], waking
dreams [9,10], insight flashes and creativity [11].
However, we contend that the phenomenon of
DPH is a unique and distinct state that is qualitatively different from each of these aforementioned events.
Previous investigators into various wakeful
states of consciousness have proposed various
phenomena that appear to have some of the
characteristics of our proposed state of DPH, yet
differences exist. For example, in Erickson, Rossi
and Rossi’s [5] description of everyday trance, an
individual becomes so absorbed in an ongoing
event, such as an extremely exciting film, that they
then exclude from awareness all other environmental stimuli. We contend that in DPH, one is
similarly absorbed but on an intrapsychic level, as
in hypnagogia. Foulkes and Fleisher [3] found in a
study of relaxed wakefulness that normal participants were capable of experiencing hallucinations
with sometimes regressive or bizarre content.
Similarly, we argue that DPH may be a common
occurrence in normal people.
Daydreams differ from DPH in that the daydreams tend to be substantially longer, more easily
remembered, and perceived as self-directed.
Dream scintillations (flickers,) as conceived by
Forbes [7], refer to a type of dream that occurs
during fleeting daytime dozing that includes hypnagogic imagery. Horowitz [8] suggested that these
dream scintillations consist of difficult to recall
images that rapidly and successively intrude into
consciousness, and reflect a brief but altered state
of consciousness. DPH may include images and/or
thoughts and creative insights, which do not necessarily occur in a rapid succession as in dream
scintillations. Novella’s [10] concept of waking
dreams includes an integration of dreams and
wakefulness with reports as early as the Middle
Ages. He places reports of alien abductions in this
category. DPH might be a wakeful dreamlike state,
but unlike waking dreams, the experience is extremely brief.
167
Essentially, a DPH episode may last from less
than a second to a few seconds. It is likely to
occur when an individual is engaged in passive
activity, such as watching TV, or listening to a
boring person or lecture. Typically, one’s eyes
are open. If one is actively involved in interacting
with people or the environment in some fashion,
the phenomenon does not occur. For one who has
not experienced DPH, the event is somewhat akin
to falling asleep for a moment while watching
television, and then quickly re-awakening. However, unlike the lack of awareness that seems to
occur in a brief moment of sleep, one is fully
conscious of the parahypnagogic state, as well as
the thoughts or images that occur during the
state. Like many dreams, the memory of the
content (relevant or not to what one was ostensibly paying attention to) during this state quickly
fades. Reasons for the fading memory might include similar physiological and/or psychological
processes that interfere with dream recall
[12,13], as well as the subject’s need to immediately refocus attention on what is happening in
the external environment. Although the experience of DPH may be pleasurable, it may also
become unnerving as it interferes with attention
and alertness to ongoing tasks.
Pilot study
To explore subjective aspects of the DPH phenomenon, we conducted a pilot survey of students in psychology classes at William Paterson
University. Some phrases that these students
used to describe their personal experience of
DPH were: I am awake and conscious and it
usually occurs within seconds; vivid, yet fast;
then boom, back to reality; your eyes are open,
but you are not totally aware of what is going on;
my ‘Twilight Zone;’ consciousness hijacking; you
get into a deep sleep for a split second; a flashdream; pleasurable but strange; not the same as
a daydream; and, like a single slide from a slide
show.
These anecdotal descriptions from students are
consistent with our hypothesis of the DPH phenomenon. The students tend to depict the experience as a form of dissociative trance that is
somewhat dreamlike, occurring in a flash, simultaneously weird and pleasurable, appearing to
border on sleep onset without the subject actually falling asleep, and differentiated from a
daydream.
168
Conclusion
The first author is further exploring this proposed
phenomenon of DPH in an empirical study to determine the incidence and frequency of DPH, the
perceived nature of the event, and the conditions
under which DPH is most likely to occur. DPH appears to be a distinct transient state of daytime
consciousness that requires further study.
References
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Gurstelle, de Oliveira
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