Before and after sleep, a person may experience hypnagogic (upon falling asleep) or hypnopompic (upon awakening) hallucinations. However, as claimed by medical professional and researcher from Spain, Guglielmo Foffani, labeling these experiences as hallucinations is fundamentally incorrect, as hallucinations happen during wakefulness.
The author ascribes almost all the states we call “phase states” (lucid dreams, false awakenings, sleep paralysis, and out-of-body experiences) to hypnagogic/hypnopompic experiences. All these are related to sleep; hence, the phrase “hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations” is an oxymoron. Such labels influence our perceptions—psychiatrists are well aware of their power. Therefore, this term should be changed.
But how should the boundary between hallucination and the norm be defined? There is the so-called “reality threshold”: during wakefulness, our senses and logic tell us that the surrounding world is real. Imagination or recollection does not reach this threshold. However, hypnagogic/hypnopompic experiences, like hallucinations, can be very realistic.
To distinguish normalcy from pathology, the author recommends using a classic technique used by lucid dreamers—reality-checking. For example, a dreamer can ask another character (if present) if they see the same giraffe the dreamer sees. Then, they can clarify whether such a conversation even took place. An alternative and even simpler technique is to pass a finger through the palm of the other hand. If the dreamer can do this, they are having a hypnagogic/hypnopompic experience (and they are already in a lucid dream); if they cannot, they are hallucinating.
The researcher adds that lucid dreams themselves can be therapeutic. But in this case, they are also a tool for distinguishing the norm from a mental disorder.
Have you ever doubted your own normalcy after a phase state experience?
The article was published in December 2023 in PNAS Nexus.
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