"Hypnogogic" has Greek bits that mean "sleep-leading" or "sleep-inducing." It came into English through French around the year 1886. That was when Edmund Gurney, a paranormal enthusiast, published a book called Phantasms Of The Living, in which he described "hypnogogic hallucinations" that people experienced as they were falling asleep. Gurney mused that these hallucinations were "truly the projection of the percipient's own mind as the dream." The word "hypnogogic" has stuck around in the dusty pseudoscientific corners of English, and today, it can mean either "related to falling asleep" or "helping you fall asleep."

Even less common is its exact opposite, "hypnopompic," which has Greek bits that mean "sleep-departing," or more literally, "sleep-sending (away)." It was coined around 1897 by another paranormal enthusiast and an associate of Gurney, a poet named Frederic William Henry Myers. Myers wrote: "To... illusions accompanying the departure of sleep, as when a dream-figure persists for a few moments into waking life, I have given the name hypnopompic." People mocked him for being so pedantic. But if you happen to need a pedantic adjective that means "related to waking up from sleep," you can use "hypnopompic."

Part of speech:

Adjectives: "these hypnogogic drugs;" "these hypnopompic hallucinations."

Other forms: 

There's an alternate spelling of "hypnogogic:" "hypnagogic," with the A in the middle instead of the O. Either spelling is fine. A scientist in the 1960s complained about the new spelling of "hypnagogic," but no one listened.

The nouns are "hypnagogia" (meaning "the state of transitioning from awake to asleep") and "hypnopompia" (meaning "the state of transitioning from asleep to awake").

If you need some adverbs, you've got "hypnagogically" and "hypnopompically."

how to use them:

With tongue in cheek!

Reach for these rare, weird, overly academic, pseudoscientific, paranormal-sounding words whenever you want to describe (with an amusing and unnecessary level of precision) the feelings, thoughts, or visions that occur to you on the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness.

You might talk about hypnogogic or hypnopompic thoughts, visions, illusions, hallucinations, impulses, paramnesia, confusion, or states of being.

examples:

"[The musician Mike Diaz] knows he's in hypnagogic pop territory and admits as much on his MySpace, listing his influences as 'film scores, the 10th dimension and lucid dreaming.'"
 — Paul Lester, The Guardian, 28 May 2010

"A rapid succession of fuzzy childhood scenes came to mind: intense family dinner-table conversations, confrontations with schoolmates during recess, throwing pebbles at a shed window with my older brother—all of them the sort of vivid, floating, 'hypnopompic' images we experience when we slumber late on a Sunday morning, then forget the moment we fully awaken."
— Bessel A. Van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, 2014

has this page helped you understand "hypnogogic" and "hypnopompic"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about these words, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study them:

Explain the meanings of "hypnogogic" and "hypnopompic" without saying "awake" or "asleep."

try them out:

While summarizing different types of brain waves, Steven Kotler noted that theta waves occur "during REM or just before we fall asleep, in that hypnogogic gap where ideas combine in truly radical ways."

Have you, personally, ever experienced a strange, wild, or radical thought or vision in "that hypnogogic gap" between being awake and being asleep? If so, talk about it. If not, talk about whether or not you believe it's possible for us to think creatively when we're almost asleep.

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "Stop, Drop, & Anagram!"

I’ll give you an 8-letter word, along with a quote with a blank in it. Your job is to drop a letter from the word, then reassemble it into the 7-letter word that fits meaningfully into the blank. You'll find the answer at the bottom of the issue. Enjoy!

Try this one today:

NEWCOMER.

"Meanwhile [Odysseus] lives and grieves upon that island
in thralldom to the nymph; he cannot stir,
cannot fare homeward, for no ship is left him,
fitted with oars—no _______ or companions
to pull him on the broad back of the sea."
— Homer, as translated by Robert Fitzgerald, The Odyssey

review these words:

1. In one sense, HYPNOGOGIC and HYPNOPOMPIC are opposites. In another sense, they're two sides of the same coin, both referring to _____.

A. the outcome of sleep quality
B. the anguish that causes sleepless nights
C. the boundary between sleep and wakefulness

2. Based on what we know about words like "hypnogogic" and "hypnopompic," we can figure out that when Fiona Apple sings "You came upon me like a hypnic jerk when I was just about settled," she's comparing "you" to _____.

A. a cartoonish villain who's evil just for the fun of it
B. an intelligent con artist who can sense when she's let her guard down
C. a startling convulsion of her body that occurs as she's falling asleep

Answers to the review questions: 1. C 2. C Answer to the game question: NEWCOMER becomes CREWMEN: "Meanwhile [Odysseus] lives and grieves upon that island in thralldom to the nymph; he cannot stir, cannot fare homeward, for no ship is left him, fitted with oars—no crewmen or companions to pull him on the broad back of the sea." — Homer, as translated by Robert Fitzgerald, The Odyssey

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.