I knew someone once who had hypnagogic hallucinations. She'd see strange things right before she fell asleep, or right as she was waking up.

I have hypnagogic visual hallucinations all the time. Usually they involve someone looming over me meaning to cause me harm. They are not awesome as they frequently make me scream in terror. Fun for me and anyone sleeping with (aka my husband) or near me (my neighbors, friends we are staying with). I haven't really figured out what makes them worse or better. I've tried some different relaxation techniques but nothing really helps. A few times I've woken up not only screaming but throwing punches. Fun!

(Hypnagogic are ones that happen as you are falling asleep. Hypnopompic are ones that occur on waking up.)

Anyway, didn't have one last night sleeping in super dark comfy hotel room. Maybe we should sell our house and just live out of Kimpton hotels?

lisah, that's terrifying. Do sleep aids help, or make it worse?

(Hypnagogic are ones that happen as you are falling asleep. Hypnopompic are ones that occur on waking up.)

Good words!

Ugh, that sounds terrible, lisah!

There were always three knocks, always in the same steady rhytm, but different intensities. Sometimes a tapping, other times like someone pounding on a door. I heard those knocks for years, and eventually I just rationalized that it was my conscious mind asking for entry in to my subconscious dreaming mind. It got to the point where I would wait for them, and as soon as I heard the knocks, I would fall asleep.

>Her descriptions of her experiences gave me a new perspective on stories of ghosts and alien abductions

I was explaining them to someone once and they told me about a book where alien abductees heard three knocks right before they were taken.

(Hypnagogic are ones that happen as you are falling asleep. Hypnopompic are ones that occur on waking up.)

Oh! I have had the on waking up ones. I used to semi-frequently (mostly only in hotel rooms but I'm in those more often than most) dream someone had come Into my room, and I'd wake up and swear I felt someone get into bed with me, feel the weight as they settled in, etc, and I would be frozen, unable to move but knowing something awful was going to happen...and them I'd fully wake up and still be freaked out but be able to move and know there was no one there. It makes me feel like some weirdo who has repressed molestation from childhood or something, but I don't recall the dream/feeling happening until I was in my 20s.

When I was around seven or so, I saw miniature cowboys racing their horses toward me over the blanket. They swerved before hitting me and rode up to the ceiling light. I heard all the usual evening noises coming up from below and felt wide awake. I was glad when I heard about hypnagogic states as it helped me put a name to the experience.

Three knocks thing is interesting...you know you're not the only one hearing them...at least they're polite aliens?

swear I felt someone get into bed with me, feel the weight as they settled in, etc, and I would be frozen, unable to move but knowing something awful was going to happen

This is so so common in stories of "hauntings". There's something in the human brain that wants to scare itself half to death, apparently.

I get the hypnopompic, then, I guess. Good to have the word!

Mostly it's the not being able to move, sometimes with a Presence or seeing a figure but not always, sometimes noises but not anything regular (and there are always noises in my house that I can attribute to cats or rabbits or dog, so those bother me less). Extremely unpleasant and anxiety enhancing. It seems like I get them more when I sleep during the day, so I've been trying not to nap. Which has been working out pretty well for me, except I don't know how to catch up on sleep when I don't get enough at night. Not like I'd be well-rested after one of those, though.

ETA: I rationalize it to myself as something going wrong with the mechanism that makes you not sleepwalk (which I also do sometimes, so it makes sense to me that it would be wonky in both directions) giving me that temporary paralysis feeling at the wrong time

Do sleep aids help, or make it worse?

I've never tried any because I'm a little afraid of being too deeply asleep to wake up in time to protect myself if someone did come try to attack me in my sleep. ha! Crazy.

There's something in the human brain that wants to scare itself half to death, apparently.

I know, right?! Stupid brains.

One of my uncles once dreamed so vividly of being in the way of an oncoming train that he threw himself out of bed hard enough to knock over his bedside lamp, bash his face on the nightstand, and bruise an elbow and a knee on the floor. We still tease him about it.