hypnagogic
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to drowsiness.
-
inducing drowsiness.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hypnagogic
First recorded in 1885–90; from French hypnagogique; see hypn-, -agogue, -ic. See Hypnos
Explanation
Something that is hypnagogic makes you sleepy. If you often fall asleep in movie theaters, you can say that movies put you in a hypnagogic, or drowsy, state. The Greek word hypnos means "sleep," and when it's added to agogos, "leading," it makes hypnagogic, "leading to sleep." You can use the adjective hypnagogic to describe something that makes you yawn or feel sleepy. Hypnagogic is also a psychological term for the moments just before you fall asleep; it's a period that's commonly full of dream imagery.
Vocabulary lists containing hypnagogic
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His bubbling synth creations have been associated with so many microgenres, including hypnagogic pop, vaporwave and plunderphonic, that he’s come to invent some of his own, like his slowed-down, mantra-adjacent “eccojams.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 8, 2025
My main experience of it really was in the hypnagogic hallucinations.
From Salon • Feb. 6, 2024
The findings imply that if we can harness that liminal haze between sleep and wakefulness—known as a hypnagogic state—we might recall our bright ideas more easily.
From Scientific American • Dec. 9, 2021
The programme, which attempts to explain the unexplained, considered several plausible theories for Ken's recollections, such as sleep paralysis or waking dreams known as hypnagogic hallucinations.
From BBC • Nov. 21, 2021
Its chest rose conspicuously and fell, as if the owl, in its hypnagogic state, had sighed.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
