hypnagogic

[hip-nuh-goj-ik, -goh-jik]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hypnagogic ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

of or relating to drowsiness.

inducing drowsiness.

Origin of hypnagogic

1885–90; < French hypnagogique; see hypn(o)-, -agogue, -ic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hypnagogic

surreal, hypnotic, narcotic, somnolent, soporific, somniferous, soporiferous

Examples from the Web for hypnagogic

Contemporary Examples of hypnagogic

Nighttime “visitations” may be chalked up to sleep deprivation, to hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations.
A Night with The Conjuring’s Ed & Lorraine Warren
Stefan Beck
August 18, 2013

Historical Examples of hypnagogic

The first is hypnagogic hallucination, the second coloured audition.
Metapsychical Phenomena
J. Maxwell
On the contrary, hypnagogic illusion is, with me, a decided phenomenon.
Metapsychical Phenomena
J. Maxwell
And there are crystal-seers who are not subject to hypnagogic illusions.
Cock Lane and Common-Sense
Andrew Lang
These ‘hypnagogic illusions’ Pontus de Tyard described in a pretty sonnet, more than three hundred years ago.
Cock Lane and Common-Sense
Andrew Lang
For bad visualisers, on the other hand, the vividness of these hypnagogic pictures may be absolutely a revelation.
Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death
Frederick W. H. Myers

British Dictionary definitions for hypnagogic

hypnagogic

hypnogogic

adjective

psychol of or relating to the state just before one is fully asleepSee also hypnagogic image, hypnopompic

Word Origin for hypnagogic

C19: from French hypnagogique; see hypno-, -agogic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hypnagogic

adj.

1868, from French hypnagogique, from Greek hypnos "sleep" (see somnolence) + agogos "leading" (see act). Etymologically, "inducing sleep," but used mostly with a sense "pertaining to the state of consciousness when falling asleep."

hypnagogic in Medicine

hypnagogic

adj.

Inducing sleep; soporific.

Of or relating to the state of drowsiness preceding sleep.

Relating to the images or hallucinations sometimes perceived during this state.