dreaming before sleeping

Does this happen to anyone else? Is there a name for this so I can research it?

What I mean is this and it only happens sometimes. When I close my eyes in bed, images will flash that are as vivid as a dream. Most often, there are many images most of which I don't remember. I would guess that there are about five images per second, usually some geometric structure or something bearing resemblance to text but I can't read it because I can't stop the barrage of images.

It's actually kinda cool. I don't want to stop this phenomena...just want to try to understand it more and what it might mean.

Sounds like hypagogia, which is the transition phase between being awake and asleep. If you manage to stay aware during it you could possibly lucid dream, which is a whole different thing, but also kind of neat.

I think what we see when we close our eyes depends on our bodies. Here's a neat blog where a philosopher did a poll, asking people what they saw:

http://schwitzsplinters.blogspot.com...hat-do-we.html

Hypnagogia, awesome... I have something I can look up. It is indeed what I experience sometimes.

From the article on wiki, two sections jumped out at me:

Subjective interpretation

Hypnagogic phenomena may be interpreted as visions, prophecies, premonitions, apparitions and inspiration (artistic or divine), depending on the experiencers' beliefs and those of their culture.


and


Insight

This process can even lead to genuine insight into a problem, a well known example being the story of August Kekulé's discovery of the structure of benzene.[40] Many other artists, writers, scientists and inventors—including Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Walter Scott, Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton—have credited hypnagogia and related states with enhancing their creativity.[41] Also, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem Kubla Khan was (according to its author) "a fragment" inspired by an opium-induced dream, its composition interrupted by a person from Porlock after which Coleridge found he had forgotten all but some "eight or ten scattered lines and images".[42]

It's good to know that I'm far from the only one who experiences this.

Interesting link. Thanks!

I always thought that dreaming occurs after a person goes to sleep and they're in a deep sleep. The last 2 years I have experienced an odd dream like state, at the stage where I'm awake and start to sleep. I hope I'm describing this correctly - I laying there awake and I slide into sleep(start dreaming) but I'm conscious of it. Usually its scary so I wake up momentarily then slide back to sleep and the same thing happens. It's a strange but interesting feeling all at the same time.