Life Science Encyclopedia

"Hypnopompic" is the state of consciousness leading out of sleep, a term coined at the end of the century by the spiritualist Frederick Myers. Its twin is the "hypnagogic" state at sleep onset; though often conflated the two states are not identical. The hypnagogic state is rational waking cognition trying to make sense of non-linear images and associations; the hypnopompic state is emotional and credulous dreaming cognition trying to make sense of real world stolidity. They have a different phenomenological character. Depressed frontal lobe function in the first few minutes after waking - known as "sleep inertia" - causes slowed reaction time and impaired short-term memory. Sleepers often wake confused, or speak without making sense, a phenomenon the psychologist Peter McKeller calls "hypnopompic speech."

References

• T. Balkin, A. Braun, et al., “The process of awakening: A PET study of regional brain activity patterns mediating the reestablishment of alertness and consciousness,”Brain, vol. 125, 2002, pp. 2308–19.
• P. Tassi and A. Muzet, “Sleep inertia,” Sleep Medicine Review, vol. 4, no. 4, 2000, pp. 341–53.
• McKellar, P (1989). Abnormal Psychology, Routledge.
• Warren, Jeff (2007). "The Hypnopompic", The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. ISBN 978-0679314080.