What Is The Hypnopompic State?

You are in the midst of a great adventure, defending the innocent and fighting evil.  You are chasing the most evil villain of all when suddenly the bell tower you are climbing chimes identically to the sound of your alarm.  You turn to your faithful sidekick who yells, "You're going to be late for work!" Your vision begins to blur and your hand no longer grips a gun but your blue, cotton bedsheets instead.  Your drive to punish evil slowly diminishes as you regain your sense of reality, leaving your dream world behind in order to start the usual activities of your every day life.  

That feeling between wakefulness and sleep can be one of confusion - was that a dream or was it reality?  It is called the hypnopompic state and reflects the in-between cognition that occurs when one attempts to make sense of their dreams in relation to the real world.  Wakefulness is often associated with a slow reaction time which causes people to shout out in reaction to something they were dreaming of, or act as if they were still in their dream world.  This is largely the result of lingering imagery that the hypnopompic state can create when attempting to escape rapid eye movement sleep when dreams usually take place.   

In particular, this cognitive state occurs when a person is waking from sleep.  The hypnagogic state, on the other hand, focuses on the state of consciousness when falling asleep.  Although closely related, I will be focusing on the hypnopompic state.  This focus stems from the theory that dreams can tell a lot about an individual because they often reflect personal experiences, goals, and even fears.  The hypnopompic state, therefore, is associated with emotion and can be compared to certain feelings such as love.