RIFLE RANGE BOY: Edison

The Persistence of Memory, 1931.
Salvador Dali

I thought I had found the best way to rejuvenate myself after immersing myself deep into my studies during those long days of uncertainty before the public examinations. I would engage in short slumber breaks. Just as I would feel slowly being dragged into sleep, I would suddenly smack myself awake. I would curse myself for sleeping too long only to realise that I had hardly slept. I would, however, be feeling quite fresh by then and would abandon my plans to snooze. These short power naps were a game changer. They managed to fuel me to sail through all those trying times.

I later came to learn is that that state was known as the hypnagogic state of sleep as we transit between wakefulness to sleep. And it was a normal phase of sleeping.

Then one day, a friend who in his own mind thinks he is an interpreter of dreams ala-Freud, tried to analyse that sensation that I felt as the mind's indicator that it is in a constant state of fear; afraid of being left behind and dropping out in the race of life. Metaphorically, the mind screams of me of being an over-achiever, living in a constant fear of losing out! But then, it is no dream at all. I have not reached REM sleep yet.

Now, researchers are saying that the hypnagogic state is a time of creativity and possibly a time of problem-solving. Painter Salvador Dali used to use sleep holding keys so that it would drop as he was in hypnagogia to paint his creations. Thomas Edison held ball-bearing to that same effect.

Throughout history, people have had said to have undergone multiple experiences, hallucinations, premonitions and even prophesies during this phenomena. Scientists have described hypnagogia as involving a ‘loosening of ego boundaries', openness, sensitivity, ‘ heightened suggestibility, and a ‘fluid association of ideas'. The 'Dreamcatcher' project is aimed at tapping its full potential.