hypnagogic image

The density of information overwhelmed the fabric of the matrix, triggering hypnagogic images.

'They're hypnagogic images,' Dr Phillips remarked, fastening his bag.

When the activity involves moving objects, as in the video game Tetris, the corresponding hypnagogic images tend to be perceived as moving.

And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiling in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like film compiled from random frames.

According to this theory, half-formed thoughts, memories as well as low-quality visual and auditory inputs now become grist to the perceptual mill, combining to give hypnagogic images.

The evidence that exists, however, suggests that subjects who are weak images in the waking state are just as likely to report hypnagogic images as those who are strong images.

When going to sleep after spending a night watching EEG traces of sleeping subjects, for instance, I have had hypnagogic images of the traces (moving backwards) on going to sleep.