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Home > Journals > ALJSR > Vol. 8 ()

 

Abstract

The past few decades of scholarly inquiries on the topic of the hypnagogic state and N1 sleep onset have introduced a new understanding of human general mentation. The underlying phenomenological, psychological, and neurological aspects of the hypnagogic state have been explored in depth by researchers. Hypnagogia and N1 sleep onset have been associated with creativity, spontaneous access to insights, symbolic representation of cognitive processes, and visual and auditory perceptions. The default mode network (DMN) has been largely associated with creativity and spontaneous thinking during N1 sleep onset. This paper reviews the basics of the neurology and phenomenology of N1 and the hypnagogic state. The DMN is mostly active during times when external stimuli are at their lowest, while the focus is on internally generated thoughts. Interestingly, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder have a pathologically hyperactive DMN even while attention is supposed to be directed toward external stimuli, as a result of an abnormal relationship between the DMN and the frontoparietal network (FPN), responsible for disengagement from internally generated cognition. This paper proposes a unique hypothesis to test whether a clinically induced hypnagogic state, with the guided presence of a professional, could help regulate the rigidity of cognition in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The proposal of this hypothesis encourages the exploration of a conceptual gap in addressing the neurological mechanisms of obsessive-compulsive disorder by incorporating the knowledge gained through decades of scholarly research on the topics of sleep and hypnagogia. Moreover, this hypothesis may lead to considering a new approach in the possible symptom modulation of individuals with OCD.

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