Hypnopomp is the scientific term referring to the cognitive state leading out of sleep. It is considered much more emotional and credulous in comparison to the experience of dreaming in hypnogogia, or the cognitive state of entering sleep.
Commonly combined with sleep paralysis, when the brain suddenly awakes from sleep while the muscles are still paralyzed by REM atonia, hynopompic hallucinations merge with normal vision to create an experience that many people have equated to supernatural encounters.
This installation of hollow starched sheets and audio explores the cognitive rift between sleep and waking. While often distressful to experience a loss of physical and perceptual control, it is the closest evidentiary “out-of-body” experience that has been scientifically studied.