Does anyone else only experience “imagery” right before sleep?

I’ve been reading a lot about aphantasia recently and came across some research suggesting that imagery might still be happening in the brain, just not reaching conscious awareness.

That idea hit a bit too close to home.

I have aphantasia (no voluntary visual imagery at all), but there’s one exception that’s always confused me. When I’m falling asleep, I enter this in-between state where I’m still conscious, but I start to experience something that feels like visual content although “seeing” isn’t really the right word.

It’s hard to describe. It’s not vivid like real sight, but it’s definitely not nothing either.

The weird part is:

I can’t control it

As soon as I try to focus on it, it disappears

It feels like a completely different “mode” of my brain

It’s the only time I get anything close to visual imagination.

Because of that, I’ve always wondered whether imagery is happening more generally, but something in my normal waking state is suppressing or filtering it out.

I’ve also always experienced my thinking as slightly split, almost like one part of me is doing/engaging, and another part is observing and processing. Not sure if that’s relevant, but it makes me feel like there’s more going on under the surface than I can directly access.

Curious if anyone else experiences something similar, especially:

imagery only in that half-asleep state

or losing it the moment you try to focus on it

Would be interesting to know if this is common or not.

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Greg Connors•recently•edited

I think that's more related to lucid dreaming, than Aphantasia. I experience imagery as you describe, but sometimes can control. A little better than a straight up dream actually.

Neal White•recently•edited

I also have aphantasia. Very rarely, I can see things in my dreams, specifically when I'm sort of waking up and have a lucid dream. I have limited control over what I see, and it usually fades quickly.