hypnagogic

hyp•na•gog•ic (hip-nuh-GOJ-ik)  adj

Definition:
of, relating to, or occurring in the period of drowsiness immediately preceding or following sleep
Origin:
1886; from Fr. hypnagogique, from Gk. hypnos “sleep”, from PIE *swep-no, from base *swep- "sleep" + agogos “leading”

Related:
Synonyms: hypnotic, somniferous, somnolent, soporiferous, soporific, somnial
Related Words: pedagogue, demagogue, hypnosis

Sentence Examples:
• Wilson's dream world is informed by the perspective of the hypnagogic state: the sleep of reason may produce monsters, as Goya thought, but it can also call forth visions. -Time 1984

• We will first consider a condition of muscular activity which is peculiar to the hypnagogic state. It is well known that even on being suddenly awakened from a deep sleep, full consciousness is not immediately regained. Complete consciousness is reached only after passing through this intermediary hypnagogic state. -Abnormal psychology, Isador Henry Coriat

• "Often," she says, "when I am awake I pass into a state resembling sleep, in which I lose control of my imagination, but keep my powers of perception and reasoning. I dream before I go to sleep, and the way I have proved this is by opening my eyes, looking around the room, turning over in bed, closing my eyes again, and taking up the dream where I left off. Very often I am able to finish a dream in this way when I have been waked in the middle of it." Waking dreams of this sort, like hypnagogic images, indicate the unity which underlies all the distinctions of waking and dreaming life. -The American journal of psychology, 1896

Sources:Merriam-Webster, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

soporific

sop•o•rif•ic (sop-uh-RIF-ik)

Definition: 
adj
1. causing or tending to cause sleep
2. pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy

noun
something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug

soporifically adverb
Origin:
1665 adj, 1727 noun; from Fr. soporifique, formed in French from L. sopor (gen. soporis) "deep sleep," from a causative form of the PIE base *swep- "to sleep"

Related:
Synonyms: anesthetic, quietening, sedative, slumberous, somniferous, somnolent, soothing, tranquilizing, hypnotic, soporiferous

Sentence Examples:
• Time, which beautifies unlovely things, begins to cast its glamour over the old Italian régimes. It is forgotten how low the Italian race had fallen under puny autocrats whose influence was soporific when not vicious. -Cavour, Countess Evelyn Martinengo-Cesaresco

• But the Magnolia was fragrant, like its namesake, with mint and herbal odors, cool with sprinkled floors, and sparkling with broken ice on its counters, like dewdrops on white, unfolded petals—and slightly soporific with the subdued murmur of droning loungers, who were heavy with its sweets.  -Colonel Starbottle's Client, Bret Harte

• An author must ever wish to discover a hapless member of the Public who, never yet having read a word of his writing, would submit to the ordeal if reading him right through from beginning to end. Probably the effect could only be judged through an autopsy, but in the remote case of survival, it would interest one so profoundly to see the differences, if any, produced in that reader's character or outlook over life. This, however, is a consummation which will remain devoutly to be wished, for there is a limit to human complaisance. One will never know the exact measure of one's infecting power; or whether, indeed, one is not just a long soporific.  -Villa Rubein, John Galsworthy

The Storyline
The effect on Anna of emptying this long contained rage was soporific and upon completion she slumped into her chair before a stunned father and mortified mother-in-law.

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

obdormition

ob•dor•mi•tion (ob-dohr-mish-uhn) / ŏb'dôr-mĭsh'ən/   n

Definition
1. numbness in a limb, often caused by constant pressure on nerves or lack of movement
2. (obsolete) going to sleep; the state or condition of being asleep

Related

Related Words: dormant, dormitory, dormer, dormouse

paresthesia
a sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect
1857, from para- (here “disordered”) + Gk. aisthesis “perception”, from PIE base *au- "to perceive"Related: anesthesia, audience

Examples
• The bark decoction is taken once a day for seven days to fight a weariness from demanding job, ease body pain and legs obdormition after carrying heavy weights.
• Perhaps it is just obdormition of the brain, but you call me a far right blowhard and cannot see yourself in the same light.

The Storyline
A very fuzzy-headed Tyler awoke but could only manage cognizance of the obdormition of his right arm, followed hard on by the soft torture of paresthesia.

Origin
from Latin obdormire "to fall asleep," from L. dormire "to sleep," from PIE base *drem- "to sleep"

Sources: Wikipedia, Wordnik

Why This Word:

As recently the 1913 Webster's Dictionary, sleep is the only sense given.The 1914 Century Dictionary does list the sense of numbness and the sense of sleep as "rare." So the original Latin meaning of to fall asleep gave way to just sleep and even that fell into disuse with the word surviving only as a medical term, for a condition medicine is not particularly concerned about. Excluding references to the meaning of the word itself and uses in the now obsolete sense of sleep, I found almost no uses on the net, and none in Google Books, of obdormition with the contemporary meaning. But just as with pandiculation, it's a common experience and it's nice to know the word for it.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

somnial

som•ni•al (som-nee-uhl) /säm-nē-əl/   adj

Definition
of or pertaining to sleep or dreams

Related
Related Words: insomnia, unable to sleep
somnambulant, sleep walking
somnifacient, somniferous, inducing sleep
somnifugous, fighting off sleep
somniloquence, sleep talking
somnipathy, a sleep disorder
somnolent, sleepy

Examples
• The somnial magic superinduced on, without suspending, the active powers of the mind. Coleridge
• On the other part, to presage or foretell an evil, especially in what concerneth the exploits of the soul in matter of somnial divinations, as much as to say that it giveth us to understand that some dismal misfortune or mischance is destined and prepared for us, which shortly will not pass to come to pass. Francis Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel

The Storyline
And as much as Kurt was by now used to being jolted awake by Tyler's somnial thrashing...

Origin

First used sometime before 1914, L. somnialis dream bringing, fr. somnium dream, fr. somnus sleep

Sources: The Free Dictionary

Why This Word:

I was dreamin' when I wrote this. Forgive me if it goes astray.
Actually, with this word I bend a self imposed rule. The Storyline page is meant to be an exercise, suggested to me by someone else, to use each daily word in an ongoing narrative. And I had determined to not choose words just to fit the story, but rather to pick words on what piqued my interest and then find some way to work the word in the next sentence. In the process of writing the sentence for tomorrow's word, I needed a word which meant pertaining to sleep or dreams. As common an activity as sleeping and dreaming is, I was surprised to find that somnial was so rarely used and so lacking in synonyms. Naturally, I felt that needed to be rectified, as I'm sure you will too. Sleep on it.

Word-E: A Word-A-Day