The golden time for visualization meditation
The best time to meditate is as soon you wake up from sleep, have not started to think of anything yet, and have not started doing your activities yet.
That is the golden time for meditate. It is your best shot to kick-start and succeed in meditation.
You will also be able to effortlessly continue mindfulness meditation in the background throughout the day and infinitely increase your efficiency in completing your tasks if you do it first thing on waking up.
The only thing stopping an aphantasiac from becoming a hyperphantasiac is a lack of regular visualization practice on waking up daily.
There are several scientific reasons for this:
(1) Consolidation of imagery and memories during sleep
During sleep, your brain consolidates memories and processes information from the day before, which can enhance your ability to recall mental images and details as soon as you wake up.
The brain’s consolidation of memories and processes during sleep is a complex process that involves the reactivation and strengthening of neural connections that were formed during waking hours. This process is thought to be essential for the long-term retention of mental imagery and memories and the integration of new information into existing knowledge networks.
This consolidation process enhances your ability to visualize upon waking by strengthening the connections between the brain regions involved in visual processing and memory retrieval. During sleep, the brain reactivates and replays the imagery and memories that were encoded during wakefulness, allowing them to be consolidated and integrated into existing knowledge networks.
As a result, when you wake up, your brain may be in a state where visual memories are more readily accessible and easier to imagine and retrieve. This increased accessibility may make it easier for you to visualize and manipulate mental images.
There is also evidence to suggest that the consolidation of imagery and memories during sleep may enhance the brain’s ability to extract and encode visual details.
For example, a study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience found that participants who were allowed to sleep after viewing a set of visual stimuli were better able to discriminate subtle differences in similar stimuli when tested on waking up, compared to participants who were not allowed to sleep.
This enhanced ability to extract and encode visual details may also contribute to your ability to visualize more vividly and effortlessly after waking up.
Overall, the process of memory consolidation and processing that occurs during sleep is thought to play an important role in enhancing the brain’s ability to visualize and manipulate mental images.
By strengthening the connections between brain regions involved in visual processing and memory retrieval, and by enhancing the brain’s ability to extract and encode visual details, the consolidation of memories during sleep may contribute to the ease and vividness of visualizations upon waking up.
(2) The relaxed state of the brain
During sleep, your brain goes into a more relaxed state, which can make it easier to visualize as soon as we wake up due to the decreased or non-existent mental noise.
When you fall asleep, your brain transitions through several different stages of sleep, each characterized by distinct patterns of neural activity. During the initial stages of sleep, the brain produces alpha waves, which are associated with a state of relaxation and calmness.
This relaxed state during sleep contributes to the ease of visualization upon waking up in several ways. The relaxed state allows the brain to process mental imagery information more efficiently, by reducing distractions and minimizing interference from other cognitive processes.
During wakefulness, the brain is constantly processing a vast amount of information from various sensory modalities, which creates a high level of cognitive load and interferes with the ability to visualize. However, during sleep, the brain is not receiving as much sensory input, which reduces cognitive load and allows for more efficient processing of the mental imagery information on waking up.
Additionally, the relaxed state during sleep also enhances the brain’s ability to generate and manipulate mental images by promoting the activity of brain regions involved in visual processing and memory retrieval.
For example, a study published in the journal NeuroImage found that during the early stages of sleep, there was increased activity in brain regions associated with memory consolidation and visual processing, suggesting that these regions may be particularly active during the relaxed state of sleep.
Furthermore, the relaxed state during sleep also reduces stress and anxiety, which can have a negative impact on cognitive functioning, including the ability to visualize mental imagery. By reducing stress and anxiety, the relaxed state of sleep promotes a more positive and relaxed mental state upon waking, which enhances visualization ability.
Overall, the relaxed state of the brain during sleep plays an important role in enhancing the ease of visualization upon waking up, by reducing cognitive load, promoting the activity of brain regions involved in visual processing and memory retrieval, and reducing stress and anxiety.
This is also the reason why meditating and visualizing in meditation will become increasingly difficult to practice, without using other means, as your day passes and the cognitive load on your brain increases exponentially due to constantly thinking of and planning different things.
(3) The state of hypnagogia on waking enhances visualization meditation
Upon waking up, your brain is in a state of hypnagogia, which is the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. During hypnagogia, the brain can produce vivid sensory experiences, including visualizations. This state may make it easier for you to access and manipulate mental images.
Hypnagogia is a transitional state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by various perceptual, sensory, and cognitive experiences. During this state, the brain can produce vivid sensory experiences, including visualizations, and a sense of floating or flying.
The scientific explanation for hypnagogia lies in the changes in brain activity that occur during this transitional state. As you fall asleep, your brain transitions through several different stages of sleep, each characterized by distinct patterns of neural activity.
During the initial stages of sleep, the brain produces alpha waves, which are associated with a state of relaxation and calmness. As you progress into deeper stages of sleep, the brain transitions to producing slower delta waves, which are associated with deep sleep and the consolidation of memories.
However, during the transitional state of hypnagogia just on waking, the brain exhibits a unique pattern of activity that is distinct from both wakefulness and deep sleep. This pattern of activity is characterized by a mixture of alpha and theta waves, as well as bursts of faster beta waves. These changes in neural activity are thought to underlie the unusual perceptual experiences and the ease of mental imagery visualization that occur during hypnagogia.
One explanation for the occurrence of hypnagogic visualizations is that the brain’s visual processing centers continue to be active even as you begin to fall asleep. As a result, visual images and sensations may arise spontaneously, leading to vivid and sometimes perceptual experiences.
The exact neural mechanisms underlying hypnagogia are not fully understood, but there is evidence to suggest that the state involves changes in the activity of several different brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, thalamus, and limbic system.
In summary, hypnagogia is a transitional state of consciousness that occurs as you fall asleep, and is characterized by a unique pattern of neural activity that is distinct from both wakefulness and deep sleep. This state can lead to vivid mental imagery and perceptual experiences, which are thought to arise from changes in the activity of various brain regions.