the value of my early morning thoughts

A couple of mornings ago as I slowly began to wake up (during that time when I'm waking and dozing)  I had a very clear thought come to me that sort of answered a question I had been pondering for a while.  What was striking about it was that the thought was so clear and definitive to me as if to say that I no longer needed to wonder what the outcome would be...that I had just been told the answer.  And I've had such thoughts and ideas come to me many times before.  I call them "early morning thoughts" and I've come to realize their special value.  So, I decided to do some research to see if anyone else has had these experiences....

Evidently, the transition phase between wakefulness and sleep is called HYPNAGOGIA.  It is the time when your mind is sort of awake while your body is sort of asleep.  At this time we are in limbo between two states of consciousness.  What is so interesting is that it is a time of dreaming but with some mind control. Researchers believe it provides a clear path to the subconscious, intuitive mind.  Our subconscious mind carries the infinite wisdom and knowledge that we have accumulated from a lifetime of learning.  It is the source of "aha" moments that come from nowhere.  The subconscious mind forms the answers we already have and know (on a deeper level).  

Hypnagogia can be used to help creativity and problem-solving.  In fact, Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe wrote about it in some of their works years ago.  Beethoven,  Sir Isaac Newton, and Thomas Edison have all credited hypnagogia with helping their creativity.   It has been said that Edison used the transition time of falling asleep to be creative.  He would fall asleep with a hand full of steel ball bearings so that as he fell asleep they would fall out of his hand and he would wake up. Thus, he could stay in the the transition phase (creative/subconscious phase) longer.  

So there...there is something to my "early morning thoughts".  There is something valuable about sleep and thinking and praying and silence and being still....