In accordance with the development of EEG and polysomnography in the field of sleep research, the sleep onset period (SOP) between wakefulness and sleep has been considered an important part for understanding the physiology of sleep. SOP in the transition from wakefulness to sleep is a gradual process integrating various viewpoints such as behavior, EEG, physiology and subjective report. Particularly, based on understanding of EEG changes during sleep, SOP has been regarded as a pattern of topographical change in specific frequency and specific state in EEG. Studies on quantitative EEG (qEEG) and event-related potential (ERP) have suggested that SOP shows the changes of functional coordination at the specific cortical areas in qEEG and the changes of regular patterns in response to environmental stimulation in ERP. The development of sleep EEG and topographic mapping of EEG is expected to integrate various viewpoints of SOP and clarify the neurophysiologic mechanism of SOP further.