sometimes my insturment guages go out while driving

in the last 6 months I have noticed my instrument panel will go out while driving.  all lights go out, all the gauges drop down to the left, my red light to tell me what gear I'm in goes out.  The only thing that stays on is my odometer, but it doesn't change once this happens.  so it no longer tracks my mileage, but stays on what it was last at.  I also noticed my back up sensor stops working when this happens as well.  Usually this is not a permanent problem.  Usually I can stop the car, turn it off for a few minutes and then restart it and  they come back on.