Researchers from the Philippines and the USA, led by John Balch, decided to investigate the link between dissociative experiences and sleep disturbances. Dissociation involves emotional detachment as well as a departure from reality, the blurring of boundaries, and alterations to self-perception, memory, and consciousness. People with high levels of dissociation often suffer from sleep paralysis, nightmares, and other sleep-related problems.
However, the authors found that this also influences the ability to have lucid dreams. The scientists enlisted 219 volunteers for the survey. Participants with a strong tendency for dissociation experienced lucid dreams three times more often than others. They also suffered more from nightmares and were more likely to believe in the paranormal. It is worth noting, however, that relatively few participants (about one in four) were “prone to dissociation.”
Dissociation is associated with high levels of anxiety and depression, but it is usually not considered a pathology; rather, it is seen as a defense mechanism (a person perceives events as if they are happening to someone else). By the way, dissociative experiences also encompass other states that we call phase states, namely, out-of-body and near-death experiences.
Have you ever noticed dissociative tendencies in yourself?
The preprint of the article was published in January 2024 on SSRN.
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