Have you ever wondered why people believe in the paranormal? Why do they experience, or rather think they experience, inexplicable or mysterious things? Scientists also wondered about this, so they decided to study this phenomenon. It turns out that belief in supernatural powers has a lot to do with how and if we sleep at all. What have the scientists observed? People who are convinced of the existence of the paranormal have one thing in common. Studies on a large group have shown that they are connected by various types of sleep problems.
Belief in ghosts is a complex issue, but scientists argue that it may be related to the quality and quantity of sleep. On January 11, the Journal of Sleep Research published a study examining views on the paranormal. Researchers conducted a survey among 8,000 people. 853 adult volunteers. In addition to questions about belief in the paranormal, the survey included requests to rate sleep quality, including parameters such as time to fall asleep, sleep efficiency, sleep duration, and insomnia.
After analyzing the answers, the researchers noticed that people who had a hard time falling asleep, slept less and had symptoms of insomnia were more likely to declare a belief in the supernatural, even after controlling for demographics (such as gender and age). Paranormal phenomena included "a soul that lives after death, the existence of spirits, the ability to communicate with the dead, near-death experiences, the existence of demons, and the belief that aliens have visited our planet."
However, it wasn't just poor sleep quality that was associated with reduced skepticism about abnormal phenomena. Study participants who had a history of disorders such as "exploding head syndrome" or sleep paralysis were more likely to believe that our planet had been visited by aliens. They also established a link between sleep paralysis and belief in near-death experiences, including strange out-of-body visions or inexplicable visions during severe trauma.
EXPLANATION
Exploding head syndrome is an auditory hallucination that occurs when falling asleep or when waking up. These are the sounds you hear in your head. People who suffer from this condition talk about the sounds of exploding bombs, gunshots, sounds of blows to the head or electric shocks. Sometimes they are also accompanied by visual hallucinations in the form of flashes.
Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain is already "waking up" from sleep, but the body is not yet. A person experiencing sleep paralysis is fully conscious, but unable to move any part of their body. In most cases, sleep paralysis occurs spontaneously and once.
The researchers also noted that people with very strong or very weak beliefs in the paranormal reported fewer symptoms of insomnia than people with average beliefs. "If the results are repeated in subsequent studies, one possible explanation is that uncertainty and indecision (in this case, uncertain beliefs) can lead to anxiety, which in turn can disrupt sleep," the researchers wrote in the study.
The results of the research showed that 12.7 percent. participants believed that the soul will live after death, 8.1 percent. believed in the existence of ghosts, 5.6 percent. that some people can communicate with the dead, 3.4 percent. believe that near-death experiences are proof of life after death, 4.7 percent believed in the existence of demons, and 3.4 percent. that aliens have visited our planet/interacted with humans.
The researchers also explain that the experiment they conducted was limited because the participants were not representative of the general population. They also added that other phenomena that may contribute to these beliefs have not been assessed.
Finally, the team concluded their work by saying: 'The results obtained here indicate that there are links between paranormal beliefs and various sleep variables.' They also added that the results of the study could help support people reporting such incidents.
Contrary to appearances, science deals with paranormal phenomena. What is fascinating for researchers is, first of all, why we believe in them. Is it related to our age, education, or maybe place of birth? And what exactly do we mean when we mention the paranormal?
For the purposes of the new study, described in the scientific journal "Journal of Sleep Research", their list was strictly defined. There were on it:
- belief in ghosts
- belief in demons
- the belief that the soul lives on after death
- belief in the possibility of communication with the dead,
- the belief that aliens have visited Earth,
- the near-death experience (NDE).
The latter are the feelings that people in the state of clinical death sometimes experience. For example, leaving the body, being in a tunnel, contacting deceased relatives.
As scientists have just shown, the propensity to hold these kinds of beliefs is correlated with the quality of sleep. Specifically, people who slept worse believed more strongly in the paranormal phenomena listed above.
It was already known that the relationship between the quality of sleep and the tendency to believe in paranormal phenomena exists. So far, however, it has only been confirmed by studies conducted on small groups. Now that has changed. The researchers invited nearly 9,000 people to participate in an online study. people over 18 years of age.
Its participants were asked about the quality of their sleep. About how long it takes them to fall asleep, how much they sleep, whether they wake up, whether they have - and what - symptoms of insomnia. When compared with answers to questions about paranormal phenomena, it turned out that poor sleepers were more likely to be convinced of the existence of various inexplicable phenomena.
But that's not all. Scientists have also found that there is a connection between belief in aliens and the experience of sleep paralysis and the so-called. exploding head syndrome.
Sleep paralysis occurs when falling asleep or waking up. It happens then that we regain consciousness first, and only after a while control over the body. This means we cannot move or speak. We feel fear, our heart beats faster, and visual hallucinations may occur.
In turn, the syndrome of the "exploding" head is auditory hallucinations, also appearing when falling asleep or waking up. A person experiencing this sleep disorder sometimes hears loud noises that resemble gunshots or explosions.
As it turns out, sleep paralysis in particular can have a huge impact on the beliefs of the person who experiences it. The authors of the latest study found that such people are more likely to believe that near-death experiences are evidence of life after death. "To the best of our knowledge, this is a brand new conclusion worthy of further investigation," they wrote in their paper.
The researchers emphasize that their study was designed to only test whether there is a link between sleep quality and belief in the paranormal. Therefore, it does not answer the questions that immediately arise. Why are these two things correlated? And how?
Researchers only speculate that, for example, visual and auditory hallucinations associated with certain sleep disorders may contribute to the belief in the existence of aliens. "Someone experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations during sleep may begin to interpret them as evidence of aliens or other supernatural beings," they wrote.
On the other hand, it could also be the other way around. Belief in paranormal phenomena can cause anxiety, which translates, especially in children, into sleep problems. Resolving this requires further, detailed research, this time on a representative group.
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