Abstract
Emotion, especially anxiety, has been implicated in triggering hallucinations. Sleep behaviour has also been reported to have a modest influence on the judgments that lead to hallucinatory experiences. We report an investigation on the prediction of hallucinatory predisposition which explored emotion and associated processes (stress, personality and sleep behaviour) using a questionnaire survey in a student population (N = 127). Findings indicated significant associations between perceived stress levels and sleep, with stress and being a significant predictor of the hallucinatory experience. In addition there was a predictive relationship between the proneness to hallucinate and schizotypal personality traits, characterised by the subscale of cognitive disorganisation and unusual experiences. Stress and anxiety together with personality may need to be considered in the understanding of hallucinatory experience.
Highlights
Hallucinations are perceptions in the absence of an external stimulus (Bentall, 1990)
Hallucinations are widely accepted to be symptomatic of a psychotic disorder and like schizophrenia they occur within a clinical setting, recently they have been investigated in healthy people who have a predisposition for visual hallucinations (Johns, 2005; Johns & Os van, 2001)
With respect to the schizotypy scale, the correlations revealed a significant correlation between the scores on the hallucination scale and Unusual Experiences, Cognitive Disorganisation and Impulse Non Conformity
Summary
Hallucinations are perceptions in the absence of an external stimulus (Bentall, 1990). Higher degrees of negative affect, depression, anxiety, and stress, have been repeatedly and consistently reported to correlate with hallucinations (Delespaul, Vries de, & Os van, 2002; Freeman & Garety, 2003) Observations like these suggest that emotional distress might have a direct influence on the onset of hallucinations or that some of the mechanisms that cause hallucinations may be managed or moderated by affective arousal (Slade & Bentall, 1988). Stage one sleep is the transition between wakefulness and sleep and can be accompanied with sensory experiences such as vivid hallucinations (Ohayon, Priest, Caulet, & Guilleminault, 1996) This suggests that individuals with high levels of schizotypy personality characteristics may have a predisposition to hallucinate in times of extreme stress. This study investigated the link between these associations the possible relationship between the occurrence of hallucinatory experiences and schizotypy personality characteristics, sleep quality and stress in a student population. It is hypothesised that stress and sleep quality will predict hallucinatory predisposition and that high levels of schizotypy may increase the likelihood of the hallucinatory experience
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