Browsing by Author "Gleiser, Pablo M."

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    Lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences reports : differences in emotional content, dream awareness, and dream control
    (2023) Gallo, Francisco T.; Herrero, Nerea L.; Tommasel, Antonela; Godoy, Daniela; Spiousas, Ignacio; Gasca-Rolin, Miguel; Ramele, Rodrigo; Gleiser, Pablo M.; Forcato, Cecilia
    Lucid dreams (LDs) and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are phenomena characterized by the return of higher cognitive abilities during sleep, including reflective self-awareness and abstract thought. Given the similarities in reflective self-awareness between LDs and OBEs, some authors consider them variations of the same phenomenon. This study aimed to compare the differences in content between non-LDs, LDs, and OBEs obtained from 60 participants over a two-month period, with 916 dream reports collected. The dream reports were analyzed using automatic methods based on Lexicons such as NRC Emotion Lexicon and Empath, and were scored based on Hall and Van de Castle's dream content scoring system with variations and additional measures. Results showed that OBE dreams were characterized by higher occurrences of negative emotions compared to both lucid and non-lucid dreams as measured by automatic and manual scoring systems. Also, more OBE dream reports contained words related to agency and insight, higher manual scoring of dream control-related expressions, and more total sensations, dream activities, reference to prospective memory evocations, spatial and body references, and more difficulties with movement within the dream environment, than lucid dreams. The findings support the idea that OBEs represent unique experiences distinguished from lucid dreams.
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    Spontaneous and induced out-of-body experiences during sleep paralysis: Emotions, “AURA” recognition, and clinical implications
    (2022) Herrero, Nerea; Gallo, Francisco; Gasca-Rolín, Miguel; Gleiser, Pablo M.; Forcato, Cecilia
    "Sleep paralysis is characterized by the incapacity to perform voluntary movements during sleep/wake transitions, and could bring great discomfort. During sleep paraly sis, out-of-body experiences can occur. Out-of-body experiences refers to the sensation of being outside of the physical body and perceiving the world from this outside perspective; however, they are pleasant in comparison with other sleep paralysis hallucinations. Lucid dreams are dreams in which a subject becomes aware of being dreaming while the dream occurs. Here, we designed an online survey to study the predominant and specific emotions during sleep paralysis and/or out-of-body experience events as well as the somatosensory perceptions that preceded their occurrence. The sample (N = 329) was divided into experimental groups depending on the presence/absence of out-of-body experiences, capacity to induce (or not) out-of body experiences, and perception/no-perception of the sleep paralysis. We showed that more positive emotions were associated with out-of-body experiences and more negative emotions were associated with sleep paralysis episodes, and for those who claim the ability to induce out-of-body experiences, positive emotions were more frequent in their episodes. We found that subjects perceived auditory, tactile and visual sensations before sleep paralysis episodes, and we proposed that these could be an “aura” of sleep paralysis. Furthermore, subjects that had out-of-body experiences but had never felt the sleep paralysis, perceived tactile and visual sensations to the same extent as subjects with out-of-body experiences that felt the sleep paralysis." Therefore, we proposed that the “aura” recognition could be used under controlled conditions for out-of-body experiences induction in patients with sleep paralysis to diminish the negative symptoms associated with sleep paralysis episodes