Prevalence of near-death experiences in people with and without REM sleep intrusion

PeerJ

article

Daniel Kondziella¹  Jens P. Dreier⁴  Markus Harboe Olsen⁹ 

[1] Department of Neurology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen;Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Copenhagen;Department of Neuroscience, Norwegian University of Technology and Science;Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health;Department of Neurology, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health;Department of Experimental Neurology, Charité –Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health;Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Berlin;Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin;Department of Neuroanesthesiology, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen

关键词: Brain injury;    Cardiac arrest;    Coma;    Consciousness;    Disorders of consciousness;    Drowning;    Intensive care;    Out-of-body experience;    Sleep;    Rapid eye movement sleep;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.7585

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe origin and prevalence of near-death experiences are unknown. A recent study suggested a link with REM sleep intrusion but was criticized for its selection of control participants. We therefore assessed the association of REM intrusion and near-death experiences with different methods.MethodsUsing a crowd-sourcing platform, we recruited 1,034 lay people from 35 countries to investigate the prevalence of near-death experiences and self-reported REM sleep intrusion. Reports were validated using the Greyson Near-Death Experiences Scale (GNDES) with ≥7 points as cut-off for near-death experiences.ResultsNear-death experiences were reported by 106 of 1,034 participants (10%; 95% CI [8.5–12%]). Evidence of REM intrusion was more common in people with near-death experiences (n = 50∕106; 47%) than in people with experiences with 6 points or less on the GNDES (n = 47∕183; 26%) or in those without such experiences (n = 107∕744; 14%; p =  < 0.0001). Following multivariate regression analysis to adjust for age, gender, place of residence, employment and perceived danger, this association remained highly significant; people with REM intrusion were more likely to exhibit near-death experiences than those without (OR 2.85; 95% CI [1.68–4.88]; p = 0.0001).DiscussionUsing a crowd-sourcing approach, we found a prevalence of near-death experiences of 10%. While age, gender, place of residence, employment status and perceived threat do not seem to influence the prevalence of near-death experiences, we confirmed a possible association with REM sleep intrusion.

【 授权许可】

CC BY