TITLE:
An Investigation into Personality, Stress and Sleep with Reports of Hallucinations in a Normal Population—Hallucinations in Normal Population
AUTHORS:
Jim Barnes, Lucy Koch, Chloe Wilford, Laura Boubert
KEYWORDS:
Hallucinations, Normal Population, Personality
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.2 No.4,
July
25,
2011
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.