Towards an Integrative Account of Potential Mechanisms Mediating the Path From Sleep Dysfunction to Hallucinations
Schizophrenia Bulletin October 1, 2025 Bryony Sheaves, Vanessa Cropley, Peter Moseley et al. 5 citations
Sleep dysfunction and hallucinatory experiences are bidirectionally related, with the strongest path leading from poor sleep to hallucinations. This narrative review examines mechanisms across four levels: phenomenology, psychology, neural networks, and neurophysiology. Stress is a well-supported mediator, with sleep manipulation studies in non-clinical populations showing its role. Sleep loss also affects nervous system inflammation, altering brain connectivity involved in hallucinations. Lived-experience accounts reveal three novel mechanisms—source monitoring, mental resilience, and reasoning skills—that are impacted by sleep loss, though the full causal chain requires further testing. Priorities include testing stress as a mediator in clinical populations and experimentally examining these novel mediators.