Delusion-like ideation (DLI) occurs in psychopathology and among the general population, and meditation can trigger such experiences. Based on interviews with over 100 Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts, this mixed-methods study establishes a typology of eight types of DLI, reports their relative frequencies, and identifies impacts and treatment outcomes. Four case studies illustrate risk factors, trajectories, outcomes, and appraisals. Responses to DLI depend on type, duration, severity, impact, and appraisals by meditators, teachers, and psychiatrists. Some DLI phenomenology reflects Buddhist meditation cultures; although normalized in certain contexts, meditation experts consider DLI a potential "red flag" requiring monitoring or intervention. Explanatory models include environmental conditions of retreats, attention and sensory attenuation, and DLI as a cultural idiom of distress.
Delusional ideation, or false beliefs, is linked to social factors such as feeling the presence of unseen others, loneliness, social anxiety, and empathy. A survey of 2,200 healthy adults during the COVID-19 pandemic found that all measured aspects of social imagery were positively associated with delusional ideation. The strongest predictor was felt presence, followed by loneliness, social fear, and empathic concern. The findings suggest that delusions may arise from common mechanisms with social imagination, and that alterations in social cognition contribute to delusional thinking.
Nightmares are intense emotional experiences that can disrupt sleep quality and affect most people at some point. This investigation examined how nightmare frequency relates to subjective sleep duration, estimated sleep need, and perceived sleep debt. Frequent nightmare sufferers report sleeping the same amount as those without nightmares, yet they feel a greater sleep debt—they believe they need more sleep than they are getting. This shows the importance of considering subjective sleep experiences and dysphoric dreaming alongside standard measures of sleep quality and duration.