Mindfulness training and trait mindfulness influence autobiographical memory by enhancing cognitive, emotional, and self-referential flexibility. This flexibility enables a more balanced retrieval of episodic, semantic, and emotional content, increases memory specificity, and reduces emotional reactivity during recall. The review of 50 studies suggests that mindfulness promotes meta-awareness, acceptance, and the ability to shift from a first- to a third-person self-perspective. These changes may involve reconsolidation of memory traces linked to the self, supported by altered brain activity and connectivity in the default mode, salience, and central executive networks. The findings have implications for clinical conditions like depression and for cognitive neuroscience.
Sleep paralysis, a REM sleep phenomenon where motor paralysis persists into wakefulness, is reported by one in four adults in a sample of 210 from the Italian population. The experience commonly includes inability to move or speak, tingling, sealed eyelids, vivid cognitive scenes, the felt presence of another being, and overpowering fear of death. Contrary to earlier findings, sleep paralysis was not linked to poorer sleep quality or chronic anxiety but was associated with insomnia symptoms and hyper-attuned body awareness. Individuals experiencing sleep paralysis showed greater interoceptive sensitivity, noticing subtle bodily cues and regulating attention and emotion through them. This suggests sleep paralysis may emerge where boundaries among body, sleep, and consciousness become blurred.