Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during sleep involve a transient disruption of bodily self-consciousness, in which the self or center of awareness is experienced as displaced from the physical body. Although OBEs have been reported in neurological, psychiatric, and dissociative contexts, they also occur in non-clinical populations, raising the question of whether their altered-self phenomenology reflects a broader clinical or dispositional profile.
We examined whether sleep-related OBEs are distinguished by a specific episode-level alteration of bodily selfhood, and whether this profile is accompanied by differences in psychological symptoms, depersonalization/derealization, sleep quality, or personality. Adults recruited online reported a vivid or meaningful sleep-related experience, which was classified as an OBE, sleep paralysis, lucid dream, or ordinary remembered dream. Participants completed measures of altered-state phenomenology, mystical-type experience, ego dissolution, personality, subjective sleep quality, psychological symptoms, and depersonalization/derealization.
OBEs showed a selective elevation in Disembodiment relative to ordinary dreams, lucid dreams, and sleep paralysis. OBEs also showed higher altered-state intensity, stronger ego dissolution than ordinary dreams and sleep paralysis, and the highest proportion of complete mystical-type experiences. By contrast, sleep paralysis showed an aversive profile characterized by anxiety and impaired control, wh
