Nothingness Is All There Is: An Exploration of Objectless Awareness During Sleep
Adriana Alcaraz-sánchez, Ema Demšar, Teresa Campillo-ferrer, Susana G. Torres‐platas
Frontiers in Psychology June 10, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.901031 via OpenAlex
Summary
A study explored minimal forms of awareness during sleep, particularly a state termed the 'nothingness phase,' reported by 12 out of 18 participants. This phase was characterized by a bodiless sense of self, non-modal sensations, pleasant emotions, no visual experiences, wide attention, and an awareness of the experience itself. The findings build on ancient Indian philosophical concepts of consciousness and suggest new avenues for understanding awareness during sleep.
Study at a glance
| Design | qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 18 |
| Population | participants describing their experiences of awareness during sleep |
| Key finding | The phenomenological analysis identified a common 'nothingness phase' in 12 participants characterized by minimal self-awareness and unique sensory experiences. |
Abstract
Recent years have seen a heightened focus on the study of minimal forms of awareness during sleep to advance the study of consciousness and understand what makes a state conscious. This focus draws on an increased interest in anecdotical descriptions made by classic Indian philosophical traditions about unusual forms of awareness during sleep. For instance, in the so-called state of witnessing-sleep or luminosity sleep, one is said to reach a state that goes beyond ordinary dreaming and abide in a state of just awareness, a state in which one is not aware of anything else other than one's own awareness. Moreover, for these traditions, this state is taken to be the essence or background of consciousness. Reports on such a state opens the door to exciting new lines of research in the study of consciousness, such as inquiry into the so-called objectless awareness during sleep-states of awareness that lack an ordinary object of awareness. In this two-staged research project, we attempted to find the phenomenological blueprints of such forms of awareness during sleep in 18 participants by conducting phenomenological interviews, informed by a novel tool in qualitative research, the micro-phenomenological interview (MPI) method. Following a phenomenological analysis, we isolated a similar phase across 12 reported experiences labeled as "nothingness phase" since it described what participants took to be an experience of "nothingness." This common phase was characterized by minimal sense of self-a bodiless self, yet experienced as being "somewhere"-, the presence of non-modal sensations, relatively pleasant emotions, an absence of visual experience, wide and unfocused attention, and an awareness of the state as it unfolded.