Spontaneous thoughts and experiences across wakefulness and sleep
September 3, 2025 Paradeisios Alexandros Boulakis, Athena Demertzi, Jaco Sitt et al. preprint
Consciousness research typically separates the study of states of consciousness (e.g., wakefulness, sleep, drug-induced states) from the study of contents of consciousness (what we are aware of). This chapter emphasizes the dynamic nature of both aspects. Life alternates between conscious and unconscious states like sleep and wakefulness, and within each state, conscious experience ranges from content-full to content-less. Similarities in reported contents across wakefulness and sleep are highlighted. The possibility of conscious experiences without specific content challenges the notion that being conscious always involves being conscious of something. Reviewing neural correlates of consciousness, the authors propose a potential convergence in studying conscious states and contents.