Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41051871›Full record

ReviewSchizophrenia bulletin2025

Towards an Integrative Account of Potential Mechanisms Mediating the Path From Sleep Dysfunction to Hallucinations.

Bryony Sheaves, Vanessa L Cropley, Peter Moseley, Peter W R Woodruff, Georgia Punton, Clemens Speth, Jana Speth, Peter Meerlo, Sanne G Brederoo

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Schizophrenia bulletin, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Bryony SheavesDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 6NW, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-2995-193X
Vanessa L CropleyCentre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne and Orygen, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0029-1525
Peter MoseleyDepartment of Psychology, University of Northumbria, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE1 8ST, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-9284-2509
Peter W R WoodruffDivision of Population Health, School of Medicine and Population Health, University of Sheffield, 30 Regent Street, Sheffield, S1 4DA, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-3302-9785
Georgia PuntonDepartment of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-3182-1288
Clemens SpethInstitute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
Jana SpethInstitute of Psychology, University of Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg, Germany.
Peter MeerloNeurobiology Expertise Group, Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0002-8330-6050
Sanne G BrederooUniversity Center of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, 9713 GZ, The Netherlands.ORCID 0000-0001-9608-0954

Funding

Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant 1177370Dutch Organisation 06360322210014National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Development and Skills Enhancement Award NIHR303514NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre NIHR203316
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundSleep dysfunction shares a bidirectional relationship with hallucinatory experiences, with the strongest path from sleep dysfunction to the occurrence of hallucinatory experiences. This review aimed to identify potential mechanisms through which sleep dysfunction leads to hallucinations. STUDY

designA narrative review was conducted across 4 levels of explanation: phenomenology (via lived-experience accounts), psychology, neural networks, and neurophysiology. STUDY

resultsRelatively few studies have directly tested underlying mechanisms linking sleep dysfunction to hallucinations, particularly at the levels of neural networks and neurophysiology. There is good support for stress as a mediator between sleep dysfunction and hallucinations. Stress was a plausible mechanism across levels of explanation and was supported by sleep manipulation studies in non-clinical populations. Inflammation of the nervous system is affected by sleep loss, which in turn impacts the brain connectivity underpinning hallucinatory experiences. Lived-experience accounts identified 3 novel mechanisms, all of which are meaningful to people with lived experience of hallucinations: source monitoring, mental resilience, and reasoning skills. Quantitative studies show these mechanisms are impacted by sleep loss, but the full causal path from sleep dysfunction to hallucinations via these mechanisms requires testing.

conclusionsKey priorities for future research are to (1) test stress as a mediator in clinical populations experiencing hallucinations, with stress assessed across the levels of explanation simultaneously; (2) carry out experimental tests of novel potential mediators identified in this review (eg, source monitoring, inflammation, prefrontal cortical networks); and (3) identify potential moderators that might explain individual differences in the lived-experience accounts of the effect of sleep dysfunction on hallucinations.

Indexed as

HallucinationsNerve NetResilience, PsychologicalSchizophreniaSleep Wake DisordersStress, PsychologicalHumanshallucinationsinsomniamechanismsmediatorssleepvoices

Identifiers

PMID41051871
PMCPMC12498951

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.