Med News Today

Brain Trick may lead to near-death experience

The brain's tendency to occasionally blur the line between sleep and wakefulness may help explain the phenomenon of near-death experience, preliminary research suggests.

It's been an open question as to why some people see bright light, feel detached from their bodies or have other extraordinary sensations when they are close to dying or believe they might die.

Some people view these so-called near-death experiences as evidence of life after death, and many neurologists have considered the phenomenon too complex for scientific study.

But the new research, published in the journal Neurology, implicates the blending of sleep and wake states as a biological cause of near-death experiences.

posted by nattietodd @ 7:44 AM