US team explains near death experiences
'REM intrusion' fingered
By Lester Haines / Published Tuesday 11th April 2006 12:55 GMT

A team of US scientists has come up with a plausible explanation for "near
death" events,
wherein individuals experience out-of-body sensations or an aura of clear white
light -
and it has nothing to do with ascending toward the pearly gates.

Rather, it's all down to "REM intrusion" where "the same parts of the brain are
activated
when people dream as in near death experiences", the BBC reports.

The University of Kentucky team studied 55 people who'd had near death
experiences -
defined as "a time during a life-threatening episode when a person undergoes an
outer
body experience, unusual alertness, sees an intense light, or feels a great
sense of peace"
- and compared them to 55 who hadn't.

Sixty per cent of those who claimed a near death experience said they'd also
suffered a
"REM state of sleep during periods of wakefulness", or REM intrusion, described
by study
author professor Kevin Nelson to the Daily Telegraph as "an activation of
certain brain
regions that are also active during the dream state".

Nelson added: "However, I hesitate to call it dreaming or dreaming while awake.
This is the
first testable hypothesis of a biological basis for these experiences. People
who have near
death experiences may have an arousal system that predisposes them to REM
intrusion."

The theory has found favour with Dr Neil Stanley, director of sleep research at
Surrey
University, who chipped in: "There are plenty of rational people who say that
these things
happen and the one part of us that's utterly fantastical is our dreams.

"Our dreams can appear incredibly real - after all they are our reality when
they are
happening. If you get that sort of reality playing through into your
consciousness, it's a
very convincing reason to believe such a thing is happening."

For the record, common symptoms of REM intrusion include "waking up and feeling
unable
to move, having sudden muscle weakness in the legs, and hearing sounds just
before
falling asleep or waking up that others do not hear", the Kentucky team notes.

There's more in the full study, as published in Neurology. ®

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/11/near_death_explained/>