McCreery suggests this phenomenological similarity is not coincidental and results from the idea that both phenomena, the Type 2 false awakening and the primary delusionary experience, are phenomena of sleep.McCreery, C. (2008)."Dreams and psychosis: a new look at an old hypothesis." Psychological Paper No. 2008-1. Oxford: Oxford Forum. He suggests that the primary delusionary experience, like other phenomena of psychosis such as hallucinations and secondary or specific delusions, represents an intrusion into waking consciousness of processes associated with stage 1 sleep. It is suggested that the reason for these intrusions is that the psychotic subject is in a state of hyper-arousal, a state that can lead to what Ian Oswald called "micro-sleeps" in waking life.Oswald, I. (1962). Sleeping and Waking: physiology and psychology. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
