Quantum Sleep: How our friends, family, and neighbours could be affecting us
- Insomniax
- Aug 29
- 7 min read
What are the true possibilities of human nature? Could you conceive of invisible bonds that tie you mentally, emotionally, to your loved ones? What are the implications of spending hours in someone’s company—hearing their voice, sharing eye contact, body contact, and inhaling their essence? Could that leave a lasting imprint? And importantly, could it affect your sleep?
There is still much we don’t know about the quantum world. To the common eye, it represents logic-defying physics in a universe that appears to have a mind of its own, frustrating and astounding humanity’s brightest minds. Mathematical probability has long been our tool for understanding quantum mysteries. And yet outside of theoretical physics, decades of research in parapsychology sits in the shadows, largely unacknowledged despite the magnitude of literature.
In laboratories and classrooms around the world, we have been studying the magical interconnectedness of quantum entanglement that Albert Einstein referred to as “spooky action at a distance”. Photosynthesis, enzyme activity, and bird navigation are all dependent on quantum effects, and even in the human body several critical operations (some still speculative) act through quantum tunnelling or coherence—perfect synchrony at the molecular level. All the while, as we begin to discover the extraordinary functions of nature through emerging studies in Quantum Biology, we could have very well overlooked the most fascinating laboratory of them all: the human brain.
After all, why should such spectacular technologies be limited to leaves and feathers? Should it be so strange that the brain has harnessed similar capacities? With groundbreaking studies emerging on brain synchronisation, it could simply be a matter of time before mechanisms are found for intercranial communications over a distance.
While I’ve since become fascinated with both the experiments of parapsychology and the biomechanics of the mind, it was my own personal experiences with telepathy that convinced me of its authenticity. But as is described in the Telepathy Tapes, this was not some to-and-fro mental messaging service; rather, it felt eerily like neural synchronisation. But I’m far from the only one. Passively and without training, both anecdotal convictions and formal studies have reported that ordinary people experience otherwise inexplicable interconnectivity as part of their everyday lives.
Of adults with sleep problems, 76 percent share a household with at least one other person who also has them. In contrast, 73 percent of adults without sleep issues say no one else in their household does.[i] Over 90 percent of people have experienced scopaesthesia—the phenomenon of ‘knowing’ when someone is staring at you from behind. It’s also not uncommon for twins and romantic partners to report interconnected or interrelated dreams on the same night.
Mirrored neural activity—gained through genetic relation or intimacy—could be a clue to this quantum coherence. Studies have shown that social bonding, personal interaction, and shared experiences can lead to neural synchronisation between people, and intriguingly, this effect sometimes appears to transcend physical distance. While not yet firmly established in mainstream science, the growing field of quantum biology is beginning to explore how such invisible connections may exist in complex organisms like plants and humans. What was once dismissed as 'spiritual woo-woo' may in fact be a deeply integral part of our biology.
While still largely unacknowledged in the mainstream, decades of studies on psi and telepathic phenomena have played critical roles in the evolution of modern neuroscience.[ii] Fascinating books and explorations, such as the Telepathy Tapes[iii], the Global Consciousness Project[iv], and Dean Radin’s Entangled Minds, provide extraordinary depth and scientific rigor in effectively proving intercranial communications and semi-tangible effects from thoughts and feelings—not just among psychic mediums, but in everyday people. Unbeknownst to most, overwhelming data exist that suggest that these phenomena are not only real, but integral in our everyday experiences without us even realising.
While brainwave activity is a key measure of sleep quality in individuals, less is said about how these patterns influence or interact with others. This appears to be an overlooked factor in sleep science—the subtle energetics that extend outside of our physical bodies. Like biological antennae, it’s believed our brains can both transmit and receive signals—especially between those with emotional bonds.
Therefore, sleep may not just be an isolated event because your brain and body are not isolated entities. We share in the quantum human network that connects us all—especially those who are intimate as family members, close friends, colleagues, or lovers. But if these phenomena are indeed real, does this help or hinder our sleep?
On my part, I’ve slept well with good sleepers and poorly with bad sleepers. Almost magically, I tend to wake up at the same time as the person I sleep beside, and the nights I’ve found sleep most elusive are the same nights my loved ones have too. In-person, co-sleeping issues could be explained by a variety of other factors, from heat to restlessness to other subtle cues and signals. But what about at a distance, in different houses or towns? Usually, this should not be a common or notable disturbance, given most family and friends will go to sleep and wake up within a few hours of each other and are not always locked in directed emotional contemplation about someone during the night. Therefore, if thoughts alone can disturb another’s sleep, such events are likely rare—and even harder to attribute with certainty.
But even in daylight hours, is there evidence for invisible interconnectivity? The phenomenon when someone receives a text or call from a person they had just been thinking about is called ‘telephone telepathy’. This is an extremely common phenomenon experienced by over 80 percent of people, with compelling studies done by the likes of biochemist Rupert Sheldrake.[v] From a series of double-blind studies, the rate of success observed in guessing the right caller, for it to be a coincidence, would have to be a one in ten million chance.[vi]
One of my own most notable experiences that affected my sleep was right when my grandmother—to whom this book is dedicated—passed away. In the early hours of morning, I came suddenly awake at the exact same minute, fifteen kilometres away.
Perhaps you’ve experienced similar moments. And perhaps some of these really are just coincidences. But what if thousands of these coincidences stack up over time, far against any reasonable probability of chance? And what if there were literally thousands of studies you’ve never heard about—scientifically rigorous experiments with empirical data—that have recorded odds against chance of easily over a trillion to one?
What could be the reason for this? Coincidences? Perhaps. Causes? Statistically more likely. The current consensus is that it’s our genetics and shared environmental factors aligning our behaviours through hypersensitive mechanisms—which could very well be true. But after recent advances in quantum mechanics and neuroscience, a much more interesting explanation could be on the table. While neural synchronisation over distances (and resulting night-time arousal) from romantic or familiar bonding have not been extensively studied, a wealth of fringe evidence would indirectly corroborate at least the possibility of influence from a waking brain to a sleeping one.
In a well-cited study at Duke University in 1934 called the Pearce-Pratt distance telepathy test, Hubert E. Pearce Jr achieved a 30 percent success rate in naming, from a different building, what cards a colleague had drawn from a pack. Over 1850 trials, his accuracy had odds against chance of 1027 to 1. That’s one chance in an octillion—a one with twenty-seven zeroes after it. And when similar studies with similar results have spanned over a century of scientific investigation, we might relent that thoughts and perception may not be confined to the body alone.
In Washington DC in 1993, a group of around 4000 people united in meditation to attempt to influence societal outcomes. Finding success, with odds against chance of less than 2 in a billion, local crime dropped over 23 percent. Now if this effect on behaviour extends to sleep quality, then it’s likely that some variables are outside of individual control, and a poor night of sleep could be a product of ‘something in the air’—people’s moods, local activity, or maybe even planetary influence.
What I’ve come to believe—through research and personal experience—is that your sleep anomalies may not just be about you. After many years of ‘coincidences’ and even a personal telepathic experience, I have come to the strong-held belief that we are invisibly connected with our loved ones.
While this is a theory I explore in great depth in one of my other books (as such experiences have changed me), the simple idea is that familial and romantic bonds are legitimate inter-human connections that—for better or worse—have the potential to synchronise us on some level.
The takeaway? Sleep is not a solitary ritual; it’s part of a living, breathing network of minds and hearts finding synchronisation and connection with one another. Even if we cannot rationally explain it, we may be more connected to the inner worlds of those we love than science has yet measured. So, even in doubt, try to support the sleep of friends and family as well as your own. Avoid late-night dramas, protect the integrity of your romantic connections, and, when possible, try to encourage consistent sleep patterns within your ‘tribe’. Whether due to shared routines, subtle emotional resonance, or something not yet understood, our sleep experiences may be more entangled than we realise.
[As an afternote, I invite you to experiment with this. Keep watchful of coincidences and synchronicities with people—even for fun. Sleep-influencing or not, are there more to your relationships than meet the eye?]
[i] Sharing sleep patterns with friends and family:
[ii] How telepathy investigations gave birth to modern neuroscience:
[iii] The Telepathy Tapes: parapsychological abilities in autistic individuals:
[iv] The Global Consciousness Project:
[v] Rupert Sheldrake’s research on telepathic phenomena:
[vi] A meta-analysis of ‘telephone telepathy’ studies:
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