A Dream Cycle The Dreamer

Also known as night terrors, these episodes are often paired with other prarsomnias, such as sleepwalking. A Parasomnia is an undesired occurrence during sleep, such as sleep talking, sleep walking, and night terrors. During these sleep terror episodes, an individual might kick and thrash around while still unconscious, stare wide eyed, scream or shout, and so on. Night terrors are said to be able to occur for a period of up to 30 minutes, once about that much time has passed, the person will once again lye down and go to sleep. Once the next day comes around the corner, usually the child or adult will not have any recollection of the event, but they at times remember small fragments of the

The article “In the Dreamscape of Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream at All”, written by Natalie Angier, introduces various types of insight on nightmares and the reasons behind why they occur. Nightmares are dreams, able to jolt you awake. Although few suffer from nightmares so terrifying that help is sought, dreams are a universal human experience. A majority of our dreamlike states are spent negatively. As a result, numerous people have studied dreams and discovered that there may be reasons behind the existence of nightmares and dreams overall.

Clinically sleep paralysis "consists of a period of inability to perform voluntary movements either at sleep onset (hypnagogic or predormital form) or upon awakening either during the night or in the morning (hypnopompic or postdormital form)." (American Sleep Disorders Association, 1990, p.162).

The probable diagnosis for this man’s condition is narcolepsy, a neurological brain disorder that causes malfunctioning in the brain’s ability to regulate the sleep/wake cycle. Cataplexy, an abrupt loss of the voluntary muscle tone; vivid sleep or wake hallucination and episodes of paralysis while asleep are symptoms that characterized narcolepsy (Brandt, Frey & Laberge, 2012).

Some signs of cataplexy are slurred speech, weakness of muscles, and intense emotions. Cataplexy effects muscle tone while awake, effects part or all of your body, may make your head nod, ,may be hard to speak, falling (weakening at the knees), and strong emotions. During this time, you're usually awake. In addition, hallucinations are another symptom pointing towards the condition narcolepsy. These hallucinations are called hypnologic hallucinations. Due to the fact that you may be awake when you're dreaming, these dreams may seem like reality or may be nightmares. Some signs of having a hallucination are vivid dreams when falling asleep, waking up, dozing, and life-like dreams. Finally, sleep paralysis is a symptom of narcolepsy. Sleep paralysis prevents you from moving or speaking while falling asleep and waking up. During this period you are fully conscious. Some signs you have sleep paralysis is you don't sleep well at night, you have trouble falling and staying asleep, nightmares interrupt sleep, having difficulty finishing daily tasks, and being hyperactive.

Sleep paralysis is most common in those who have narcolepsy. Some have sleep tests done, in order to find possible sleep disorders one may have, like sleep

Narcolepsy is a permanent sleep disorder that gets worse with age. It is estimated that about 40,000 to 135,000 people in the United States have narcolepsy. (Narcolepsy, 2002). Most people who have narcolepsy are often times misdiagnosed because the symptoms, especially if noticed at the beginning stages, are very similar to other sleep disorders. Some of the symptoms that go along with narcolepsy are excessive sleepiness, especially during the daytime or when sleep is inappropriate, cataplexy which is when a person suddenly looses control of their muscles, sleep paralysis which is when the person is unable to move for a short period of time after they wake up from sleep, and hypnagogic hallucinations which is very

Automatic behavior refers to the phenomenon when patients behave without conscious awareness during microsleep episodes. For example, a patient could be conversing with someone and slip in a microsleep episode. The patient would trail off in the middle of their sentence and start a completely new topic, unrelated to what they were initially talking about. Cataplexy is arguably the most important symptom of Narcolepsy as it indicates the cause of Narcolepsy. Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone and is often mistaken for a seizure. A trigger for an episode of cataplexy is any strong enough emotion such as laughter, fear, sadness, or happiness. An interesting fact to note is that a certain group of neurons in the brainstem which halt muscle activity during REM sleep become inactive during cataplectic attacks. Sleep paralysis is something that everybody experiences on a daily basis while asleep but narcoleptics experience sleep paralysis before falling asleep and after waking up. Some narcoleptics also experience hallucinations that may accompany sleep paralysis. These hallucinations are usually vivid,

The scientific explanation of sleep paralysis and it’s ties to REM sleep is not sufficient in understanding the horror that has surrounded sleep paralysis since it’s inception. My research has shown that sleep paralysis is directly connected to nightmares and incubuses. As we have learned an incubus is a sleep demon that causes immobility and folklore reaffirms this belief. Another word for sleep paralysis is “old hag syndrome”, a “superstitious belief that a witch - or an ‘old hag’ sits on the chest of the victim, rendering them immobile” the folklore surrounding old hag syndrome contributes to the connotation of terror and shows how sleep paralysis was previously explained before the scientific definition. The causes of old hag syndrome also reflect the morals and beliefs of the people at that time. In Irish folklore there are “storm hags”, they are suppose to personify the elements, specifically when the elements are ruinous. The changing of seasons indicate when the storm hags will arrive and these hags impact famers by immobilizing them rendering them useless. Here we can see that sleep paralysis is intertwined with the fears of Irish culture which would be famine and a poor harvest. Sleep paralysis can also adopt

Sleep paralysis is a common condition with a prevalence of 5-62%, although most affected people have single or infrequent episodes (Dahlitz). Occasionally sleep paralysis is found to run in a family, and it can be associated with other disorders of hypersomnia, such as sleep apnea (Becker 81). Narcolepsy has also been linked with sleep paralysis; both are thought to be REM sleep disorders (Siegel). Gender and race do not seem to be a factor of risk for this disorder. The episodes of sleep paralysis seem to range from ages 5-35 (Dahlitz). The use of anxiolytic medicines, psychiatric disorders and high anxiety can also contribute to sleep paralysis (Larkin).

paralysis. During an event of sleep paralysis the person is unable to speak, move their arms and

Mark Mahowald and Carlos Schneck first discovered Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder in 1985 (“REM Behavior Disorder and Sleep”). People with this disorder can injure themselves or the people they sleep with while asleep (“Diseases and Conditions”). But when taking a nap, these people can sleep with others because they do not dream while taking naps (“REM Sleep Behavior Disorder-Overview & Facts”). They cannot dream until an hour and a half or so into their sleep (“What is REM Sleep Disorder?”).

Most parasomnias are genetic and can affect people of all ages, though children are more prone to it. For infants to children up to the age of twelve causes could be anything from sleep loss, fever, or anxiety. Some adults who develop somnambulism later on in life credit their sleepwalking to a mental disorder, drugs, alcohol, and even prescription medication. It is important to know there things because many Americans may be at risk and most of the causes are things we engage in ourselves. We all take some sort of medication and we all know at least one child who would much rather stay up then go to sleep at a reasonable

Did you know your eyes move when you dream? Dream are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur when you are in the REM phase, rapid eye movement, of sleep. An average person has five to seven dreams per night, they range from a couple of seconds to 20 minutes. Almost all of the dreams occur during the REM stage, and the dreams that occur in the REM stage are usually the most vivid. Dreams are an important part of your sleep, what causes them and what part of the sleep cycle they occur in are also

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTST), fatigue, heavy physical activity, extreme changes in physical activity, jetlag and other stress-related conditions may bring about sleep paralysis due to the disturbance of sleep cycles. Some researchers have also reported a link between childhood sexual abuse and sleep paralysis. Numerous researches have also been done linking final stages of pregnancy to sleep paralysis.