Sleep Paralysis In College Students

PSQI, a 19-item tool, assessed self-rated sleep quality measures over the prior month, and with a score of 5 or greater associated with poor sleep. ESS, an 8-item self-rated questionnaire, evaluated the impact of subjective perceived sleepiness on daily functioning in eight different environments with a score of 9 or greater being associated with a burden of day-time sleepiness. ISI, a 7-item tool, identified the presence, rated the severity and described the impact of insomnia with a score of 10 or greater identified as positive for

Sleep disturbances were measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, a 17 question questionnaire that allowed the participants to self assess their sleep qualities (Taylor et al., 2015). According to the study (Taylor et al., 2015) phenotypic analyses resulted in “Paranoia, Hallucinations, and Cognitive Disorganization displayed moderate, significant correlations with both sleep measures. Negative Symptoms and Anhedonia correlated less strongly, while Grandiosity did not show significant correlations” (p.677). The study found that hallucinations and paranoia compared to cognitive disorganization had a positive correlation with sleep disturbances (Taylor et al.,

Imagine waking up only to find that you are unable to move anything but your eyes, you sense something lurking in the darkness and open your mouth to scream. You try moving around to escape whatever it is hiding in the dark but you can’t. You can’t move at all. And then you wake up only to find it was all a dream. This bizarre phenomenon is known as sleep paralysis. It is unknown how much of the population it affects as there have been many differences in survey methods but it is estimated to be anywhere between 5 and 60 percent.

I know that personally, I take sleep for granted. Having the ability to lie down after a long day and close my eyes, knowing that in the morning I will wake feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, is something that I haven’t really thought twice about. From reading this chapter, I have learned that many individuals are not so lucky. Sleep-wake disorders can affect a person’s life in tremendous ways. This broad category is broken down into two more specific categories – Dyssomnias and Parasomnias.

The sleeping disorder called Narcolepsy is defined as a neurological condition marked by uncontrollable sleep attacks, excessive daytime sleepiness, and cataplexy ( an abrupt loss of muscle tone) (Brandt and Laberge). It is the second most leading cause of daytime sleepiness and is a chronic brain disorder (Brandt and Laberge). The disorder affects over 200,000 Americans and is recognized when the individual experiences a sudden, uncontrollable need to sleep at any moment (“Sleep and Sleep Disorders”). Narcolepsy can occur in people who are born with it but most often seen sporadically. There are other factors that can cause the disorder like an infection, immune system deficiencies, stress, and change in hormones (Brandt and Laberge). Symptoms

Less than 8 percent of the general population suffers from sleep paralysis, adding up to be approximately 25,898,400 people. Sleep Paralysis is when an individual is becomes fully conscious while falling asleep, experiencing the temporary inability to move or speak while falling asleep. Even though sleep paralysis sounds unnatural it is not classified as a psychological disorder, but as a phenomenon. While it might sound terrifying adding to the fact hallucinations are typically involved, it is surprisingly harmless to an individual 's mind and body. In some cases it even terrifies people to an extent, that makes them believe they are being haunted or have been cursed by a demon. However, in most scenarios this is not the case. It has been regarded that sleep paralysis is a symptom to psychological disorders such as narcolepsy. Furthermore, in recent studies psychologists, and scientists have not taken the time to do further study on sleep paralysis itself. Even when it is such a normal occurrence in the world of science today. Moreover, to find further research on the topic, judging whether this content should be further studied.

Psychology 101 has been an eye opening course and has further anchored my reasoning behind why I chose to be a Psychology major this past fall. After being asked to talk about two topics in which apply to my daily life, I chose two topics that are negative in some contexts, but to me, recognizing their existence in my life helps with the process of dealing with them and getting better. The first topic that I see in my own daily life is the concept of “Sleep” in which we talked about in Chapter 3, specifically sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy as defined in our text, Exploring Psychology by David Myers, is “sudden attacks of overwhelming sleepiness,

Levin show nightmares in relation to sleep paralysis are a result of consequences from variations in emotional pressures and stress. Nightmares are very frightening experiences that disturb sleep leaving the dreamer in a high state of emotional discomfort and terrifying arousal. The dreamer also experiences negative thoughts within the brain, elevated cardiac respiratory rates, panic attacks, and sweating due to the fact that they are unable to control their dreams. Just like nightmares, those who have experienced sleep paralysis report feeling an increase of heart rate and a very high sense of fear. Bed times and body positions also affect sleep paralysis. There was a study done by Dr. Cheyne in 2006 and the objective was to determine the distribution of sleep paralysis occurring naturally in relationship to their bedtime. Participants responded to an online questionnaire following each episode of sleep paralysis over a twelve month period and they found that a little over half the participant reported consistency in the timing. Overall, sleep paralysis episodes were reported to occur throughout the night within the first two hours of

Sleep Paralysis is a rare type of sleeping disorder that not many people experience. There are many people are unfamiliar with sleep paralysis and when a person experiences it for the first time they mainly look to the supernatural. There are many scientists who are looking into the science of this sleeping disorder and still have yet to discover the main cause of sleep paralysis. So far, the main explanation for sleep paralysis is that your brain and body aren’t on the same cycle, thus causing the hallucinations. This paper will explain how the science of sleep paralysis is more plausible than the supernatural stories people tend to believe.

Munezawa, Takeshi, et al argued that lifestyle choices have an effect on nightmares and sleep paralysis prevalence within a population. A total of 90,091 self-reported anonymous surveys were collected from high school junior and seniors throughout Japan. The overall response rate was 62.6 % and a total of 35.2% reported they had nightmare and 8% reported sleep paralysis episodes. The results of this experiment showed that there was a correlation between nightmares and sleep paralysis. Significant associations were also found between specific lifestyle choices and these sleep abnormalities. Results show that alcohol use, poor mental health, daytime sleepiness all had positive correlations with nightmares and sleep paralysis. The study was able to conclude that lifestyle choices and the prevalence of nightmares along with sleep paralysis had a positive association (Munezawa, Takeshi, et al,

Many individuals try their hardest not to sleep at night just so they wouldn’t experience this issue. It is very unhealthy but the paralysis is so frightening, they would rather not sleep.

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night unable to move or speak, to make it worse, imagine being visited by a witch,alien,or demon while that happens. This frightening phenomenon is called sleep paralysis which can last from one minute to an hour. Although it’s not common to experience sleep paralysis, it’s certainly not rare. In other words, it could happen only once, or a numerous amount of times throughout your life. After having a first-hand experience of this, I’ve researched the signs and symptoms, what it is and how it happens, and most importantly, how to prevent

Also, sleep paralysis is also a likely result of fear in the subject as well. Fear would cause the subject to think about the fear at night, which in turn would trigger nightmares and sleep paralysis. Sharpless, B. A., McCarthy, K. S., Chambless, D. L., Milrod, B. L., Khalsa, S., & Barber, J. P conducted experiments on patients to study the role of fear in patients in 2010. They coined the term FISP, fearful isolated sleep paralysis, to describe the phenomenon (Sharpless et al, 2010). They tested 133 subjects collected the results, in which 12.8% met the criteria of FISP (Sharpless et al, 2010). Although a small percentage, it is a contributing factor of sleep

Sleep paralysis has become a common sleep disorder over the years. Not only is it terrifying, it can stay in the back of your mind when it becomes time for you to go to sleep and cause you to have worries about it that night might prevent you from going to sleep.

Many people in today’s society and in past societies have experienced sleep paralysis. It can be seen in art, books, and even videos. People today tell their stories and how it feels to experience sleep paralysis in documentaries, but before any technology came out, people would describe their experiences in writing or drawings. Sleep paralysis is not dangerous, but it can be quite horrific. When one experiences sleep paralysis, they are unable to move any part of their body, the only body part one is able to move is their eyes, and during sleep paralysis, the person still continues to breath. Sleep paralysis is caused by the natural sleep cycle, which causes many people to have it, but ones with certain health problems have a higher chance