Sleep Paralysis Research Paper

Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder caused by the brain's inability to regulate sleep-wake cycles normally. At various times throughout the day, people with narcolepsy experience fleeting urges to sleep. If the urge becomes overwhelming, individuals will fall asleep for periods lasting from a few seconds to several minutes. In rare cases, some people may remain asleep for an hour or longer. In addition to excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), three other major symptoms frequently characterize narcolepsy: cataplexy, or the sudden loss of voluntary muscle tone; vivid hallucinations during sleep onset or upon awakening; and brief episodes of total paralysis at the beginning or end of sleep. Narcolepsy is not

People with narcolepsy do not spend a greater amount of time asleep compared to normal sleepers. Actually, individuals with this disorder experience poor sleep quality that involves waking up in the middle of the night, daytime drowsiness, and uncontrollable sleep episodes. For normal sleepers, a night’s sleep last about eight hours, composed of four to six separate sleep cycles, and each cycle is about 100 to 110 minutes long. REM sleep starts after 80 to 100 minutes. People with narcolepsy enter the REM sleep within a few minutes of falling asleep.

Credibility Statement: Having a sleep disorder, myself, I know how important it is to get the recommended sleep each night. According to Alina Bradford in the article "Sleep Paralysis: Causes, Symptoms & Treatment"(2017), Sleep Paralysis is described as the inability to move or speak immediately after waking up.

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

According to MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, the common symptoms of narcolepsy are periods of extreme drowsiness during the day (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). People with narcolepsy feel a strong desire to sleep, usually followed by a short nap. The sleep attacks last about fifteen minutes but can be longer. Often times, these sleep attacks happen after eating, during driving, and other everyday tasks. After a short nap, a person usually wakes up feeling refreshed and energized. As stated by Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia, “Another symptom is dream-like hallucinations between sleep and wakefulness” (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). This is when a person experiences seeing or hearing right before they fall asleep. Sleep paralysis and cataplexy are also common symptoms of narcolepsy (MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia). Sleep paralysis is not being able to move as you are falling asleep or upon waking up. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, it usually goes unnoticed because it occurs during REM sleep (NINDS). REM sleep is rapid eye movement sleep. It occurs in breaks when rapid eye movements occur along with bodily movement. Similarly, cataplexy is a sudden loss of mobility. This is also associated with strong emotion like laughter or anger, which can trigger cataplexy

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).

You’re lying on the bed, and you’re almost falling asleep. Suddenly, you have a feeling of falling from the rooftop of a skyscraper straight to the ground, and your legs twitch. We are familiar with this felling because we all have the experience during our sleep sometimes. Hypnic jerk, which is also known as sleep twitch, is not a sleep disorder; instead, it is a common and natural body reaction in sleep hours. “with some research suggesting that 60 to 70 percent of people experience them” (Castro). Although psychologists and scientists still don’t discover the exact causes of hypnic jerk, they have already proposed some hypothesis about how hypnic jerk occur during sleep.

Sleep paralysis on the other hand is something which is not as scary for me as it is for people since I learned to escape them very early.

What is sleep paralysis? Well, sleep paralysis is the horrifying circumstance when your body is essentially disconnected from your brain. During this time period, you are unable to move any of your body parts, yet, you are conscious and able to understand

12 "Sleep Paralysis." 6 The Lancet, 341.8842 (1993): 406-407. Ness, R C. 4 "The Old Hag Phenomenon as Sleep Paralysis: A Biocultural Interpretation." Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 2.1 (1978): 15-39.

Sleep paralysis is the inability to move or speak while asleep or upon waking (sleepeducation). One out of two thousand Americans are affected by Sleep Paralysis (sleepeducation). Two types of sleep paralysis exist but, are in four categories, the first two are hypnagogic and predormital these occur when a person is falling asleep and remains aware of his or her surroundings (sleepeducation). The second two are hypnopompic and postdormital these occur when a person is awakening (sleepeducation). Most people do not require treatment for sleep paralysis (sleepeducation). Scientist has stated that no medical risk exists when it comes to experiencing sleep paralysis (sleepeducation).

Parasomnia refers to a wide variety of disruptive, sleep-related events or, "disorders of arousal." These behaviors and experiences occur usually while sleeping, and most are often infrequent and mild. They may however happen often enough to become so bothersome that medical attention should be sought out. "Parasomnias are disorders characterized by abnormal behavior or physiological events occurring in association with sleep stages, or sleep-wake transitions."(DSM pg. 435)

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

Sleepwalking occurs during stages 3 and 4 of the sleep cycle, the deepest levels of sleep. This slow-wave sleep is normally characterized by synchronized EEG activity (4). This indicates that mental activity is very low during these stages of sleep. However researchers have shown that the EEG of a sleepwalker has diffuse, rhythmic, high-voltage bursts of delta activity associated with abrupt motor activity (1). This is very different from the EEG activity normally associated with slow-wave sleep. In addition to the EEG results, they found that there is a decrease in regional cerebral blood flow in the frontopariental cortices during sleepwalking (1). This indicates that sleepwalking is a dissociated state consisting of motor arousal and persisting mind sleep, which seems to arise from the selective activation of thalamocingulate circuits and the persisting inhibition of other thalamocortical arousal systems (3).

Sleepwalking is a sleep disorder effecting an estimated 10 percent of all humans at least once in their lives (1). This widespread phenomenon varies in its intensity and frequency. While most sleepwalking incidents are short and not dangerous, some can involve self-injury and are much more dangerous for the sleeper. Also, most interestingly, the disorder seems to stem from many different sources, not from one definable cause such as a chemical imbalance. While it is predominantly pre-adolescents who suffer from somnambulism, it is also observed in adults, although the frequency and severity of incidents increase with age. The source of the disorder was once thought to be entirely psychological and an extension of