Sleep Paralysis: The Four Categories Of Sleep

Did you ever awaken and find yourself unable to move? Perhaps you sensed a presence in your room or a pressure on your chest. This is sleep paralysis. It is a common disorder that affects millions of people. Most believe it occurs as we are on the edge of REM sleep. The disorder has been connected with such hallucinogenic events such as alien abduction or an evil presence. Sleep paralysis is an inability to move or speak, occasionally accompanied by hallucinations, for up to several minutes upon awakening or just before falling asleep.

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

Fear comes in all shapes and forms, be it a natural disaster, paranormal event, or a dangerous situation, it never fails to give us chills. When i was younger, i had a very scary event happen to me. It was a rainy and windy night and I was facetiming a friend, and she had just told me that there was a man looking into my front door windows, and when i looked up i saw that there was indeed a man in the window. I ran to my mom’s room, she called the sheriff and after they looked around and came back to us, they showed us a picture. The picture was of an outline of a pair of shoes (on our driveway) that were completely dry, even when rain poured on them.

One of the very first reported cases of Cotard's Delusion was discovered by man named Charlie Bonnet in 1788. An elderly woman thought she was dead after being paralyzed on one side of her body. She forced her daughters and maids to treat her as if she was dead. Approximately 100 years after the report, Jules Cotard, a French neurologist, was greeted by a patient with a strange complaint. The patient was Mademoiselle X, and she claimed to have "no brain, no nerves, no chest, no stomach, and no intestines." Even with this difficulty, the woman claimed she was immortal and thought that she didn’t need to eat. Obviously, she died of starvation. Cotard's description of Mademoiselle became wildly known, and the syndrome was later named after him. He first described it as "delire des negation" or negative deliriums.

After their trials, the authors concluded in their article “Attention Deficits in Patients with Narcolepsy,” that due to the loss of REM sleep that narcolepsy causes, individual often times tolerate periods of times of lessoned attention, alertness and memory, and this can create various problems in their regular routine, specifically as in their education, work, or personal relationships (Rieger et.al., 2003). Other physical symptoms that characterize narcolepsy are cataplexy and sleep paralysis. These physical symptoms are depicted in the article “What are the Symptoms?” Cataplexy is a brief attack of muscle weakness where an individual is unable to freely control one’s own muscles (“What are the Symptoms?” 2010). The most severe case of cataplexy results in complete loss of control of a voluntary muscle, in which that person is unable to move, speak, or even open one’s eyes (“What are the Symptoms?” 2010). Sleep paralysis also affects one’s ability to move and speak when falling asleep, and like cataplexy, sleep paralysis occurs when the person is completely conscious of what is happening (“What are the Symptoms?” 2010). These two physical symptoms that might come along with the

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

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

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

35). He also goes on to say, "[parasomnias] are by definition occult, because they appear when most people are unable to witness them" (p. 35). Other parasomnias that are better known than NSRED include sleepwalking and sleep terrors. Parasomnias such as these are extremely common in children ages 4 to 12. In fact, they are so common that they are considered normal behavior (Brown, 2002). Parasomnias, NSRED included, can cause self-injuries and lack of self-control while in a subconscious state (Idikowski, 2001).

One of the most fascinating natural occurrences known to science is something everyone's body requires them to do, this strange phenomenon is sleep. Sleep is not fully understood by anyone, there are too many variables and unanswered questions to discover what sleep is for and why the human body stresses sleeping so much. Dreams are just as undiscovered as sleep. There are many observations made about dreams and what parts of the brain are utilized during these inter-sleep hallucinations. But like sleep, there is no official reason or meaning behind it. Sleep and dreams, although strange and without apparent purpose, reveal many things about an individual, his or her habits, and potentially innermost subconscious thoughts.

This is sleep paralysis. A phenomenon where a person awakens from sleep to find that they are unable to move or speak. It often occurs during transitions from REM sleep, a paradoxical sleep stage where vivid dreams are coupled with complete muscle paralysis, to inhibit the body from acting out dreams.

Imagine sitting in your bedroom and seeing someone that is not really in your room. This may sound crazy, but this could be just a normal day for a general schizophrenic. Before I started researching schizophrenia, I knew some details about the mental disorder. For example, I knew that it involved hallucinations and that it was a psychotic disorder. However, in addition to facts, I also was under many assumptions about the disease that were in fact myths. For instance, I thought that most schizophrenics are considered insane and usually spend their lives in a mental institution; however, I discovered that most schizophrenics are just everyday people. I learned all of this important information as I began researching schizophrenia. It was very difficult to choose my topic; I considered researching the history of Disney World, Sleep Paralysis, or Dreaming. But after reading the page about schizophrenia in The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, I was instantly hooked on the topic. I was very interested and wanted to learn more about the topic; specifically, how schizophrenia impacts the individual. Overall, I believe that my most helpful source of information was Laura Sanders, a schizophrenia expert, who emailed me giving me information on the immune system’s connection to schizophrenia. Although along the way I had several switches to my thesis, research question, outline, and main points, I am extremely satisfied with the outcome of my research.

Sleep disorders have always surrounded me through family and friends. though I never suffered with any sort of sleeping disorder, I was well aware of how unnerving it can be toothless who suffer from it. I did not know all of the different types there were, and was intrigued when reading chapter three of my psychology book. I had assumed that nigh terrors, which I used to think were the same as nightmares, were over exaggerations of a person’s scary dream. Sleepwalking also held interesting facts that I didn’t know prior. Having a best friend who occasionally sleepwalks, I was always interested in why she would seldom remember both walking and talking. I also appreciated learning about sleep apnea because my father used to struggle with it and would worry my mom about his breathing when he was asleep.

In 1782, a painting debuted that shocked a lot of people and critics. This painting was The Nightmare, created by Henry Fuseli the year before. The painting is of a woman lying down, slightly hanging off a sofa, in a deep sleep. On her chest is what appears to be an imp, and behind the curtains, a demonic horse. Due to these things, many people found this painting to be dreary and frightening. Three of the things helping even more to contribute to the thoughts people had about the painting are the mix of dark and light, the morbidity, and drama.

Night terrors, nightmares, and sleepwalking are all cases that fall into sleep disorders called parasomnias. Parasomnias are disruptive sleep disorders that can occur during arousal from either rapid eye movement or even non-rapid eye movement. Children from the age’s four to twelve of ages experience night terrors.