What Is Sleep Paralysis?

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

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.

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.

Narcolepsy is a chronic brain disorder that causes a person to fall asleep at any time of the day. It also affects a person’s sleep habits at night. They tend to wake more often during nighttime sleep. A normal person sleeps for about 8 hours and enters non-rapid eye movement sleep, and then transitions into rapid eye movement sleep. A narcoleptic person enters rapid eye movement sleep within a few minutes of falling asleep. Narcolepsy can occur during daily activities such as when a person is driving, talking, playing a game, eating, or at work or school. Narcolepsy is caused by low levels of the neurotransmitter hypocretin. A person is diagnosed with narcolepsy with a clinical examination and exhaustive medical history. There is not a cure

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

Dreams during REM sleep are usually more vivid, detailed, longer, and are way more bizarre than those in non-REM sleep. Nightmares only occur during REM sleep, as night terrors only occur in non-REM sleep. While dreaming in the REM sleep cycle, the voluntary muscles in the body become paralyzed, this is called sleep paralysis. This is why you might not be able to run or move during some of your dreams in the REM sleep cycle. Sometimes this sleep paralysis affects people’s breathing while they sleep, which in result, causes them to snore and have other breathing problems. Some people suffer from REM behavior disorder, which is a rare disorder in which the brain mechanisms that inhibit voluntary muscles fails. This allows the person to get up and act out their nightmares.

Sleep paralysis is being associated as a side effect with REM sleep abnormalities and sleep disorders, although not all people with such disorders experience sleep paralysis. In the podcast “Peeranormal Episode 06: Sleep Paralysis”, Dr. Michael S. Heiser and co-hosts convince the audience of this through the use of topic specific research cited from several articles, discussing their own opinions, and each co-hosts' personal stories of sleep paralysis.

There are many commands the brain gives out and sometimes those commands get a tad bit confused. Sleep paralysis is mostly due to the mind confusing the sleep cycles and over relaxation in the muscles. During sleep we pass through five stages of sleep, which involve the REM Cycles. During Stage one, we drift in and out of sleep and can easily be awakened. When we are in stage one our eyes slowly move behind our eyelids and our muscle activity starts to slow down. This is where we get that slight feeling where it’s like were falling and often see fragmented visuals. We often experience muscle contraction known as hypnic myoclonia, which is periodic limb movement disorder. Hypnic Myoclonis is a type of sleep disorder as well, it is rhythmic movement of the limbs during sleep. It can last anywhere from a few minutes to several hours whenever they are clustered into episodes. Hypnic Myoclonia are very common that it has become normal for a person to have them. These sudden movements are common to what we feel when someone scares us. When we move into stage two our brain

Narcolepsy is characterized my overwhelming sleep attacks, often, although not always, attributed to brain trauma. On the other hand, insomnia is characterized by the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep at night. Another sleep-related condition, sleep apnea, is the temporary stopping of breathing while one is asleep. An example of a very noticeable condition, night terrors are very common in certain demographics; children under age seven often express the screaming and thrashing behavior associated with this condition. These tremors often occur during NREM-3, whereas nightmares ordinarily occur during REM.

During sleep research, psychologists observed changes in people as they slept. Different eye movements were observed. During a certain stage of sleep a person’s eye suddenly began to move rapidly back and forth when people were awakened during rapid eye movement or REM they mentioned they were dreaming. Even though our eyes move during dream sleep our muscles become paralyzed during this stage. Which prevent us from moving other areas of our body such as legs, arms. Consciousness is different levels of awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings. We enter an altered state of consciousness every night when we go to sleep. Sleep consists of five different stages that involve different levels of awareness, consciousness and

Sleep paralysis is the condition when you become completely conscious during your sleep, but you can not move, and you feel extremely vulnerable. When you experience this it can cause your anxiety levels to shoot up through the roof. Because when you have sleep paralysis

Narcolepsy, is a chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness. People that have narcolepsy experience periods of extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden, irresistible bouts of sleep that can strike at any time. These “sleep attacks” usually last a few seconds up to several minutes. Narcolepsy can really affect daily activities and keep the person from functioning like normal during the day. People that have this disorder, may fall asleep while at work or at school, when having a conversation, playing a game, eating a meal, or, most dangerously, when driving or operating other types of machinery. In addition to, “daytime sleepiness, other major symptoms may include cataplexy (a sudden loss of voluntary muscle tone while awake that makes a person go limp or unable to move), vivid dream-like images or hallucinations, as well as total paralysis just before falling asleep or just after

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.