What is sleep paralysis?

 People often experience a frightening episode of hallucinations of paralysis during sleep. Sleep paralysis is a temporary condition in which a person is in consciousness during sleep but unable to perform voluntary actions like muscle movement and speech. A person can experience sleep paralysis when he is falling asleep or about to wake up. In the simplest sense, you feel like the creepy and frightening stuff is going on around you but you are frozen and unable to respond to it. Some people think they are responding by shouting, getting up, and moving their body parts but they are in fact immobilized.

Duration of sleep paralysis:

Now males and females are equally affected by sleep paralysis. Typically, the first incidence of sleep paralysis is in the teen years but people of every age are affected by it. This condition of being frozen and feeling threatened lasts less than minutes, usually no longer than two-three minutes. The incidence of attack can be in a single episode or possibly recurrent. 

Percentage of people suffering from sleep paralysis:

            • 4 out of 10 people have experienced sleep paralysis.

            • Generally 8% of the total population, 28% of students, and 32% of psychiatric patients are suffering from this condition. 

Basic reasons for sleep paralysis:

·        One of the reasons is hallucinations. The hallucinations signify the sensation of demons in the bedrooms, some evil presence around you, a demon spirit. The feeling of hands around your neck, someone suffocating your breath, and putting pressure on your chest.

·     Sleep paralysis can be due to other sleeping disorders like narcolepsy. In narcolepsy, the order of sleep and wakefulness cycle is disturbed, thus resulting in excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden uncontrollable sleep attacks.

      Condition of a person during sleep paralysis:

Sleep paralysis usually occurs when a person is falling asleep. The second time for occurrence is when a person is waking up from sleep. When you are falling asleep, your body is in a calm and relaxed state and you are unaware of your surroundings. During the onset of sleep, when you become unaware of your surroundings you may notice that you cannot perform voluntary actions like moving your body and opening your eyes. 

The physiological reason for sleep paralysis:

Here, I mention the physiological reason that during sleep, your body alternates between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (nonrapid eye movement). A single cycle of REM and NREM lasts for 90 minutes. Most of our dreaming occurs during the second half cycle along with rapid eye movement. Your muscles are intentionally paralyzed in this duration, so you cannot move your body in response to any hallucinations or horror dreams. The brain gives directions to the voluntary muscles to act paralyzed. It helps the body to stay calm during vivid dreams. So, we cannot do crazy stuff in response to them. Otherwise, we would likely end up harming ourselves. Thus, this restricted movement of muscles gives us physical relaxation but we suffer from mental torture during sleep paralysis. 

If you ever feel that you are suffering from these types of restricted movements and something scaring you, don't be upset and seek medical care as soon as possible.

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