Sometimes you wake up and you actually feel like there is someone in the room or you even hear voices. The problem is that when you try to get up, you will feel a great pressure holding you down, and when you try to speak, nothing ever comes out. In many parts of the world, people get to believe that they were pressed by spirits, but according to science, it is nothing more than sleep paralysis.
There are many other things that can be associated with your sleep including nightmare, sleepwalking, sleep talking, and a whole lot more. While most of these are creepy, hanging somewhere between life and death, sleeping and being awake, as you get with this paralysis is likewise really creepy most especially when it comes with hallucination.
Here are some sleep paralysis facts you should know:
1. What happens?
In a very simple explanation, science believes that what happens when you experience sleep paralysis is that you wake up when your brain is still having a dream but all your muscles are yet to turn on. The problem then, is that you get to wake up before this what is known as the rapid eye movement (REM) is completed and because of that, there is no way for you to get out of bed.
This very scary experience which has been distanced from any supernatural influence is believed to be a dream that you are trying to act in but your mind is only partly awake as such, it cannot be a part as you struggle to get up.
2. Sleep paralysis is not common
Even though there are people who continuously have this paralysis, it is not as common as we may want to believe it is, but that is in Europe. According to a survey carried out there that had as much as over 8,000 people participating, it returned that only 6.2% of the participants have ever encountered it.
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Among these people, less than a percent experience it each day, while there are those that experience it each week, each month, or less frequently.
3. More frequent among people with mental disorder
Just as previously stated, the fact that you experience sleep paralysis doesn’t mean you have a mental disorder as it happens to people randomly. The thing though is that it is more popular among people with mental disorder and among those that take anxiety medication. Also, it is common among people that have depression. It is also common among people that suffer Attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (AHD) as bipolar disorder.
Even though there is less than 10% of people that experience sleep paralysis, a finding by the Pennsylvania State University, over 30% of people with mental disorder suffer from it.
4. When it happens
Sleep paralysis mostly happens when one is trying to wake up after sleep, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot happen when one is trying to fall asleep. ‘Hypnagogic’ sleep paralysis is used to refer to it when it happens to you when you are going to sleep while it is called ‘hypnopompic’ sleep paralysis when you are waking up.
5. How to treat it
For some people, even when they experience this paralysis, they are able to move their fingers or toes, and they believe that it helps them to wake up. There are others that believe lying still is what gets them out of it. However, naturally, it only lasts a few seconds and you are out of it.
For people that experience it continuously, most have no treatment. The only thing to do is to control what has been causing it. Getting regular sleep and avoiding things like alcohol and night and other drugs including nicotine are said to help in controlling it.
6. Lasting up to an hour
There are instances where you can experience the paralysis that may even last for up to an hour. In such a situation, one may even experience an out of body experience in which you get to see yourself sleeping.
7. External Forces
There are many people that have always believed that there are external forces that cause this. One of such is those that are of the opinion that in such cases they get adopted by aliens or even that it is the devil riding on your back, and many others get the feeling that they would die. The tarrying and hallucinating experience have never come up with any evidence of killing someone. This is even though no one can be certain.
8. Sleeping Position
One of the things that are said to increase the chances of having this paralysis is your sleeping position. It is believed that the chances are much more for people that sleep on their backs than people who sleep sideways or in any other position. It doesn’t matter whether you are alone in the room or you are sleeping with someone on the bed, that doesn’t prevent the occurrence.
9. Links to sex
Some scientists in the 1940s have found a way of linking sleeping paralysis to sex. They believed that waking up and finding yourself unable to move is a way in which your body is fighting against homosexuality. The idea seems to be greatly an unclear subject with hardly any scientific basis as such modern science hasn’t given any thought to it.
10. Religion and Sleep Paralysis
While science has its broad theory on the phenomena, religion has also its say. What most religions believe is that there is the involvement of spirits and evil forces. Because of this, when it happens to either Christians, Muslims, Jews, or people of other religions, they struggle to say a prayer. One thing they all believe is that such prayers help.
11. Need to see a doctor?
Because it has been linked to things like sleeping pattern, mental disorder, and some form of drugs, it has been recommended that those who are continuously finding themselves suffering from this need to see their healthcare provider. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a sickness or a disorder in itself.
