Have you ever had such an experience: when you wake up, you could not move your body and speak through your brain was awake? Once this happened to you, don’t be afraid! It is a common sleep condition named sleep paralysis. What is sleep paralysis and how to stop sleep paralysis? This article will present some basic knowledge about sleep paralysis.
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What is sleep paralysis?
Sleep paralysis means to feel awake but unable to move the body. It occurs in the middle of the alternate process of being awake and asleep.
You may not be able to move or speak, and it may even be accompanied by loud noises, suffocation, and soul out.
The length of time might vary from tens of seconds to several minutes. Some people will feel pressure or even suffocation. It may occur simultaneously with other sleep disorder symptoms.
Why does sleep paralysis happen?
Let’s take pre-waking sleep paralysis as an example.
As shown in the figure below, there are levels of sleep depth during normal sleep, generally divided into 4 depths. Stage 1 refers to the lightest sleep level while stage 4 represents the deepest level.
As the figure suggests, part of light sleep 1 and 2 is in the rapid eye movement period (REM), and the rest of sleep stages lie in the non-rapid eye movement period (NREM). If you enter into the last REM, you will wake up at the end of it.
During the NREM period, the body is relaxed, and all parts of the body repair themselves.
During the REM period, most dreams may occur at this time while other parts of the body are still relaxed. The muscles are in the “off” state. If you wake up before the end of the muscle closure period, or the muscle closure period is delayed after waking up, you will find that you cannot move or speak.
As the following picture shows, the purple REM Atonia is the period of muscle shut down and the green means the awake state. The blue is the REM sleep period.
When the purple color exceeds the red line, paralysis will occur. If the muscle closure period stops at the red line, it means waking up normally. If it stops before the red line, sleep talking or even sleepwalking may occur.
Is sleep paralysis dangerous to people?
It is theorized that sleep paralysis is a protective mechanism during rest. People will not act out their dreams in reality, and the danger will be prevented.
It can also be speculated based on the rule of natural selection: those mammals lacking such protective mechanisms can not survive.
In ancient times, a sleepwalker who walked out of his cave at the midnight might be eaten by a wild animal. At present times, a sleepwalker sleeping in a bedroom with a window open may fall from the window while sleepwalking at night.
What are the classifications of sleep paralysis?
It could be classified by time as follows:
- Hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis. It occurs before going to bed.
- Sleep paralysis before waking. It happens before waking up.
According to the severity, it has the following two types:
- Common Sleep Paralysis. This type is common among people, which may make people feel nervous. Besides, it has a short duration which is about tens of seconds.
- Hallucinatory sleep paralysis. It is relatively rare, which usually occurs before going to bed. People may suffer from nightmares like hallucinations, and it can last up to 7/8 minutes.
What causes sleep paralysis?
- Lack of sleep, such as staying up late and jet lag.
- Sleep lying down. A study of 2002 found that when sleep paralysis occurred, 58% of the respondents were lying on the back (8% lying on the stomach and 17% sleeping on the side). People who sleep on the back are prone to experience sleep paralysis.
- Take medicine.
- Drink alcohol.
- Sleep interruption. In the experiment, the subjects were awakened when they entered REM sleep, and after a few times, the subjects would skip other sleep stages and directly enter REM. In the 184 times interrupted, sleep paralysis happened for 8 times.
- Sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea syndrome. If drowsiness, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations occur before going to bed during the day, then it is likely to be narcolepsy.
- Anxiety and depression. These two are closely related to sleep paralysis.
- Traumatic event. Patients with panic disorder and post-traumatic mental disorder (PTSD) are more likely to experience sleep paralysis.
How to stop sleep paralysis?
Most people do not need treatment. But for those with other underlying sleep-related symptoms such as narcolepsy, the following treatments may be helpful:
- Improve your sleeping habits, ensure 6-8 hours of sleep a day, avoid coffee at night, and change your sleeping position to lying on your side.
- Take antidepressants as prescribed by your doctor to normalize your sleep cycle.
- If it causes psychological problems, you need to consult a psychologist.
- Treat other sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy and leg cramps.
- Avoid compressing the heart, such as avoid putting your hands on your chest, or quilts that are too thick pressing your chest.
Note: If you feel unusual pain in a certain part of your body during sleep paralysis and don’t know how to stop sleep paralysis, you must be vigilant and go to the hospital to check the part. Because some hidden diseases will show up in the dream.
The following are the methods to get rid of sleep paralysis, please try it carefully:
- Don’t resist and let it be. If there is pressure on the chest, follow the pressure.
- Twist your fingers or toes.
- Twist your tongue.
- The eyes roll quickly.
- Hold your breath.
- Take a deep breath and inhale as much air as possible.
- Imagine a safe place or someone you love.
- Ask the person next to your pillow for help by saying “help me” but don’t shout. Coughing or changing the breathing rate can also prompt others.
- Twist as many facial muscles as possible. Laugh, or make funny faces. Try your best.
If you or your friends are often troubled by sleep paralysis and curious about how to stop sleep paralysis(especially those who travel frequently or work overtime), try to keep regular sleep as much as possible, which will help you relieve symptoms. If it happens again, don’t be too anxious. The body is healthy, and it just has some problems with sleep.
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