Every once in a while, you will notice posts on the internet complaining about strange, petrifying experiences involving all sorts of hallucinations and disturbances that take place during sleep. While some explain these as the intervention of supernatural beings, others simply regard it as another piece of nonsense floating on the internet. Scientists, however, refer to this peculiar phenomenon as sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis, the sense of being conscious yet unable to physically move, most commonly takes place as people move between the states of being asleep and awake. The experience is unique for everyone, with symptoms ranging from mild noises and physical pressure to vivid hallucinations, and frequency ranging from never to daily. However, despite the multitude of sleep paralysis cases, most share the common belief that such an experience is often unpleasant, if not horrifying.
Figure 1: A representation of how most people commonly perceive sleep paralysis
Source: Link
Going back as far as the 1st century BC, humans started noticing the existence of sleep paralysis and were terrified since the mid-classical antiquity period. Back then, people mainly identified and interpreted these phenomenons from heavily religious perspectives, often involving devils and angels. Proper distinctions between a nightmare and sleep paralysis had not even been made until the late middle ages. As a result, multiple countries developed cultural understandings of sleep paralysis as an event involving otherworldly figures that are relatively less religious, yet ones that are still far from realistic. For instance, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, and the Southern portions of the United States interpreted the experience as interactions with witches, while Egypt, Cambodia, Thailand, and China understood it as interactions with spirits.
Modern day scientists explain sleep paralysis as a type of sleep disorder that simply comes with great disparity among individuals. Being one the most frequent types of REM Parasomnia, the potential causes range from genetic inheritance, excessive stress, illnesses, erratic or unnatural sleep cycles, and much more. Sleep paralysis is essentially ‘caused’ by a specific chemical released by the body during sleep that prevents the individual from making big movements. This mechanism was intended to stop potential injuries from the individual physically responding to dreams. Following this line of logic, sleep paralysis simply takes place when one’s body remains immobile due to this chemical, while the mind wakes up a bit too early. Thankfully, unlike its terrifying descriptions, sleep paralysis does not necessarily have consequences. Other than the fact that some sleeping disorders have connections with sleep paralysis, such as how frequent sleep paralysis is one of the symptoms for narcolepsy, sleep paralysis by itself usually does not have lasting effects on healthy individuals.
The action of sleeping is arguably one of the longest and most crucial portions of our lives, yet is ironically also one of the most inactive, remote periods. As a result, sleep has been, and still remains to be, a mysterious field of study for scientists. While it is a well known fact that adequate amounts of sleep is crucial for humans to function properly both in terms of physical and mental aspects, scientists have yet to establish a complete understanding of the intricate and diverse causes and effects of sleep on humans.
Q&A Section
Jiwon: You mentioned REM Parasomnia in your article. I have heard of REM sleep before, but was unsure of the difference between the two. What exactly is REM Parasomnia?
REM Parasomnia is when an individual responds actively and violently to dreams during the REM stage of sleep. This could potentially be extremely dangerous as the body is free to move without having the consciousness control it.
John: What are the physiological consequences of experiencing sleep paralysis?
Other than the short feeling of immobility and potential hallucinations, there actually aren’t many lasting co
nsequences that are significant. However, this differs for everyone as some did state persisting headaches after going through sleep paralysis.
Sally: Is there any research on why our bodies cannot move during sleep paralysis?
Yes! The immobility results from the body releasing chemical signals that prevent us from making big movements during sleep in order to prevent us from getting hurt from being responsive to dreams. Sleep paralysis take place when the body is still unable to move due to this phenomenon, yet the mind wakes up a bit early.
Hannah: Is sleep paralysis a psychological condition that occurs only while sleeping? Does sleep paralysis affect the person even in times when they are not sleeping?
Since sleep paralysis is defined as a phenomenon that takes place during sleep, it usually does not take place when the individual is awake.
Eric: This touches on Sally’s article, but considering that dreams only happen during REM sleep, what are possible connections between sleep paralysis, dreaming, and consciousness (if there are any)?
Sleep paralysis is connected to dreaming and consciousness in terms of the depth of sleep (REM sleep stages). As a result, there have even been articles regarding how people have found connections between sleep paralysis and lucid dreaming.
Works Cited
Denis, Dan, et al. “A Systematic Review of Variables Associated with Sleep Paralysis.” Sleep
Medicine Reviews, W.B. Saunders, 8 June 2017,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1087079217301120.
Olunu, Esther, et al. “Sleep Paralysis, a Medical Condition with a Diverse Cultural
Interpretation.” International Journal of Applied & Basic Medical Research,
Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 2018,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6082011/.
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