What is Sleep Paralysis?
Sleep paralysis is the sensation of feeling awake and conscious but being unable to move or speak while sleeping. These episodes often last only 2-3 minutes, but can be very stressful to experience. A mere 7.6% of the general population reports experiencing sleep paralysis at least once.
Symptoms:
Paralysis in limbs: The main symptom of sleep paralysis is an inability to move or control your muscles or limbs. This is because REM sleep automatically causes paralysis in your limbs to ensure you do not act out your dreams.
An inability to speak: Another main symptoms of sleep paralysis includes being unable to talk or communicate.
Vivid hallucinations: Sleep paralysis is also accompanied by illusions. These hallucinations can be static or moving.
Fear and panic: Sleep paralysis often causes fear and extreme stress due to the lack of bodily control and frightening hallucinations.
Feeling suffocated: Due to uneven and rapid breathing, you often feel suffocated and struggle to breathe.
Causes:
While sleep paralysis can have many possible causes and is still being researched, it is believed that it is caused by a disruption in REM sleep. REM sleep (rapid eye movement) is characterized by fast movement of your eyes behind your eyelids during sleep. Dreams occur during REM sleep, which explains why hallucinations are common during sleep paralysis.
Other factors that can cause sleep paralysis include:
1. Narcolepsy
2. Sleep apnea
3. High amounts of stress
4. Sleep Deprivation
Treatments or Methods of Prevention:
While sleep paralysis cannot be cured or completely prevented, ensuring that your sleep schedule is fixed and comfortable is the best way to avoid it. Here are some tips to avoid sleep paralysis:
Maintain a fixed sleep schedule with reasonable timings.
Make sure to have a comfortable sleeping environment.
Avoid using electronics before bed.
Avoid drinking caffeine in the evening and onward.
Set a bedtime routine.
Ultimately, maintain a good sleep and nighttime routine and practice good sleep hygiene to ensure you get better rest in the night to avoid sleep paralysis.
What are sleep paralysis demons?
Often times, the hallucinations that people experience during sleep paralysis take form in humanoid figures. The illusions can be auditory, visual, or environmental.
There are three main types of hallucinations that one experiences during sleep paralysis:
Intruder hallucinations: These hallucinations are described as an intruding and threatening presence in the room. They often are accompanied by a suffocating pressure on the chest.
Vestibular-motor hallucinations: This kind of hallucination involves an out-of-body feeling. You also may feel blissful and unafraid.
Chest pressure hallucinations: This hallucination is caused by inconsistent and uneven breathing during sleep paralysis. You feel suffocated and may hallucinate a presence causing the suffocation.
Cultural and Scientific Explanations:
Sleep paralysis has been observed for many years, thus various cultures have differing explanations for it. Some cultures believe that evil and demonic behavior causes sleep paralysis. Other cultures believe it is attributed to supernatural causes. Each explanation is unique and relevant to cultural and religious history. Some explanations include:
The Old Hag: In the 1970s, in Newfoundland, residents believed that an old woman not unlike a witch would perch upon one's chest at night, suffocating them and terrifying them senseless.
Pisadeira: In Brazil, residents claimed that pisadeira was an old woman who would walk on people's chest at night if they slept on their back while having a full stomach.
Jinn: In Egypt, residents believe in Jinn, who have the ability to possess sleeping people and are often associated with witchcraft and evil doings.
Sleep paralysis has only now begun to be understood. Scientifically, sleep paralysis demons and hallucinations are suggested to be a result of high serotonin levels, brain disturbances, and repeating cycles of stress and fear.
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