Sleep paralysis (The terror that comes in the night)

[stabilo]

What is it?
Consist of a period of inability to perform voluntary movement either at sleep onset (hypnagogic or predormital form) or upon awakening either during the night or in the morning (hypnopompic or postdormital form)

Symptoms:
- Complain of inability to move the trunk/ limbs at sleep onset/ upon awakening
- Individuals are conscious of their surrounding & able to open eyes
- Acute sense of fear
- Presence of brief episodes of partial/ complete skeletal muscle paralysis
- May last a few seconds or longer
- Episode often terminated by sound/ touch on the body
- Most often adolescent onset

Episodes can be associated with hallucinations:
- A feeling that someone is in the room with them
- Some experience the feeling that someone/ something is sitting on their chest
- Feeling of impending death & suffocation
- May have floating sensations & out-of-body experiences

Predisposing conditions:
- Most often associated with narcolepsy (neurological condition in which the person has uncontrollable naps)
- People without narcolepsy can also be affected by the problem
- Stress and anxiety
- Some people with disrupted sleep schedules/ circadian rhythm disturbance experience sleep paralysis
- Sometimes it runs in the family
 
Any explanation?  
Most research has linked it with REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which indicates dreaming
When body & brain enter REM sleep, muscles relax & brain blocks signals to limbs to prevent body acting out its dreams
At times the firewall between sleeping & wakefulness temporarily drops; meaning the person can actually start to wake up before the paralysis wears off, & yet still remain in a dreaming state

How to deal with it?  
- Good sleep hygiene
- Relax
- Avoid sleep deprivation

Reference:
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html
http://www.csicop.org/doubtandabout/sleep/
http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P2.html

[jolly55]

One of my friends has been having this problem for quite some years. We usually associate this condition with spirits. Now only I know there is a scientific explanation for that! Thanks for the sharing, stabilo!!

[amanda]

i have experienced sleep paralysis for over 30 years. one thing i can say is that, one should know how to control sleep paralysis. anyone can do this if you can overcome your fear.

[neodesigns]

Sounds kind of scary. I have trouble sleeping sometimes, but thankfully I haven't experienced this yet.

[Peter]

I have experienced same condition in my childhood. It is a rare experience for me those days. I knew it was  a some type sleep unbalance, but did not know what real facts. Thanks for updating.