How likely are you to experience sleep paralysis?
Waking up in the dead of night, unable to move a muscle, you’re gripped by an overwhelming sense of fear as you feel a presence suppressing your body. As you open your mouth to scream for help, you lay there – mouth wide open, unable to elicit any sound. Sound familiar?
This eerie phenomenon is known as sleep paralysis. It usually manifests when there is an awakening of consciousness while your body remains immobile, unable to move a single muscle. During paralysis, you may experience vivid hallucinations, which are commonly mistaken for parts of dreams. Its unpredictable nature can evoke terror and anxiety.
“Sleep paralysis episodes can be several seconds to several minutes long,” says Dr. Yelena Tumashova, a sleep medicine physician at Advocate Health Care. “They often occur when you are about to fall asleep or wake up. Sleep paralysis itself is not harmful but there often are underlying health concerns that trigger the disorder.”
Sleep paralysis can happen to anyone — even those who typically experience normal sleep patterns. In fact, about 20% of people will experience an episode in their lifetime, according to the Sleep Foundation.
“It’s important to note that sleep paralysis can be one of the signs of a rare neurological disorder called narcolepsy,” says Dr. Tumashova. “If you suspect you might have the disorder, ask your doctor to refer you to a sleep specialist for proper diagnosis.”
While there is no proven causation between specific risk factors and sleep paralysis, research studies have identified several factors that are associated with the condition:
- Poor sleep
- Stress
- Excessive alcohol intake
- Traumatic experiences
- Anxiety disorders
- Family history of sleep paralysis
- Sleep disorders
As of right now, there isn’t treatment to manage ongoing episodes of this condition. However, improving your sleep hygiene may help.
Dr. Tumashova recommends the following:
- Maintaining a consistent sleep and wake schedule – even on the weekends
- Limiting exposure to light and noise while getting ready for bed
- Decreasing your alcohol and caffeine intake
- Discontinuing use of electronic devices to allow your brain to decompress without any external stimulation
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health enews staff is a group of experienced writers from our Advocate Health Care and Aurora Health Care sites, which also includes freelance or intern writers.
I suffered from this for much of my life. Only now, as I’m older, are the episodes few and far between. It’s an absolutely terrifying experience. Not just that you can’t move… but the horror movie hallucinations will leave you feeling like monsters are real, and in your room.
I have suffered through this terrible sleep disorder since I was a child of 11 or 12 years old. I would wake up and feel terrified that something was in our house. I could hear the rocking chair rocking. I would try to scream for my dad and I couldn’t open my mouth and couldn’t get any sound out. As an adult, I know what sleep paralysis is and I understand it. It doesn’t make it easier to deal with it though. The hallucinations seem so real at the time.
I, too, have struggled with sleep paralysis since I was a child. I have sometimes been able to hear actual conversations around me, but unable to respond. If I know someone is with me, I have struggled to make some sound, trying to get someone to shake or touch me so I could snap out of it. I cannot just relax and wait, and break out of it, forcefully. If anyone is around they are started by the way I just woke up. I have had the hallucinations, too. It is very frightening and I wonder if, when I am older, I will have enough strength to “break out of it”. I have described the condition to doctors and asked them about it, before I knew there was a name for it. None of them knew anything about it and kind of laughed it off, saying that’s strange.
Demonic entities seek many ways to harm and drive people to suffer.
Always so horrifying!! Since I was a little girl this has affected me. No one ever believed me either through my childhood years and told me they are just “bad dreams”! I hope my children never have to experience them. I always ask my guardian angel and God to help me while I go through the paralysis which seems to help. I too believe they are demonic in nature.