'Sleep paralysis' or sleep paralysis - Scary hallucinations when waking up from a scientific perspective

Sometimes, one morning, you wake up from a dream. And on the ceiling, there's a giant spider, unimaginable in size, crawling towards you. You will want to scream or jump out of bed, but suddenly realize that your whole body is completely paralyzed.

After a while, you can wiggle all fours. And the hairy spider was gone.

While this may sound strange, it is a somewhat similar experience for a lot of people. It's sleep paralysis - the feeling of being frozen in place and facing terrifying hallucinations at the same time - but don't worry, the neurologist will tell you it's no big deal.

Sleep paralysis, scientifically known as Sleep Paralysis, usually occurs when you wake up in a lying position on your back, while the body remains motionless from the dream stage. At this point, you cannot move a certain muscle for a period of time from a few seconds to a few minutes.

Some people also have hallucinations, sensing that someone or something evil is happening in the bedroom. While hallucinations vary, many people report seeing an intruder in a room, or feeling someone pin them on the bed. And this has a marked consistency across different cultures and time periods.

In medieval Europe, people believed in ghosts or demons that would reside on people while they were sleeping. The Japanese term for sleep paralysis is kanashibari, which means bound. And in Vietnam, it has a fairly common name, the phenomenon of "sleep paralysis".

According to sleep research, about 8% of people experience sleep paralysis, although individual studies have put the number between 5% and 62%. Some people have sleep paralysis as often as weekly, and others only occasionally.

"Since sleep paralysis isn't going to stop you from leading a healthy, happy life, it's just a weird thing made by the human brain," said Rafael Pelayo, professor of psychiatry and psychiatry. behavioral science at the Stanford Sleep Center.

According to Pelayo, if your sleeping brain is like an orchestra, sleep paralysis is like a conductor waving to stop the music, but a certain musician misses the signal and continues to play. keep playing.

'It seemed like a naturally occurring behavior,' Pelayo said, 'just at the wrong time'.

"Sleeping" is the opposite of sleepwalking

You will be paralyzed during sleep. It's called sleep atony, and the paralysis causes you to lie still in REM sleep, the stage of sleep associated with dreams.

"The body doesn't want to take action when you're having dreams at night," says Marri Horvat, MD, a sleep disorder doctor at the Cleveland Clinic. "It's a good thing to be paralyzed then. "

In fact, people with REM sleep behavior disorder and facing the opposite are not paralyzed, often move and are at risk of injury while dreaming.

During sleep, the body releases two chemicals to keep you still: gamma-aminobutyric acid, also known as GABA, and glycine. Sleep paralysis seems to happen when you're entering or exiting REM sleep, and if things don't go right, you'll still be inundated with those chemicals when you wake up.

Sometimes that comes with the visual side of REM sleep, aka dreaming, leading to a hallucinogenic-like experience.

The most common factors that come up are sleep deprivation and sudden changes in sleep schedules.

Who is prone to sleep paralysis?

Sleep paralysis does not indicate any specific health condition and there is no formula to predict who may experience it. The most common factors that come up are sleep deprivation and sudden changes in sleep schedules.

A variety of other factors can also occur. A meta-analysis of studies on sleep paralysis found that non-whites suffered more frequently, and problems such as substance abuse, anxiety, and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). also increase this rate. However, the finding of these characteristics was not always repeated in other studies and meta-analyses. Although sleep paralysis can be associated with narcolepsy, it also commonly occurs in people who do not have the disorder.

And if you're struggling with things like addiction, stress, or trauma at the time of your sleep paralysis hallucinations, now is the right time to treat those issues. But these specific hallucinations are not linked to more serious disorders, like schizophrenia, psychosis or brain tumors.

"Sleep paralysis and schizophrenia can both present in adulthood, but one difference is that people with sleep paralysis often know immediately after fully awakening that they have experienced sleep paralysis." hallucinations. But someone with schizophrenia may have a harder time distinguishing what's real," says sleep doctor Pelayo.

Let's sleep more

According to Pelayo, the best way to treat sleep paralysis is to get more and better sleep. If the problem persists, this doctor recommends seeing a specialist to find out if sleep apnea or anxiety-filled dreams caused by PTSD are disrupting your sleep and causing you to lose sleep. easily paralyzed when sleeping or not.

'The most natural form of care we give to the brain is sleep,' says Pelayo. 'Anything wrong with the brain can be made worse by not getting enough sleep.

However, for most people, the worst part of sleep paralysis is not knowing what it is. Even if you know it's not real, it can be hard not to stress when you hallucinating about something scary.

But, believe that sleep paralysis or "sleep paralysis" is nothing more than an odd experience that occasionally occurs during times of stress. And never let them affect your mental life and health.