What Is Sleep Paralysis
A medical viewpoint – with a twist.
What is sleep paralysis it is defined as a sleeping disorder. It can happen when you wake up - also referred to as hypnopompic hallucinations , but it can also happen just as you are falling asleep known as - hypnagogic hallucinations.
When we are sleeping our body has a few safety features it switches on. One of them is 'shutting down' our muscles. Sometimes our dreams are quite vivid and our brains can think they are real. So to keep us snug in our beds and not wandering around acting out our dreamscapes or otherwise injuring ourselves, our muscles are shut down or 'paralyzed'.
This all works without our noticing anything is happening, just like breathing and digesting our supper and a few hundred other things. It all works rather smoothly - most of the time.
Every once in awhile though, things don't happen in the sequence they're supposed to. The signals may be slow to respond or simply out of order. If that happens you may find yourself temporarily paralyzed or experiencing what is called sleep paralysis.
Your brain is partially awake but it hasn't sent the signals for your muscles to join in. You can be aware of everything around you, and feel you are totally awake, but you can't move. Most often you can't talk either, and it's sometimes accompanied by the feeling that you're being held down or sat upon, sometimes even suffocating.
Dreams make it more difficult to deal with
At times the wake state isn't complete and you also have 'dreams' or hallucinations that seem like they are real and going on around you. Many are extremely graphic, and a lot of people believe they are being attacked by evil entities.
For many people this is a frightening and even debilitating experience that happens over and over again. It does help to understand what is sleep paralysis, but most people are looking for a solution or at least some help with this condition. If you're one of them you will find a cure for sleep paralysis an indispensible reference.
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