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Somewhere around the middle of the quiet night, you feel like you are being pressed, you feel the pressure, you open your eyes, you try to rise up, but you can't!
You try to cry out.. HELP!!!! but... it's strange... you just can't let your voice out!
Is someone going to choke you to death while you are asleep?
Who???
Where is the culprit??
You just can't see him!
You struggled!
Trying and trying to rise up.
Argh!!!! You can't!
HELP ME!!
Again, the scream only remains in your throat.. You just can't let it out! He is PRESSING on you...sooo hard...
He?
or is it a She??
but there's Nobody??? Who is that? or...
WHAT is that?
An evil spirit? A GHOST??? o.0
You keep struggling...
And you try to rise up again...
You couldn't...Are you going to die?? No!!! You can't let it happen!!
You try again....
And again......
And again...
And YES!!! finally you succeeded!
Hush!! Go away you evil! Disturb me no more!!!
You breathed a sigh of relief... and you go back again to your sleep, hoping that the evil thing won't ever comes back...
But, somehow, the evil keeps coming back to you..again, that same night... or the next night, or... the next next night... haunting you~~~
(Source: self-experience xD )
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Have you ever encounter all those things before?? If yes, you may experience what we call as sleep paralysis.
Throughout the history, people considered this phenomenon as work done by evil spirits. However, the modern science can explain the terrifying event as a Sleep Paralysis.
Until I started researching on this subject, I have been wondering about what am I going through everytime I had sleep paralysis. I asked my friend, and she says this symptom, is what they call 'ketindihan' in Malay culture. In Chinese culture, they call it 鬼压床 (Ghost Pressing on Body)...Then, everytime I think about it before going to bed, most of the time, I did experienced it... I began to become a bit superstitious.. Is that really something (ghost) that is pressing on me while I sleep? Hahaha... xD
I'm glad that there are scientific explaination for this. I learned that this is a kind sleeping disorder, and not a ghost pressing on me! Fuh! Since then, as far as I remember, I didn't encounter sleep paralysis anymore.. (Can I say it is psychological too??? Hahaha...)
Hopefully it won't haunt me again when the university life starts where I might be lacking of sleep and being stressed over the homeworks and assignments..coz... it's kinda terrifying!! hehehe....
But what is more important is that... this symptom isn't uncommon, it is not considered as a dangerous health problem and it is not linked to deep underlying psychiatric problems. weee... :)
So, for those who are also experiencing this, don't worry, it's normal (just get enough sleep) and you are not having any psychiatric disorder! :)
Please, read more about this sleeping disorder... :)
Sleep paralysis- is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It is a FRIGHTENING form of paralysis that occurs when a person finds himself or herself unable to move for a few minutes, most often upon falling asleep (hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis) or waking up (hypnopompic or postdormital sleep paralysis).
As far as I'm concerned, hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis (which me, myself experienced before xD ) is more common compared to hypnopompic or postdormital sleep
paralysis.
How can a body becomes paralyzed while we are awake??
In order to understand this, it is necessary to understand sleep cycles.
In a mammalian sleep, the brain activity undergoes two different states called:-
- Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep and
- Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep- the deepest part of sleep
NREM and REM sleep alternate cyclically through the night.
In human, about 80 minutes of NREM sleep starts a night of sleep, about 10 minutes of REM sleep follows, and this 90 minute cycle is repeated about 3 to 6 times during the night.
During NREM sleep:-
- body are capable of tossing about in bed
- sleepwalking
- sleeptalking
- producing some other motor events
- the cardiac-muscle contraction and breathing occur at a uniform rate
- the eyes move slowly.
During REM sleep, heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure vary. The eyes move rapidly because most dreaming takes place in this period.
In this REM period, a body is normally in the state of total paralysis, probably to prevent a person from "acting out" a dream.
"There's a patient who suffers from rare syndrome called REM Sleep Behavior Disorder lacks the normal paralysis state, and he acts out violent dreams during REM sleep, often with injurious consequences. For example, a 60-year-old surgeon dreamt that he was attacked "by criminals, terrorists, and monsters who always tried to kill [him]" and fighting against them in the nightmare, he was actually punching and kicking his wife who slept in the same bed. (Hahaha...pity his wife... xD )"
During REM sleep the body is largely disconnected from the brain leaving the body paralyzed. Sleep paralysis happens when you become aware before the REM cycle has finished, thus the feeling of paralyzed.
Sleep paralysis occurs most often after periods of sleeplessness that interrupt the normal REM patterns. It affects both sexes equally and occurs at all ages but is most common in teenagers.
An attack of sleep paralysis is usually harmless and self-limited. It tends to be over in a minute or two as soon as the brain and body re-establish connections and the person is able to move again. However, the memory of the terrifying sensations felt during sleep paralysis can long endure.
Most common cause of sleep paralysis??
- Lack of sleep (I know I do during exam period xD)
- A sleep schedule that changes
- Stress
How to prevent it?
- Start by making sure you get enough sleep. (six to eight hours of sleep each night)
- Do what you can to relieve stress in your life -- especially just before bedtime.
- Try new sleeping positions if you sleep on your back (sometimes sleep paralysis occurs when you sleep on your back)
Source and edited from: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-paralysis, http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1740
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