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Sleep Paralysis Gets Screentime – But Not as a Horror Flick
Ever wake up and it feels like your mind woke up but your body didn’t? Now that’s a nightmare in real time, and it can happen to anyone. And one that a team of film producers has made the subject of their documentary.
The phenomena is called sleep paralysis, which is characterized by a waking from REM sleep but the body remains paralyzed (it is supposed to be paralyzed in REM-so you do not act out your dreams!).
People who’ve experienced this, as chronicled in the film, report seeing or hearing a shadowy presence entering their room and approaching their bed. Feelings of dread descend but they are unable to cry for help. Some experience choking or chest squeezing to the point they think they are going to die. Not good.
Examinations into how and why this happens have turned up some interesting findings. People who experience sleep paralysis share a few things:
- They are often under the age of 25.
- They are usually sleep deprived.
- There appears to be a connection between sleep paralysis and post-traumatic stress.
- Improving sleep hygiene can help alleviate reoccurring sleep paralysis. So can talking about their experiences. Prayer and positive thinking also seems to help.
- It happens to almost everyone!!!
What do I think? I think this is an area that deserves more attention and study. It’s a shame that some doctors whose patients are brave enough to report their sleep paralysis can brand them as having a schizophrenic or psychotic episode.
Maybe this film will offer some observations for researchers to use. Good thing it wasn’t spun into a horror flick, though that probably could have made more money.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD, DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
This article on sleep paralysis is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog.
4 Comments:
Is it possible to still be allowed to drive a vehicle after being diagnosed with Narcolepsy?
Would you be considered permanently disabled?
I am 50 years old and experience sleep paralysis on a regular basis (at least twice a week). This is terribly frightening, as I also have apnea. My mind is completely conscious, and I am aware of everything around me, including the fact that I'm not breathing! Trying to force myself to call out to someone is extemely difficult and impossible most of the time.
I have had several incidences of sleep paralysis since I was a kid (I'm 27 now). The first time wasn't so bad, I was less than 9 years old and I remember lying in bed, lights on, and I saw a ragged, shadowy figure, kind of like a "ghost" (or rather the cinematic representations of ghosts), all gauzy and cream colored and vaguely see through, floating in the doorway. It floated towards me slowly and time seemed a little off, like it was slow motion, and as it got closer, my eyes closed and I fell asleep. I was scared but I'm thankful I nodded off because had I been awake and continued my waking dream/hallucination I might have never slept again. Lol. The next time I was 9 or 10 and on a sleep over at my best friends house. We were both in the bottom bunk of her bunkbed because we had told scary stories and didn't want to sleep alone. This time, instead of feeling paralyzed as I was falling asleep, I experienced a waking bout of sleep paralysis which was utterly horrifying. I had never heard of it, not until recently, so being 9/10 years old and waking up and not being able to move or speak, I immediately thought, oh God, something's happened. I didn't know much about what could be wrong, but ironically my music teacher had had a stroke earlier that year and I remember thinking I must have had a stroke. I was screaming in my mind for help but no words came out. I couldn't move at all. I think I could blink but that was it. I felt like there was something evil in the room with me, or something that wanted to do me harm. I didn't grow up religious at all so it's not like I had a reason or basis to believe in demons, but it felt frightening and in that instant I wouldn't have argued if someone told me it was a demon that I felt was in the room with me. Luckily, I persisted in trying to snap out of it and kept screaming in my mind until my mouth formed a barely audible whisper for help and eventually I was fully out of it and woke my friend up. I don't believe they were able to convince me to sleep after that because it was so traumatic and upsetting, but eventually I got back to sleeping somehwat normally. I've had other instances in my life of sleep paralysis but those stood out because they were most upsetting. Though I still have them and when I'm able to stir myself awake I hop out of bed in a panic and have to turn the lights on and watch something funny on tv. It really sucks. People think you should just get over it, but that ominous feeling that something is oppressing you, that there's this shadowy figure pressing down on you from the ceiling or the door or watching you, it's so scary. You think you're crazy. I do think it's worse to sleep on your back and that the theory that you have sleep paralysis more in that position is valid, but I've had it on my side as well. I also had terrible, terrible nightmares growing up and I would sleep walk, and I firmly believe I've had night terrors, though I never was diagnosed or treated. Luckily those have ended, but I'd wake up still in a state of dreaming screaming and fighting off "invisible" opponents. Maybe they're all connected. And really, the thought that this is a symptom of psychosis is so annoying because I almost would have believed that had it happened any other time than during sleep. I mean, odds are if you're suffering a psychotic break it's not going to happen so erratically and at random, nor is it going to only occur during sleep. I don't think I have narcolepsy, but I do know that I've had sleep paralysis and it's truly upsetting. I just wish the majority of doctors would recognize how upsetting it is to feel like you can't move or even call out for help. I'd gladly take a medication or something if it saved me from experiencing this ever again. Thanks for taking a compassionate stance about sleep paralysis and for acknowledging that it's a real concern for some of us. I'm thankful my experiences have gotten better, but I still have bouts of this often enough for it to scare me.
im scared. im 18 and started having symptoms of this sleep paralysis for a few months now. I haven't really felt any "demon" presence but it was terrifying to be unable to move, or speak, and once I felt I could not even breathe for a moment. In fact I just had an "episode" last night it was so terrifying and when i was eventually able to move, I was afraid to go back to sleep and cried for some time. I eventually fell asleep normally though. Why is this happening to me? My mother said it was normal and it happens only because im just really tired, but this cant be normal.
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