If You’ve Ever Woken Up At Night Unable To Move, Here’s What It Means.
We’ve likely all experienced it at one point or another. You’re falling asleep, or just waking up, and you go to turn on your side… but you can’t. Your legs and arms are like cement, plastered to your mattress, and you can’t move.
This condition is called sleep paralysis and occurs when a person goes through stages of wakefulness and sleep. It is that terrifying feeling when you are still asleep but partially awake and cannot move even though you are aware of all that is going on around you.
Fortunatelly it is a very common happening and it doesn’t cause harm to the human body. Sleeping paralysis occur between two stages:
“Hypnagogic” and “Hypnopompic”. The hypnagogic sleep paralysis happens when you are yet to fall asleep, while the hypnopompic sleep paralysis happens when you are just about to awake from your rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
As we fall asleep, our body becomes deeply relaxed while our minds concurrently become less aware. However, when hypnagogic sleep paralysis occurs, the mind remains aware while the body achieves an involuntary state of relaxation. The person than realizes that they’re unable to move despite their efforts, often leading to feelings of panic.
On the other hand when you experience rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, dreaming is frequent, but the body’s muscles are relaxed to the point of paralysis, this is to make sure we do not physically act out our dreams. In the hypnopompic sleep paralysis, a part of your brain seems to wake up sooner than expected, while this will not influence that part of the brain that actually leads to REM paralysis, it will cause you to suddenly wake up with no control over your body for some seconds or minutes. Sufferers become alert in a transient conscious state, but they are unable to move voluntary muscles or speak
What happens during sleep paralysis
During sleep paralysis you may feel:
awake but cannot move, speak or open your eyes
like someone is in your room
like something is pushing you down
frightened
These feelings can last up to several minutes.
Causes of sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis happens when you cannot move your muscles as you are waking up or falling asleep. This is because you are in sleep mode but your brain is active.
It’s not clear why sleep paralysis can happen but it has been linked with:
- Insomnia
- Disrupted sleeping patterns – for example, because of shift work or jet lag
- Narcolepsy – a long-term condition that causes a person to suddenly fall asleep
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- General anxiety disorder
- Panic disorder
- A family history of sleep paralysis
Things you can do to help prevent sleep paralysis
Do
- Try to regularly get 6 to 8 hours of sleep a day
- Go to bed at roughly the same time each night and get up at the same time each morning
- Get regular exercise, but not in the 4 hours before going to bed
Don’t
- Do not eat a big meal, smoke, or drink alcohol or caffeine shortly before going to bed
- Do not sleep on your back – this can make sleep paralysis more likely to happen
Sometimes, you may prevent sleep paralysis episodes if you successfully reduce the stress before going to sleep and make the healthy sleep your priority.
Moreover, if you experience this once, you should not immediately seek a professional help. If these issues are rare, doctors advise that you pay more attention to your sleeping habits, and sleep well for 8 hours, as lack of sleep often contributes to the occurrence of these issues.
Furthermore, you should reduce or completely eliminate the intake of caffeine, nicotine, alcohol/drugs, nicotine and caffeine, and do not keep your electronic devices close to your bed while sleeping.
However, if you have experiences a sleep paralysis, it is likely to happen again, so remember that it is nothing terrifying and it will pass soon, so you should try to stay calm.
Source:awesomequotes4u.com, nhs.uk, lovethispic.com
