SLEEP PARALYSIS

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Sleep Paralysis
By Ivan Miyingo, BPharm, MPS
June 30, 2023. I 8:00 A.M.




It’s exactly but not precisely 4:15 a.m., and you’re in your comfy bed or sofa set snoring, probably because your tongue has been cast behind your throat. Suddenly, you’re ushered into a horrific nightmare that precipitates a cascade of events beyond your imagination.

Scared and frightened, you’re fighting so hard to get out of this terrific dream but with zero success. You try to scream but no sound is being produced. Even worse, you try to move to get up and run, but you can’t move a single finger.

There is a feeling you have an intruder inside the room and you can hear footsteps as if approaching you. Meanwhile, you seem to be awake and aware of the whole situation, but you can’t talk and your body can’t move.

Helter-skelter, the breathing patterns are suddenly disrupted. Breathing in is smooth and easy, but breathing out is almost impossible, and vice versa. It feels like someone is sitting on your chest, choking and strangling you to death.

Your conscious mind is fully aware, but it feels like your soul has been separated from your body. You’re literally staring at yourself as you struggle through the entire situation. A phenomenon commonly compared to the near-death experience.

Moments later, you suddenly open your eyes as your mind and body organically and effortlessly shift into full wakefulness, awareness, and consciousness mode. Bingo! You’ve just escaped from the cages of the ‘sleep paralysis’ maze.

Scrolling down memory lane, people around the world believe in unorthodox theories that falsely link the association of sleep paralysis to evil spirits, demons, witches, and other supernatural nuisances.

The parallel debates between believers in faith and facts from science have successfully left most questions unanswered. For example, why God is a He, not a She, or where we were before we were born, and probably why the brain named itself ‘brain’.  

Well, away from the commercial break, science factually but not conclusively states that sleep paralysis happens during a spin-off journey from sleep to wakefulness.

Each sleep episode transpires through two stages, first, you go through the long house-keeping stage that drains waste material out of your brain (that rhymed I guess), also known as the Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) stage of sleep.

The second stage, dubbed Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Stage, is shorter and it’s when your brain forms the most vivid dreams. During this stage, neurotransmitters (GABA & glycine) are produced to paralyze the skeletal muscles so that you don’t act out your dreams. A defect that successfully throws you into episodes of sleepwalking.

However, it’s at this juncture that I let you know that the sleep paralysis experience is totally and completely harmless. It is also important to note that it can occur when you’re falling asleep and/or when waking up.

People with a history of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, narcolepsy, sleep apnoea, bipolar disorder, night leg cramps, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are the perfect candidates for sleep paralysis.

For the nerds, it is important to differentiate sleep paralysis from narcolepsy, familial periodic paralysis, conversion disorder, and cataplexy. The symptomatology of PTSD also overlaps with cases of sleep paralysis.

From a trigger-point angle of view, stress, sleeping on the back, having heavy meals before bed, poor sleep hygiene, working night shifts, and disrupted sleeping patterns due to jetlag (for those that travel abroad) are a perfect recipe to this disaster. Disagreeing not to agree to disagree, sleep paralysis can also come through genetic diffusion from first-degree relatives.

On the flip side of the coin, meditation, melatonin supplements, trying out new sleep positions, and good sleep hygiene may kickstart your journey to reducing the likelihood of experiencing this sleep tragedy.

The natural vaccine is to sleep for at least 8 hours per day, maintain the same sleep and wake time, exercise regularly, avoid excess exercise before bed, avoid supper 2 hours before bed, sleep in a cool, quiet, and dark environment, stop substance abuse, avoid alcohol, stop smoking and avoid caffeinated beverages (coffee & energy drinks) before bed.

Remember, good sleep hygiene starts with removing that TV from your bedroom wall, and uninstalling Tiktok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snap Chat, WhatsApp, and YouTube plus all their first-degree relatives, 2 hours before bedtime. If symptoms persist, listen to quintus music non-stops or get a good lawyer, literally and metaphorically.

Sources:

-         World Health Organization (WHO).

-         National Institutes of Health (NIH), US.

-         National Health Services (NHS), UK.

-         Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

-         National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

 

Author:

Ivan Miyingo
BPharm, MPS.
miyingoivan@gmail.com


© 2023

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