Sleep Paralysis: The Causes and Effects

889 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Extended essay on sleep paralysis

Sleep Paralysis: The Causes and Effects
Deep in the night as you try to roll over, you realize that you cannot move. As you feel completely paralyzed, you find it impossible to cry for help as you see characters lurking around and standing over you. You suddenly feel electrical sensations shooting throughout your body and you hear deafening buzzing sounds. This phenomenon is recognized as sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis is a state in which a person may feel like they are conscious but is incapable of moving. This happens when a person passes between stages of consciousness and sleep. During this time, the person may feel unable to move or speak for a few seconds or sometimes even up to a few minutes. Sleep paralysis can also be referred to as isolated sleep paralysis or familial sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis causes people to sleep into a disturbed mental state which consists of periods of inabilities to perform normal movements not because of a mental disease, but because of stress, anxiety, and sleep deprivation.
A person that experiences sleep paralysis may wake up and find himself unable to move, speak, and sometimes even breathe as if he is frozen (Takahashi). The person may also hear footsteps or see ghosts- the victim often sees indistinct shapes approaching them and immediately becomes terrified; in many cases, the individual experiencing sleep paralysis may feel an oppressive weight on the chest and body and a sense of suffocation (Adler). Sleep paralysis poses as a major source of distress for countless people all over the world (Hufford). Although many people only experience sleep paralysis with symptoms that make them unable to move, there have been several cases in which sleep paralysis has had deeper symptoms.
Dr...

... middle of paper ...

...ncyclopedia. Medicine Plus. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000801.htm
Madriaga, A. (2008, January 7). The dark side of the placebo effect: when intense belief kills. The Atlantic. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/the-dark-side-of-the-placebo-effect-when-intense-belief-kills/245065/
McNally, R. J. (2005). Sleep Paralysis, Sexual Abuse, And Space Alien Abduction. Transcultural Psychiatry, 42(1), 113-122.
Nighttime sleep behaviors . (n.d.). Stanford Hospital and Clinics . Retrieved November 19, 2013, from http://stanfordhospital.org/clinicsmedServices/clinics/sleep/sleep_disorders/nighttime-sleep-behaviors.html
Takahasi, H. (n.d.). Sleep paralysis: awake but still asleep. Serendip Studio. Retrieved November 13, 2013, from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1740

Show More
Related

  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

    2296 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ernst, E., & Resch, K. L. (1995). Concept of true and perceived placebo effects. British Medical

    Read More

  • Falling Asleep on the Job: The Story of Narcolepsy

    2394 Words  | 5 Pages

    Imagine you are in a boring lecture and you start to drift to sleep, usually you can manage to force yourself to wake up. This may be common occurrence but try to imagine falling asleep while driving or walking. These situations seem more rare. A narcoleptic’s body doesn’t care what it is doing when it goes into these paralyzed sleeping episodes. The sudden overwhelming feeling drives the narcoleptic person to fall asleep. One type of episode that they experience is called cataplexy, which is usually caused by some stressful situation or other common activities such as laughing or running (6). During these periods the person suffers from muscle weakness and paralysis. Although the person appears to be sleeping, they are still conscious, but unable to move. They can hear and feel but cannot react to stimulation. For this reason narcolepsy is a very dangerous condition to have without receiving treatment because serious vehicle accidents can result as well as an general inability to succeed in school (6).

    Read More

  • Hippocampus Essay

    1137 Words  | 3 Pages

    Chronic sleep loss is becoming more common in modern culture and less restricted to sleep-deprived diseases such as insomnia. Suggested to be the result of a number car, industrial, medical, and other occupational accidents, sleep deprivation is beginning to be recognized as a public concern. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control

    Read More

  • Insomnia

    1936 Words  | 4 Pages

    Millions of people suffer from the same tossing and turning every which way, getting their sheets all disarranged and their minds abundantly worse. Patients often report indications of insomnia while sitting in the family health clinic. Insomnia traits include hindrance, falling asleep, continuing to awaken, and rejuvenating before wanted. One may suffer from insomnia if one shows signs of an increased difficulty in attentiveness, decreased communal or scholastic skills, and a diminished mood or enthusiasm. Foldvary-Schaefer 111.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hallucination

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    As stated in the text book, hallucination during Sleep Paralysis also occurs due to the sudden high blood pressure in the human brain and the change in the membrane potential of the neurons in the visual and/or auditory cortex. What this means is that one person starts to feel fear or terror when under the state of paralysis, it causes the blood pressure in the brain to increase. The emotion of fear is stated to be perceived in a structure called amygdala in the brain. The amygdala tends to be a small structure which is deep inside the brain and has several distinct nuclei which are the following: medial, lateral, basal, and central. According to the article “Sleep paralysis episode frequency and number, types, and structure of associated hallucinations”, the lateral nucleus seems to receive input from thalamus and cortical sensory and association areas. Then after this happens, the basolateral nucleus integrate the input as fear and send the information to the central nucleus, from which a major output transmits through projections to the hypothalamus and brainstem autonomic areas.

    Read More

  • Sleep, Dreams and REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    The discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggested that sleep was not, as it was thought to be, a dormant state but rather a mentally dynamic one. Your brain is, in fact, very active in this state, almost to the level at which it is when a person is awake. Yet during this active stage in which most dreams occur, the movements of the rest of the body are completely stilled. To imagine this paralysis during dreams not occurring is a frightful image, since in many cases dreams are violent and active. When the neurotransmitters that control the movement of the body do not work properly the person develops REM sleep behavioral disorder (RBD).

    Read More

  • Narcolepsy Informative Speech

    673 Words  | 2 Pages

    THESIS STATEMENT: Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that has a specific medical definition, life-changing symptoms, and there are ways in how people treat it.

    Read More

  • The Origin Of Sleep Paralysis

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    Catherine Valente remembers clearly about her terrifying experience. It was around 3 in the morning when she woke up in the middle of the night, she saw an old woman figure with long white dress, long black hair, and awfully long nails sitting on her chest. She felt like as if she’s paralyzed. She couldn’t move a muscle or even open her mouth to scream. She laid there unable to move for at least 15 minutes. Have you ever had the same experience like Catherine, felt like you were awake but had some difficulty to move your body? You might have even felt petrified but could not call for help? This weird phenomenon is called Sleep Paralysis.

    Read More

  • Parasomnia

    1529 Words  | 4 Pages

    Arousal disorders are the most common type of parasomnia. These disorders include: confusional arousals, sleepwalking, sleep terrors and nightmares. Experts believe that each is related and share some symptoms. Essentially, they occur because a person is in a mixed state of being both asleep and awake, generally coming from the deepest stage of non-dreaming sleep. The individual is awake enough to act out complex behaviors, but asleep enough not to be aware of or remember them.

    Read More

  • Sleep Paralysis

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Did you ever awaken and find yourself unable to move? Perhaps you sensed a presence in your room or a pressure on your chest. This is sleep paralysis. It is a common disorder that affects millions of people. Most believe it occurs as we are on the edge of REM sleep. The disorder has been connected with such hallucinogenic events such as alien abduction or an evil presence. Sleep paralysis is an inability to move or speak, occasionally accompanied by hallucinations, for up to several minutes upon awakening or just before falling asleep.

    Read More

  • Sleep Paralysis

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs at either the onset or upon awakening of sleep. The medical terms for the two forms of sleep paralysis are hypnogogic and hypnopompic (1). When a person falls asleep, the body secretes hormones that relax certain muscles within the body, causing it to go into paralysis. Doing this prevents the body from acting out a person's dream, which could result in an injury. Sleep paralysis generally runs within one's family or in those who suffer from narcolepsy (2), but there is currently no explanation for why some people get it while others do not.

    Read More

  • The Sleep Disorders

    2324 Words  | 5 Pages

    Sleep disorders are an underestimated public health concern considering that fifty to seventy million Americans are affected. Technological advances in the field of sleep have facilitated various theories to explain the need for and the purpose of sleep. Scientist have uncovered many types of sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy. Sleep disorders affect men ,women, children, the elderly, and the obese in different ways. Factors such as the number of children and the effects of menopause have been studied to determine their effects on sleep. Various treatments have been utilized ranging from non-pharmacologic to pharmacologic methods. Scientist have pinpointed areas of the brain that are involved in sleep deprivation and hormones that ultimately affect sleep.

    Read More

  • Sleep and Teenagers

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Common Sleep Problems." KidsHealth - the Web's Most Visited Site about Children's Health. Ed. Mary L. Gavin. The Nemours Foundation, 01 Jan. 2011. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • Sleeping and Dreaming

    4847 Words  | 10 Pages

    In 2004–2005, the Penn Humanities Forum will focus on the topic of “Sleep and Dreams.” Proposals are invited from researchers in all humanistic fields concerned with representations of sleep, metaphors used to describe sleep, and sleep as a metaphor in itself. In addition, we solicit applications from those who study dreams, visions, and nightmares in art or in life, and the approaches taken to their interpretation. We also welcome proposals about the effects of dreaming on the dreamer, and the resulting emotions, behaviors, and actions taken or foregone in response to dreams. In this Forum on Sleep and Dreams, we will see how the diversity of academic disciplines can help answer important questions about sleep and dreaming—questions that may touch the basis of human intellect.

    Read More

  • Sleeping Beauties Need Their Beauty Sleep

    1250 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sleep and Sleep Disorders. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 July 2013. Web. 7 May 2014. .

    Read More

More about Sleep Paralysis: The Causes and Effects

Open Document