On sleep paralysis

Alao Oyinkansola

Imagine feeling like you are awake yet you cannot move or speak. That is what is called sleep paralysis; your brain has woken up (or not yet drifted off), but you can’t move your body. Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move and this occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking.

A typical African might describe it as a spirit or witch that rides your back. Others have blamed ghosts, the souls of dead children, demonic dogs, and, of course, the devil.

No one is exactly sure what causes sleep paralysis, but it mostly happens when sleep gets disrupted due to Rapid Eye Movement (REM). During this stage, your brain relaxes your muscles so that you can’t move them, probably to prevent you from acting out your dreams and hurting yourself. As a result, researchers believe that sleep paralysis involves a mixed state of consciousness that blends both wakefulness and REM sleep.

Sleep paralysis can happen at any age, however, it most often starts between the age of 14-17.and seems to be more common among people with mental health problems such as panic disorder, general stress, trauma, and substance abuse.

Sleep paralysis may occur just once or twice in our life which mostly doesn’t affect our overall sleep. For most people, sleep paralysis is not a serious problem. It is classified as a benign condition and usually does not happen frequently enough to cause significant health problems. But if it happens a lot, it can be a sign of narcolepsy which is a disorder that disrupts sleep -wake process. Sleep paralysis can be prevalent if you often skip on sleep or have an irregular sleep schedule.

When researchers reviewed analysis of more than 6,700 people, they found that those who snoozed on their backs were much more likely to report sleep paralysis. It’s not clear why, but maybe it’s time to curl up on your side or give stomach sleeping a try? Getting six to eight hours sleep a night and going to bed and waking up at the same time every day might help.

In conclusion, you can try hard to break out of it; perhaps by focusing on wiggling a toe or moving a foot, you might be able to end the episode sooner. If someone else touches you or tries to speak to you, that should end it as well. Even if you don’t do anything, it will be over within a few minutes. Sleep paralysis ends by itself, and while it can be scary, it’s not dangerous.

Alao Oyinkansola

Ibadan

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