Sleep
It was almost 7 years ago that I first experienced
sleep paralysis. The first few
times of being mentally awake, but not being
able to move my body were terrifying beyond
words. There are hallucinatory thoughts, where
the real world blends into the dream world and
you are laying there paralyzed and helpless as
your worst nightmares unfold around you. I
imagine people in the room even though they are
not there. They are right in front of me,
talking to each other or looking at me like I am
asleep, not knowing that I am calling to them
for help. There are others who know I am open to
attack. Sometimes when I wake up from my
paralyzed state, I find that I am not even in
the room I imagined I was in, even though it
felt so real.... and I wasn't entirely dreaming
either.
It is a physical problem that I know now is not a serious one. In a normal person, when deep sleep occurs, the brain shuts down body movement to prevent us from accidentally hurting ourselves. It also makes sure that we don't act out our dreams, including walking, talking or doing something we might regret later. For the most part this system works perfectly, notwithstanding some rare instances where we say embarrassing or nonsensical things that we would much rather keep to ourselves, or walk into the cupboard in an attempt to go to the bathroom. But when things work well and the REM cycle comes to an end, the mind and the body awaken at the same time, and we never perceive the state of physical paralysis.
To some people like me, the mind sometimes awakens before the body. This leaves us fully conscious but unable to move for several minutes. During this time, we experience terrifying hallucinations. The sense of danger we perceive is something equivalent to a three dimensional horror film where you are the protagonist being haunted by the devil.
I speak of this today because I haven't had sleep paralysis for a year now, except occasionally (once a month). This is a big deal. I still jump up from bed abruptly a few times every night to make sure that I am not paralyzed. When I am, I can tell I am, and I try to be calm about it until my body is ready to release itself.
I am not a doctor, and I don't know if I am right from a scientific point of view, but what has helped me most is avoiding short power naps (this is the trap that seems to trigger a disturbed REM sleep quickly... leading to paralysis). I now sleep long and well whenever I do and stay absolutely active the rest of the time. This seems to many like, "duh", the logical thing to do. To me, it is something I have had to make an effort towards. I am neither an insomniac nor a narcoleptic, but I enjoy staying awake at night, as much as I enjoy sleeping through it... and likewise, during the day, I find a long nap just as enjoyable as staying active and awake.
Every sunset marks the beginning of a new day just as every sunrise does. The hours of light and the hours of darkness have two very distinct kinds of experiences to offer. As the sky changes color, you are a different person from the one you were, and the world is a different world from the one it was.
So I figured, I will let the strength of this feeling decide what I must do, and when, as long as I can afford it. I follow an interesting and "highly regulated" sleep routine which seems to offer the benefits of sleeping and staying awake during the day and during the night in an interesting sequential pattern. As a result, I am refreshingly active more number of hours than an average person and also asleep a lot more! No more sleep paralysis for me!
It is a physical problem that I know now is not a serious one. In a normal person, when deep sleep occurs, the brain shuts down body movement to prevent us from accidentally hurting ourselves. It also makes sure that we don't act out our dreams, including walking, talking or doing something we might regret later. For the most part this system works perfectly, notwithstanding some rare instances where we say embarrassing or nonsensical things that we would much rather keep to ourselves, or walk into the cupboard in an attempt to go to the bathroom. But when things work well and the REM cycle comes to an end, the mind and the body awaken at the same time, and we never perceive the state of physical paralysis.
To some people like me, the mind sometimes awakens before the body. This leaves us fully conscious but unable to move for several minutes. During this time, we experience terrifying hallucinations. The sense of danger we perceive is something equivalent to a three dimensional horror film where you are the protagonist being haunted by the devil.
I speak of this today because I haven't had sleep paralysis for a year now, except occasionally (once a month). This is a big deal. I still jump up from bed abruptly a few times every night to make sure that I am not paralyzed. When I am, I can tell I am, and I try to be calm about it until my body is ready to release itself.
I am not a doctor, and I don't know if I am right from a scientific point of view, but what has helped me most is avoiding short power naps (this is the trap that seems to trigger a disturbed REM sleep quickly... leading to paralysis). I now sleep long and well whenever I do and stay absolutely active the rest of the time. This seems to many like, "duh", the logical thing to do. To me, it is something I have had to make an effort towards. I am neither an insomniac nor a narcoleptic, but I enjoy staying awake at night, as much as I enjoy sleeping through it... and likewise, during the day, I find a long nap just as enjoyable as staying active and awake.
Every sunset marks the beginning of a new day just as every sunrise does. The hours of light and the hours of darkness have two very distinct kinds of experiences to offer. As the sky changes color, you are a different person from the one you were, and the world is a different world from the one it was.
So I figured, I will let the strength of this feeling decide what I must do, and when, as long as I can afford it. I follow an interesting and "highly regulated" sleep routine which seems to offer the benefits of sleeping and staying awake during the day and during the night in an interesting sequential pattern. As a result, I am refreshingly active more number of hours than an average person and also asleep a lot more! No more sleep paralysis for me!
