What Do Scientists Say About Sleep Paralysis?
Maybe you’ve never heard of sleep paralysis. In the lines below, we will discuss this phenomenon, what effects it has on the body and what you can do to avoid it.
Sleep paralysis is not a serious illness. Scientists claim that it is a phenomenon that occurs when the body rests, generally while sleeping. Experts have included sleep paralysis in an international classification of sleep disorders as parasomnia.
What is sleep paralysis?
If you ever woke up and tried to get up, but couldn’t, you may have suffered from sleep paralysis. It is a muscle condition that causes weakness or relaxation of muscles during sleep. This effect temporarily prevents any muscle movement.
This phenomenon normally occurs when we fall asleep or when we wake up. Sleep paralysis has a very short duration; it can manifest between 1 and 5 minutes. The phenomenon can scare and disturb you, despite the fact that you are perfectly awake and lucid.
You will not be able to move your muscles and not say a single word. Although it can be difficult, it is best to calm down and wait patiently until the problem goes away on its own.
Science explains that this effect is caused by a small failure of the nervous system. The brain wakes up from its sleep state, but due to the deep state of relaxation, the body does not follow the orders it sends for a short period of time. This explanation may seem too simple, which is why many people are not too happy about it!
Symptoms of sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis can occur in a healthy person without prior notice, although it is important to emphasize that this does not affect health. It is a relatively common and common phenomenon. According to one study, about 8% of the population can suffer from sleep paralysis at least once in their lifetime.
In some cases, sleep paralysis is directly related to people who already suffer from narcolepsy. This is an unusual disease that causes sudden episodes of unpredictable sleep.
These are the most common symptoms of sleep paralysis:
Why does sleep paralysis occur?
Sleep paralysis occurs when the body and mind are not properly connected for a certain period of time. During the REM cycle, we dream and our bodies can become completely paralyzed due to the relaxation of the muscles we rest. Glycine and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) are two chemicals that help with this “paralysis” so that we do not move at night.
When our brain wakes up in the middle of the REM cycle, before finishing the whole process, this can cause paralysis, because the muscles have not recovered since the rest period.
The most common causes of sleep paralysis – which, as I said, is not harmful to the body at all – are:
