Between Nightmares and reality: demystifying sleep paralysis

In my Childhood, my Cousin told me about her horrifying ghost encounter. Let me narrate it for you. Once, she visited her ancestral house for some festival. That night she was sleeping in the hallway, during midnight she felt someone sitting on her, she was suffocating, not able to move her hands, legs, or any part of her body. She  was unable to speak. She felt as if someone was choking her to death. She heard some whispers, strange and pale noises hovering around her. Later, that day she told this incident to her family members and they believed it was due to some supernatural spirits. I was very surprised and scared by this story. She told me that her aunt too had such an experience one day. Well I don’t know if ghosts, ghouls or any such spirits exist, but she claimed that this was real. When I shared this with other family members, they claimed that they have heard varieties of such stories and incidents.I never made an attempt to learn what it was, how it was, because I genuinely thought this would be true. 

But a few years later when I was browsing the internet I got to know that my cousin was not attacked by her enemy from past life but she had Sleep Paralysis. This is a type of sleep disorder. It affects around 8 - 50 % of the population. Some of them experience this frequently. Lets have detailed insight on the matter. 

Sleep Paralysis is a phenomenon in which the individual is awake from sleep but unable to use his/her body. This is the basic definition, however, an episode of sleep paralysis is much more than this. The person experiencing this will be partially conscious from his sleep, they feel that their hands and legs are being suppressed and somebody is sitting on their chest. Which makes them suffocated. They even experience hallucinations, like feeling the presence of an intruder, or a ghost, hearing whispers, strange noises etc. Sometimes they might also feel “out of their own body”. 

There are many causes for this sleep disorder. It might be because of insomnia, disrupted sleeping schedules, stress, traumas, due to anxiety, or it might be genetic as well. This explains why such incidents are connected to the ancestral curse. 

To understand the process of Sleep Paralysis in more scientific ways let's analyze the sleep patterns of Human Beings. Well, as we know every animal, birds, and even plants exhibit a pattern of sleep. This is generally to take rest, conserve  energy and give a break to our body. During sleep the majority of our body shuts down, however, this doesn’t happen as soon as we sleep. Sleep is a complex process which has several stages. Which are broadly classified as “Rapid Eye Movement” (REM) and “Non Rapid Eye Movement” (NREM). NREM is the first stage when we fall asleep and this slowly relaxes the muscles. During REM, which is the deep sleep stage, we see dreams, thus, we start rolling our eyes. To prevent us from acting out those dreams our muscles are temporarily paralyzed which is termed Muscle atonia. This is rectified before we gain our consciousness or before we are awake. Thus, we never notice this. But, when we have some disturbance during REM stage and partially gain our consciousness we start experiencing this muscle atonia. This happens when we are still in REM (dreaming) and partially awake. Thus, we feel suffocated and hear noises (probably due to dreaming). This lasts for few seconds upto few minutes. However, we may recover soon someone completely wakes us up, or if we impart greater force on muscle to overcome atonia. 

If someone who is unaware of the disorder experiences this for the first time, will be obviously horrified and connect this to paranormal activity. This occurs initially in childhood or teenage or early youth. And may reoccur in 20s and 30s . This is completely normal and is a treatable . To avoid this we should maintain our sleeping schedules and get enough sleep. Should avoid heavy meals, Alcohol and caffeine before bed. Should avoid mobile phones, TVs, Laptop at least 30 mins before sleeping. Having good rest and sleep not only avoids Sleep Paralysis but also improves our mood, immunity, and energy which helps performing our daily tasks efficiently.