Scientists have always been fascinated with sleep- how many hours should we sleep, how should we sleep, what should we do just before sleeping, what should we do after we wake up from sleep, how does sleep affect our health? There are numerous researches that try to deal with these questions and there is still one thing that we don’t know much about and surprisingly it is also something very common- with around 10 million cases per year in India only. The tricky phenomena is called sleep paralysis and has generally remained a mystery to scientists. So what causes sleep paralysis and why do we know so little about it? Sleep paralysis is when you are fully conscious but cannot move any part of your body. It can either happen when you are waking up or falling asleep- thus the name sleep paralysis.
Sleep paralysis does not target a specific demographic- it can happen to anyone and affects both the sexes equally. The cause of sleep paralysis still remains largely unknown. A lot of people who have experienced sleep paralysis say that it feels like waking up dead. A person who is completely healthy can too experience episodes of sleep paralysis, but researchers have seen cases of sleep paralysis in patients who suffered from narcolepsy. Some people also reported that during some episodes they experienced hallucinations- which can honestly be very terrifying. Imagine being locked in your own body and consciously experiencing hallucinations.
Although it is certain that sleep paralysis can happen to anyone, there are certain circumstances that might trigger this particular condition. If you are not sleeping properly and keep replacing your snooze time for your smartphone- you should stop- not because well, every adult human being should sleep at least for 6 hours but because lack of sleep is seen to be the biggest trigger of sleep paralysis as of yet. Most patients reported that the frequency of the episodes increased whenever they had a particularly busy week at work and couldn’t catch up on sleep. Some medicines could also trigger sleep paralysis- especially those taken for ADHD. Mental disorders are also often said to be the reason behind the occurrence of sleep paralysis. So is there any way one can prevent sleep paralysis? Although researchers are not sure, it is usually advised to sleep on your side and above all get a good night sleep- but a lot of research still needs to be done.