Sleep Paralysis Research Paper

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Humans from virtually every culture have been experiencing the paranormal from the beginning of documented history. The definition of paranormal is something that is “beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.” The belief in whether or not these experiences can be proven as scientific has been argued over centuries. The increase in scientific technology and research has led many scientists to perform studies on some of the most common paranormal experiences. The most solid example of being able to scientifically prove paranormal experiences lies within the body's normal function of REM sleep and sleep paralysis. This, and other, normal bodily functions can attribute to several different types of paranormal experiences including …show more content…

Sleep Paralysis as it functions normally, will be active while a body is asleep and be deactivated by the body before waking. Sometimes however, this process does not happen in the correct order. When this happens, the mind actually wakes while the body is still left paralyzed as well the mind still being in its vivid REM state. As stated by J.A. Cheyne in “Sleep paralysis episode frequency and number, types, and structure of associate hallucinations” “Sleep paralysis (SP) episodes are often accompanied by vivid hallucinoid experiences” (Cheyne 319). These hallucinations are experienced due to the mind still being in an REM state, its most vivid state of dreaming. The experiences that could be easily linked with this abnormality would be ones such as the feeling of waking up believing an entity is holding you to the bed and suffocating you. The immobility is caused by sleep paralysis while the hallucinations of an entity are due to the REM sleep state. According to Cheyne this type of hallucination tied to sleep paralysis would be classified as either an Incubus or Intruder hallucination. In her article she classifies an Intruder hallucination as “typically includ[ing] a vague sense of a threatening presence accompanied by assorted noises, footsteps, gibbering voices, humanoid apparitions and sensations of being touched or grabbed.” Incubus hallucinations on the other hand “include breathing difficulties, feelings of suffocation, bodily pressure, pain, and morbid thoughts of impending death” (Cheyne 320). These classifications allows scientists to further group and analyze the different types of hallucinations associated with sleep paralysis and discover what causes

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