Sleep Paralysis Essay

Sleep Paralysis is a lot more common than what I previously expected. Most people do not know what they are experiencing and that can be frightening. I have never experienced sleep paralysis before but I find the symptoms, causes, and treatments of sleep paralysis to be very intriguing. It is not something that I wish to experience because almost all of the cases I have researched have been unpleasant experiences. One patient described their experience of sleep paralysis, “I think I mean that sleep paralysis feels like it has no objective life. The experience is defined by a complete inability to interact with the objective world, while still being forced to exist within it” (Byrne). The individuals who suffer from sleep paralysis feel like

Sleep deprivation seems to be a leading cause. When individuals go a long period without sleeping they seem to be more susceptible to suffering from sleep paralysis than individual’s who get enough sleep (Bradford 1). It can also be caused by changes in sleep pattern or jet lag. For example, if you start a night job and you have to sleep during the day. Your body is not used to that so it may cause sleep paralysis. It affects both sexes equally but is more common in teenagers, this could be because teenagers have the most erratic sleep patterns out of all the other age groups (Sleep Paralysis). Some believe that sleep paralysis is the after effect of an alien abduction, whatever the aliens did to the individual caused them to not be able to move or speak after waking up (Adler 32). It has also been linked to different types of medication, sleep disorders, anxiety, and depression (Bradford). When patients have been questioned about their sleep paralysis they have mostly woken up in the supine position, so sleeping on your back could contribute to sleep paralysis (Adler

It is something that can happen once or twice in your life or something that happens for several years so treatment can be difficult, especially if you do not know the direct cause. For starters the person could stay off their backs as the sleep through the night (Adler 12). The individual could try and avoid alcohol, nicotine, and drugs at night as this could disrupt your sleep patterns. They should also not consume caffeine after 2 p.m. and make sure they get a good night’s rest, as these may contribute to sleep paralysis (Bradford). Some patients can get out of sleep paralysis by trying to move their fingers or toes, hearing another person speak can also bring the person out of sleep paralysis. This does not work for everyone, one individual had the experience of knocking themselves out of bed during sleep paralysis and it did not get them out of the experience