Sleep Paralysis Research Paper

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

the feeling of levitation and the sensation that one awakes and is being held to the bed by some paranormal entity. Studies have also shown that paranormal experiences can be directly linked to unstable mental health, as well as the degrading of mental health. As a person's mental health degrades, they are more likely to experience what they believe are paranormal acts. I would argue that while many believe in the paranormal, many instances of the paranormal can be scientifically proven.
There are normal bodily functions that attribute to the belief in the paranormal. During sleep, the body enters a state called REM, or Rapid Eye Movement. In this state, the mind experiences its most vivid dreams. In “Identification of the Transmitter and Receptor Mechanisms Responsible for REM Sleep Paralysis” Patricia L. Brooks and John J Peever state that sleep paralysis “may function to prevent the dreaming brain from triggering unwanted and potentially dangerous sleep movements” (Brooks and Peever 1). This shows that sleep paralysis is a necessary process for everyone. REM sleep along with sleep paralysis is a natural process that every single person experiences, whether or not they remember it when they wake up.
Sleep Paralysis while asleep is a completely normal process, however, experiencing sleep paralysis after waking, is not.

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

them.
Another hallucination type classified by Cheyne was a VM hallucination or a Vestibular-Motor hallucination. These hallucinations were described as “sensations of linear ad angular acceleration described as floating, flying, and falling” (Cheyne 320). These hallucinations could be an explanation of another type of paranormal experience some would describe as levitation. In “Levitation Dreams: Their Physiology,” Lyiard H. Horton states that “Of all dreams likely to be mistaken for reality, the outright Flying Dream would seem to have the strongest chance” (Horton 149). He then goes on to present a scenario in which someone might perceive themselves levitating when they truly aren’t. He presents a woman who is being soothed into a drowsy state by a Christian Science healer. As she drifts to sleep she begins to feel as if she has become weightless. She begins to rise from her seat, feel the matter around her dissolve, and detach from her earthly contacts. Horton explains that as the woman drifts off into a sleeplike state her muscles relax. This relaxation of muscular tension causes her senses to lose touch with what she is feeling. She can no longer feel the chair she is sitting on and therefore begins to feel as if she is floating off of it. The further her body relaxes; she loses more of her localized sensations. As her muscles become more relaxed, she slips into a deep sleep in which she then vividly dreams that has flown off only to return to her original starting place and awake not realizing that she ever fell asleep. This is just one example of the many ways that a simple dream can be mistaken for reality, especially when that dream is so vivid it is hard to separate from reality. (Horton 150).
As humans, we have extremely creative and imaginative minds that sometimes work on their own. When we hear a noise at night in a dark house almost immediately, an image pops into our head of a robber, or a ghost. Our mind tries to explain the unexplainable and paint portraits of things we cannot see. Our minds and their abilities to portray these vivid pictures and sounds can be a cause of some of the major paranormal experiences that people encounter.
In “Effect of field of view on the Levitation Illusion,” Jenkin et. al perform and experiment which dives deeper into a more technical explanation of how someone can perceive that they are levitating when they are not. Jenkin et al. state “The brain relies on at least three cues to judge self-orientation: vestibular information, orientation of the body, and visual cues from the environment” (Jenkin et. al 271). Several different experiments were conducted one of which was called the York Tumbling Room. In this experiment a 28 subjects were chosen all of who had no history of visual, vestibular, or proprioceptive dysfunction. The tumbling room itself was a room full of visual cues such as a set table and seated mannequin. The participants were tightly secured into a chair using thick foam which reduced the subjects ability to sense gravity and reduced the amount of pressure information that would be received by the subjects mind. With the participant secured the room was then rotated into several different positions including supine and diagonally tilted. The participants were then asked what position they were in in relation to gravity. While some were able to correctly say at what angle they were in relation to gravity, many of the subjects were not (Jenkin et. al 272-237). The experiments conducted by Jenkin et. al proved that our body relies on 3 specific cues in order to judge our self-orientation. With one of these cues being hindered, it is possible that our mind will misjudge its orientation. This ties along with Horton’s scenario in which a woman who loses her vestibular cues due to muscle relaxation then believes that she is weightless in comparison to gravity. She lost her pressure information as did the participants in Jenkin et. al’s study.
As we have seen, some of the most common paranormal experiences can be caused by normal bodily processes and the inner workings of our own minds. These processes can be studied and their causes can be proven scientifically. Patricia L. Brooks and John H. Peever performed a study about the causes of REM sleep paralysis and recorded their findings in an article called “Identification of the Transmitter and Receptor Mechanisms Responsible for REM Sleep Paralysis.” In this article they stated “GABA and glycine inhibition causes motor paralysis by switching- off motor neurons during REM sleep” (Brooks and Peever 6). Basically whenever the body is entering REM sleep state there are a few parts of the brain essential to movement that are switched off allowing the body to dream vividly without the risk of harmful movements. This discovery allows for scientists to put a true label on the cause of the natural REM sleep state and the sleep paralysis that is associated with it. Without this discovery, we would not be able to indefinitely say that REM can be scientifically proven therefore we would not be able to state that the paranormal experiences caused by REM sleep and sleep paralysis occur because of our body’s natural processes.
Not only are there scientific ways to prove that paranormal experiences are caused by normal bodily functions, there are also scientific reasons behind by certain people experience the paranormal while others don’t. In “Paranormal experiences, mental health and mental boundaries, and psi,” Thomas Rabeyron states “significant correlations were found between paranormal experiences and mental boundaries, traumas, and negative life events” (Rabeyron 487). [add more]
In conclusion, the paranormal is something that has always fascinated people. Recently, with advances in technology and scientific techniques, there are certain paranormal experiences that have actually been proven to be caused by natural bodily processes along with the inner workings of our own minds. There are still so many paranormal occurrences left to investigate and some may never be proven to have a scientific cause. However, with the continually advancing technology and scientific techniques I would argue that while many still believe in the paranormal, many instances of the paranormal can be scientifically proven.