Almost eight percent of adults felt the presence of otherworldly forces in their dreams. There is only one scheme: I suddenly woke up from someone's gaze, I could not move. Some people think that someone is sitting on their chest or squeezing their throat. Doctors call this sleep paralysis. This condition occurs due to chronic fatigue, stress and lack of sleep.
Like a horror movie
“I wake up and understand: I cannot move. I shout - "Mommy, help me", but she, like in horror films, does not hear me and is serenely watching TV. It's like I'm an invisible ghost. Instead of screaming, I made only mooing. You strain your ligaments, but there is no sound."
“Yes, it's terrifying. You can do nothing with the body. Someone is near, but I am not able to move and utter a word."
“And I did it once. I slept on my side, woke up, I could not move, and at the same time it seemed to me that someone's hand was hugging me and did not allow me to move (at that moment I lived alone). This state lasted for several seconds."
There are many similar testimonies on the Internet. American researchers have even created a website that has been collecting such confessions for over ten years. According to them, students most often suffer from sleep paralysis (more than 28 percent) and those who experience severe stress. According to some estimates, about eight percent of adults have experienced this condition at least once in their life, according to others - up to sixty.
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Sleep shackles
“When a person falls asleep, he first goes into a superficial sleep, then the sleep deepens, and at the end dreams appear - this is the phase of REM sleep. At this time, muscle tone is necessarily turned off so that a person does not make the movements that he dreams about. Sometimes REM sleep comes too early or too late. In some cases - even when the person has not yet fallen asleep. Then muscle tone is turned off in an awake person. As a result, he understands everything, is aware, but cannot move, because he has partially already had a REM sleep. This is the essence of sleep paralysis,”explains Mikhail Poluektov, Associate Professor of the Department of Nervous Diseases and Neurosurgery, Sechenov University, Head of the Sleep Medicine Department of the University Clinical Hospital No. 3, Candidate of Medical Sciences.
In the phase of REM sleep, muscle tone is turned off so that a person does not move in a dream and cannot injure himself. In some cases, the phases of sleep overlap, and when falling asleep or waking up, the person is conscious, but cannot move. This condition is called sleep paralysis. Illustration by RIA Novosti.
Together with a colleague from the Southern Swiss Neurocenter, Professor Claudio Bassetti, he has been studying narcolepsy for the third year already, a disease of the nervous system, one of the symptoms of which is sleep paralysis.
“According to our data, hallucinations and sleep paralysis are common in almost 60 percent of patients with narcolepsy. But the opposite is not true. Very few of those who have experienced sleep paralysis have narcolepsy. Therefore, if this condition occurs once, you should not run to the doctor. But if this happens often, then, of course, it is better to consult with a specialist. Moreover, while you are at risk, the disease manifests itself between the ages of 15 and 25,”clarifies Claudio Bassetti.
A dream like death
According to the work of American neurophysiologists, the sensations experienced by people with sleep paralysis are very similar to those of near-death. People see themselves as if from the outside, they cannot move, they feel the presence of otherworldly forces - most often demonic. This is due to the peculiarities of the functioning of the brain, the researchers suggest. In particular, meetings with ghosts in sleep paralysis are explained by the increased activity of the midbrain caused by the need to distinguish between potential threats during sleep.
“There is probably some genetic predisposition to narcolepsy, and more broadly to sleep paralysis. But this is only a hypothesis. So far, a link has been proven between sleep paralysis and sleep disturbances - say, when people do not sleep enough or sleep very poorly. It can also trigger stress,”adds Professor Bassetti.
According to Mikhail Poluektov, sleep paralysis does not harm a person in any way. It lasts no more than two minutes, usually a few seconds, and leaves no traces other than unpleasant memories.
“Of course, you can take medicine. But this is only if the attacks are frequent. Otherwise, it is enough to normalize sleep patterns, reduce physical activity, and reduce stress levels,”the scientist recommends.
Alfiya Enikeeva