Sleep Paralysis Is Terrifying But What Exactly Is It?

Sleep paralysis. It sounds just about like the scariest thing that can happen to you. Basically, you wake up and you feel fine but, for a few seconds (and in rare cases, minutes), you physically can’t move a muscle.

It’s not known to cause any harm but still, people who have experienced it have said it to be petrifying.

There seems to be no correlation in how it strikes with some people being affected more than others. Some suffer from it once or twice in their lives and others have it several times a month.

As the NHS would have it, sleep paralysis can affect people of all ages, but it’s more common in teenagers and young adults.

Naturally, there are some people out there that put the experience down to supernatural powers coming to play. Some who have experienced it have claimed to have felt a lurking presence or even something sitting on their chest. However, it’s generally accepted that these are hallucinations caused from being in a dream-like state.

There is no explanation to sleep paralysis set in stone, however the most accepted theory is that, in the transition between being asleep and awake, your body enters a state of voluntary paralysis to stop you from acting out your dreams. If the state doesn’t occur, that’s when sleepwalking happens. However, in the case of sleep paralysis, someone wakes up whilst still in the paralysed state that your body has taken.

Sleep paralysis sufferer Gareth Fletcher told NHS Choices:

“I first experienced sleep paralysis when I was 16. I remember it vividly, I went to bed one night as usual, but at some point I woke up and was unable to move a muscle. I was conscious and aware that I was in my bed, but my entire body was paralysed. It may have only lasted a few seconds, but the experience was terrifying.”

Whilst it can be a sign of narcolepsy, it is rarely connected to anything and, for the most part, can be dismissed as a scary thing that sometimes happens.

Tell us what you think. Have you ever experienced it? Let us know in the comments!