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All about sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon, the causes of which have not been adequately explained

The phenomenon called `Sleep Paralysis' has proved to be a challenge to physicians and researchers. It is now being studied as an explanation for terrors and nightmares, which people experience at night across all cultures and at all times.

It consists a period of inability to perform voluntary movements either at sleep onset (hypnogogic) or upon awakening (hypnopompic).

Muscle paralysis

The patient may be incapacitated for the task of moving his body or limbs at the onset of sleep or upon awakening or sometimes with episodes of partial or complete skeletal muscle paralysis.

It is a condition in which a person invariably lying in a supine (face up) position, when about to drop off to sleep or just about to wake up from sleep, realises that he/she is unable to move, articulate or even to produce throaty sounds.

This may be conspicuously persisting for a few seconds or several moments or even longer.

An apparition by the side

Many people frequently report of vague feeling of an inexplicable, "apparition like" presence of something beside them that is often described as malevolent, threatening, vicious or evil.

To understand this phenomenon, a number of historical and urban cultural myths are available.

For example, in the book `Incubus' by Kiessling, it was described as `half-man half-beast' attacking the vulnerable people producing the `nightmare.'

The history

The word nightmare has been derived from the word `Incubus,' meaning `one who leaps on, oppresses or crushes.'

This strange being is called the `Old Hag' and is well described in Shakespeare's `Romeo and Juliet.'

The `Old Hag' attack is associated with extreme pressure on the chest, when the person is fast asleep on his back.

He may even feel he is being choked or bitten. Researchers say that about 25 to 30 per cent of people experience at least a mild form of `sleep paralysis' at least once.

A hallucination

Sleep paralysis is believed, by some, as mere hallucination occurring as a result of a dysfunction or malfunction of the normal Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state of sleep deprivation. It is most often associated with recurrent uncontrollable desire for sleep (narcolepsy), a neurological condition in which the person may have involuntary naps.

There is no known explanation why some people experience this kind of sleep paralysis, why they report intense fear during the episode and how they gradually or abruptly become free from paralysis and move about by a simple sound or a touch on his body.

This kind of sleep paralysis has been happening to people over the past many centuries, producing or inducing in people much anxiety, tension and terror, but with no drastic consequences.

Treatment

The treatment in severe cases, where episodes take place at least once a week for six months, medication may be necessary.

The episodes may be minimised or made extinct by following a good schedule of sleep hygiene with sound sleep and regular exercises (but not too close to bed time).

C. P. SOMASUNDARAM

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