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Tai D asked in Social SciencePsychology · 8 years ago

Is This All There Is to Sleep Paralysis?

I have been having sleep paralysis for the past 8 or so months. Like everyone else, this feeling left me very intrigued. After having repeated episodes, I feel I have figured out why this happens.

Sleep Paralysis is not as uncommon as one may think, although with people having varying stages of sleep paralysis, some do not notice lesser forms of Sleep Paralysis. I however have very intense sleep paralysis. This allows me to think very well during these episodes. I have narrowed down that sleep paralysis occurs from your subconscious mind and your conscious mind running at near 100% at the same time all while the paralysis (a normal body function that keeps you from acting out your dreams at night) create an awesome experience and sometimes frightening. However that may sound, there is an underlying factor that brings your brain to that error, because all of those things in themselves are actually quite normal. The only thing that isn't is the fact that both subconscious and conscious brain (Which these inherently make you feel like you) are not supposed to be working 100% at the same time (hence the hallucinations that some people see during these episodes) and the "Out of Body Experiences" (being the conscious mind telling the motor system to do its thing, and the motor system not responding whatsoever, but the brain thinks that it is). So having all this in mind, what causes our conscious brain to activate and our unconscious brain along with all of it's creative power to run side by side each other? Well for me, every time I have a sleep paralysis episode, it is always before a feeling of a "head rush", this head rush resembles that of having an immense amount of adrenaline pumped through your brain into your body. This adrenaline rush so to speak, is not normal. It instantly wakes the conscious mind in fact! All while preserving the delicate "sleep mode" process the body has as well. when I re-enact this adrenaline rush when I am awake, I tend to also accidentally re-re enact this while sleeping that night, which in turn gives me another sleep paralysis episode.

So, is this all there is to sleep paralysis? What is your take on this? Have you had sleep paralysis before?

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  • 8 years ago
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    I seriously hate it and I get it alot too. The first time it ever happened to me I was young and I didn't know and understand what was going on. I panicked so bad because I tried moving and couldn't then I ended up coming out of it and screaming. Especially if im on my back its hard to breathe because your muscles are relaxed. As far as hallucinations go, I have never had any or seen anything I just try to break out of it by wiggling my toes which seems to work most of the time. I can relate to you when im in the episode, I can have fully conscious thoughts as well. I do however, hear a deep humming sound as I am in it, like theres pressure in my head. Its hard to explain but it could be adrenaline too like you said. I find it happens more often if I try to take a nap in the middle of the day, then at night. One time while I was in it, I was laying on my couch. SOMEHOW, I was able to exert some control, very slowly rolling to my side but it felt like I was using all my strength and then some, like I was fighting something. I ended up falling to the floor and it knocked me out of it. So I absolutely HATE it. Just for some reason I get panicky, most likely due to the difficulty of breathing. Sorry if this was long lol!

  • 8 years ago

    This is All There Is to Sleep Paralysis

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