You wake up and see everything even hear everything. But when you try to get up, you find that you can't even move a muscle. You see a dark figure lurking in the shadows. It's getting closer. Panic sets in making you gasp for breath. You try to scream but no sound comes out. The shadow is already over you, and you try to ward it off but your arms still don't seem to work.
Before you know it, you're awake.
Thankfully it was all a dream though it felt so real.
Sleep paralysis is a well-documented human condition. In a 2011 study, researchers have found that about 7.6 percent of the total population experience this occasional terrifying ordeal. People have attributed this to having a third eye or malevolent spirits, but sleep experts say there's nothing supernatural about it.
Nor is it an indication of a serious health condition.
The real cause of sleep paralysis still remains a mystery, however, scientists are looking at a certain phenomenon as the main culprit.
During the REM or rapid eye movement stage of sleep wherein we start to have dreams, our body undergoes a state of paralysis called REM atonia. This is necessary to prevent our body from moving violently from the things we see or feel in our dreams.
But sometimes, the paralysis goes on even as the REM stage has already ended. That means that our mind is already awake but our body still isn't.
Our brain, which has just rebooted from REM, tries to make sense of the situation and this is where the dark figures and other supernatural elements come in.
The "Incubus" experience is when you feel someone sitting on your chest causing difficulty in breathing.
Others may find a silhouette of an "intruder" moving in the shadows, a product of our mind being in a "hyper vigilant state."
Meanwhile, some people claim to have an out-of-body experience wherein they can see their real body on the bed while their supposedly ethereal form hovers it.
"You feel like you're moving when you're not because the area of the brain that coordinates that is overactive," said cognitive neuroscience researcher Daniel Denis.
According to experts, there are some ways to help prevent or break sleep paralysis. To avoid it, people can try sleeping on their side or front instead of on their back. To break the paralysis state, one must focus on moving just one small muscle like a finger.
Did these two methods help you get out of sleep paralysis? Share your experience in the comments section!
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