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Sleep paralysis is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which a person is conscious but in a complete state of full-body paralysis. [1] [2] During an episode, the person may hallucinate (hear, feel, or see things that are not there), which often results in fear. [1] [3] Episodes generally last no more than a few minutes. [2]
A sleep paralysis sufferer may perceive a "shadowy or indistinct shape" approaching them when they lie awake paralyzed and become increasingly alarmed. [ 13 ] A person experiencing heightened emotion, such as while walking alone on a dark night, may incorrectly perceive a patch of shadow as an attacker.
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that impairs the ability to regulate sleep–wake cycles, and specifically impacts REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. [1] The pentad symptoms of narcolepsy include excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), sleep-related hallucinations, sleep paralysis, disturbed nocturnal sleep (DNS), and cataplexy. [1]
Sleep paralysis occurs when one is in a conscious state of falling asleep or waking up but unable to move, during which one may experience dream-like hallucinations. A documentary on sleep ...
In some cases, people experiencing sleep paralysis have frightening and even recurring visions. Known as sleep paralysis demons, these terrors don’t haunt nightmares, but reality.
Its mirror is the hypnagogic state at sleep onset; though often conflated, the two states are not identical and have a different phenomenological character. Hypnopompic and hypnagogic hallucinations are frequently accompanied by sleep paralysis, which is a state wherein one is consciously aware of one's surroundings but unable to move or speak.
Sleep paralysis in combination with hallucinations has long been suggested as a possible explanation for reported alien abduction. [25] Several studies show that African-Americans may be predisposed to isolated sleep paralysis—known in folklore as "the witch is riding your back" "the witch is riding you" [4] [5] or "the haint is riding you."
Hypnagogia is the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep, also defined as the waning state of consciousness during the onset of sleep. (Its corresponding state is hypnopompia –sleep to wakefulness.) Mental phenomena that may occur during this "threshold consciousness" include hallucinations, lucid dreaming, and sleep paralysis.