Sleep Paralysis Research Paper

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The Horrors of Sleep Paralysis and How it Affects the Body Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night unable to move, gripped with fear. Well if so, you are not alone. You were experiencing the phenomenon that is sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis, while not that common, usually happens to a person at least once in their life due to the fact that the brain fails to reactivate the muscles once the person wakes up. It usually occurs if the person is woken up suddenly from REM sleep. During the experience, the person sees horrible hallucinations, hears voices that aren’t there, and have mortal fear the whole time. To better understand sleep paralysis, you first need to learn about the two sleep cycles: REM sleep and NREM sleep. Once you go to sleep, your brain goes into NREM sleep. This is the part of sleep where your brain processes all the information it received that day. It is also the time where the body recuperates and prepares for the next day (Chanin). After about 90 minutes of NREM sleep, the body enters the REM stage. This is the part of sleeping where dreams occur. Dreaming is the byproduct of your brain going through your thoughts. You see what your brain is going through at the moment. That is why they seem so random ("Fear-Induced Hallucination: How Sleep Paralysis Triggers Hallucination."). Your body generally goes from NREM sleep to REM sleep about two or three times during the whole sleep cycle. While you're falling asleep, your body slowly starts to shut your muscles down in order to prevent you from rolling around and acting out your dreams. They are then supposed to be turned back on once you wake up (“Sleep Paralysis”). But during sleep paralysis, your brain does not turn your muscles back on. This may be due a few things. One reason may be because you were woken up suddenly and your brain did not have enough time to react. Usually

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