During sleep paralysis you may feel: awake but cannot move, speak or open your eyes. like someone is in your room.
For most people, sleep paralysis is not a serious problem. It is classified as a benign condition and usually does not happen frequently enough to cause significant health problems. However, an estimated 10% of people have more recurrent or bothersome episodes that make sleep paralysis especially distressing.
Sleep paralysis itself isn't harmful to you, but frequent episodes can be linked to worrisome sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy. If the symptoms make you excessively tired throughout the day or keep you up at night, check with your doctor. They may refer you to a sleep specialist who can help you solve the problem.
During an episode of sleep paralysis, people may feel like they can't breathe, but that's not actually the case — a person continues to breathe throughout the episode. Sleep paralysis can happen just once and never again. But, for a few people, it may be a regular occurrence.
The reason why sleep paralysis is so scary is not just because you will suddenly become alert but realize that you are, in fact, unable to move a muscle or utter a sound, but also because this experience is often — as in the case above — accompanied by terrifying hallucinations.
Even though waking up with an inability to move or speak can be incredibly upsetting, sleep paralysis usually doesn't continue for a very long time and isn't life-threatening.
Sleep paralysis can affect men and women of any age group. The average age when it first occurs is 14 to 17 years. It is a fairly common sleep problem. Estimates of how many people have it vary widely from 5% to 40%.
Sleep paralysis is often characterized by a transient inability to move or speak during sleep transitions. It may last for several minutes. In general, the ability to move your eyes is preserved. Some people try to scream or call out for help, but this may manifest only as a soft vocalization.
Sleep paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes; episodes of longer duration are typically disconcerting and may even provoke a panic response. The paralysis may be accompanied by rather vivid hallucinations, which most people will attribute to being parts of dreams.
Napping was also linked to increased chances of sleep paralysis episodes. "This makes sense when we think about the likely mechanisms underlying sleep paralysis," Gregory said, which occurs when a person is essentially caught between REM sleep and wakefulness.
Now, a new study suggests the phenomenon may have a heritable cause. In the study, researchers asked a group of more than 800 twins and siblings whether they had experienced sleep paralysis. The results showed that genetics were partially to blame for the strange phenomenon.
