What is sleep paralysis, and how to stop sleep paralysis?

For anyone who dives into lucid dreaming and tries to encounter the unconscious forget that the unconscious aspect of our minds contains emotionally troubling themes and imagery. These fearful based experiences often manifest themselves in troubling ways which can piggyback on a natural process that happens to each of us every night, the paralysis that our bodies are put into naturally by our brains. This combined phenomenon is called sleep paralysis and is common among lucid dreamers. Sleep paralysis is so common among lucid dreamers that I have found that discussing sleep paralysis and hallucinations should be done before individuals start to practice lucid dreaming. Understanding what sleep paralysis is can relieve some of the anxiety when you go through the experience yourself.

Sleep paralysis is put into place so that we don’t act out and can remain safe while we dream. Sleep paralysis is the process of being aware while your brain naturally paralyzes your body to get it ready for dreaming. Though sleep paralysis is known for its paralysis like effects which by itself can be terrifying for those who don’t understand what is happening to them, the more troubling experience is in the hallucinations that can follow, including physical, emotional, auditory, and visual dramatizations of our deepest fears. The key to preparing yourself for these often nightmarish like experiences of sleep paralysis which is common with lucid dreaming is by understanding why the fear is generated in the first place.

 

What is Sleep Paralysis?

I have been researching sleep paralysis since my first terrifying experience with the phenomenon. I was living by myself in an old house in Virginia while working in the military. What I thought was my friend ended up jumping on my back and pushing me down into my bed to the point I could not move. Eventually, I was able to break out of the pressure he seemed to exert down on me, but as I was able to move I noticed I was suddenly alone in my room. This terrified me because at the time I didn’t understand what had just occurred. It took me months of research and reading to understand what sleep paralysis was and after a number of terrifying additional experiences with sleep paralysis over a series of nights, I managed to stand up to my fears produced by the hallucinations which removed its power over my dreams.

Sleep paralysis happens when our bodies are going to sleep but we are still partially awake. This happens because of our brains transition between REM and NREM and while we are going through that transition we are often still dreaming. Sometimes we are aware of that transition while it takes place, and the result is often terrifying hallucinations which can range from visitors coming into our rooms, to the basic feeling of being watched.

Another aspect of sleep paralysis is that the paralysis part of the experience is caused by REM activation. According to Dr. Rubin Naiman a psychologist, clinical assistant professor of medicine and the sleep and dream specialist at the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine, REM is emotionally driven. He says that the more that you react with fear the more that it draws us into REM and the worse the experience can get. The idea here is to not react but to relax.

Here is a nice article talking about things we see during NREM that is published by a peer-reviewed source.

Because we are still able to dream in these states we can often experience dreams that are a bit different than when we are fully unconscious. Usually, sleep paralysis is described as a combination of the feeling of being paralyzed and the feeling of a presence or the visualization of terrifying creatures. Being paralyzed during sleep is scary but it’s also natural. Our bodies put us to sleep every night so that we don’t act out the dreams to our significant others or peering neighbor. Sleepwalking is an example of this mechanism not working during sleep. Exploring more into this topic, scientist conducted studies where they removed the part of a cat’s brain called the pons, and watch cats essentially sleepwalk. The cats would act as though they were awake chasing what seemed to be imaginary mice. Luckily for us, we still have our pons but unfortunately, sometimes our don’t work just right.

“Deep inside the reptile brain sits the pons, a hump in the brainstem an inch long. When we fall asleep, the pons initiates dreaming by sending signals through the mammal brain to the primate brain, where dreams stir to life. During dreams, the pons also dispatches a message to the spinal cord beneath it, which produces chemicals to make your muscles flaccid. This temporary paralysis prevents you from acting out nightmares by fleeing the bedroom or taking swings at werewolves.” – science writer Sam Kean

While we are in this paralysis state we can wake up and also hallucinate images in our environment. These hallucinations occur because we are still partially asleep and are able to dream our internal experiences on top of reality. Sleep paralysis is a lot like augmented reality for the brain.

The fearful aspect of sleep paralysis is often noticeable without terrifying hallucinations. Often individuals report that sleep paralysis automatically installs a sense of dread in them regardless of what they see or experiences. There is part of your brain called the amygdala which is to blame for this as it is often considered by researchers as the seat of fear in our brains. This part of the brain is often super activated during sleep paralysis, and sleep researchers have concluded that this is why we are often troubled by nightmares in conjunction with sleep paralysis. Here 

 

How to Stop Sleep Paralysis

There is no known way to stop sleep paralysis from happening to you. Researchers are still unsure as to why some people experience sleep paralysis and some don’t. What is pretty consistent with the research is that if you practice lucid dreaming techniques you are more likely to experience sleep paralysis. Some lucid dreaming techniques such as the Wake Back to Bed Method and the Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming technique (which we will talk about in later chapters) encourage the practitioner to feel the effects that resemble or mimic sleep paralysis. I personally have sleep paralysis on and off for years now and I can sometimes go months without having an experience, but sometimes I will have sleep paralysis a few nights in a row without using any lucid dreaming techniques. If you are trying to stop the effects of sleep paralysis there are a few things you can do to help reduce your chances of it occurring. Those options are:

• Don’t sleep on your back
• Sleep in locations that you are familiar with
• Don’t take naps during the day
• Get exercise during the day
• Don’t be stressed before going to bed
• Don’t do, eat, or drink things that can make you excited before you sleep
• Use a sleep mask to keep light from entering your eyes and help to keep your eyes closed
• Get plenty of sleep each night
• Have a healthy diet

If you happen to have sleep paralysis occur to you, there are a few things you can do to break free from the paralysis while it’s occurring. Those techniques are:

• Move your toes or fingers
• Relax
• Breath heavy breaths of air
• Close your eyes and think about spinning
• Talk to your doctor. I always recommend this because they know best