Sleep Paralysis

Symone Clayton
English Composition 1

Abstract
I was a sophomore in High School in New Haven , Michigan when In school I decided to walk home and skip school, my house was empty at the time so I decided to go into my room and take a nap and that’s when it happened for the very first time. I had awakened and I felt this heavy weight on my body and another feeling that I can only describe as if someone is lying on top of me, forcing me down (hence holding my whole body down) holding my lips and eyelids shut. I could hear though. This lasted for about 10 seconds. During these 10 seconds all sorts of thoughts started running through my mind questioning the reality of this phenomenon and even extended to states where I thought I must be dead! Then all of a sudden, my eyelids opened and I could look around I could even see from my peripheral vision that my brother was sleeping. I shouted and shouted but in vain. Within the next minute I had fully awakened and all of a sudden jerked up into a seated position on the bed. This was one of the most horrific and frightening experiences I have ever had.
At that time, I didn’t even know what to call this episode I had experienced. I felt quite embarrassed to talk about it in general for a reason I don’t know till today. About six months later I started to do my own researches on the incident which had happened to me. My mother wanted me to start reading the bible more and go see Pastor and they felt it was a trick of the devil. In the mean time I had finally found the search to my answers on google to a search with regards to my night terrors. What I saw about this phenomenon that kept happening and after many explanations a website finally had with the term ‘sleep paralysis’. I was so relieved that I had finally found something to call my problem. experienced so many times. This is what I shall be exploring in the paper. I shall look at the general public’s views on it, the scientific view and lastly the religious view on this phenomenon.
When a person, usually lying on his back (in a supine position), is on the verge of falling asleep or is just waking up and is incapable of any form of movement or speech, this condition is referred to as Sleep Paralysis. Lasting from anywhere between seconds to minutes this phenomenon might induce mounting fear and panic in the affected individual along with various forms of sensory hallucination that may be fantastical or horrific in nature.

The inability experienced at the onset of sleep or upon awakening, short episodes of partial or complete skeletal paralysis, and quite frequent occurrences of hallucinations, known as hypnagogic and hypnopompic experiences. Sleep Paralysis often brings out panic, which increases due to the incapability to speak or shout. The Intruder, the incubus and unusual bodily experiences are the three types of hallucinations that a person experiencing sleep paralysis may come across. Science has a very clear cut answer to the mechanics of sleep paralysis. During REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, a paralysis naturally occurs in the body in order to stop an individual from acting out one’s dreams.
‘Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the bodily paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move.’ Throughout history there have been numerous documentations of sleep paralysis. Descriptions of these accounts go as far back as 400 BC in a Chinese book of dreams. Since the beginning sleep
Sleep Paralysis paralysis has been associated with evil entities. The word ‘nightmare’ in the west was originally meant for sleep paralysis.
'[Those] taken with this disease, imagine that a man of monstrous stature sitteth on them, which with his hands violently stoppeth their mouth, that they can by no meanes cry out, and they strive with their armes and hands to drive him away, but all in vain.'
- Ludwig Lavater, 16th-Century Swiss minister.
Sleep Paralysis has mainly been associated with stress and anxiety as induce hormone production which in turn upsets the bodily hormonal balances thus giving rise to sleep paralysis. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTST), fatigue, heavy physical activity, extreme changes in physical activity, jetlag and other stress-related conditions may bring about sleep paralysis due to the disturbance of sleep cycles. Some researchers have also reported a link between childhood sexual abuse and sleep paralysis. Numerous researches have also been done linking final stages of pregnancy to sleep paralysis.

References
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Article Title. Journal Title, Pages From - To.
Last Name, F. M. (Year). Book Title. City Name: Publisher Name.

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