SLEEP PARALYSIS

How it sounds (SLEEP PARALYSIS) isn’t as scary as how it feels; you’ll find out in this piece but might not really understand till you experience it. Unfortunately, or fortunately not everybody has or would experience it.

According to Wikipedia sleep paralysis is when during waking up or falling asleep, a person is aware but unable to move or speak. During an episode, one may hallucinate i.e. hear, feel, or see things that are not there which often result in fear. Try and imagine you’re awake; you know that you’re awake but you can neither speak nor move any part of your body involuntarily not due to weakness or anything you can’t just move! while sleeping, the body relaxes and voluntary muscles do not move, this prevents people from acting out dreams.

However, it occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. Often, the experience is accompanied by feelings of being dragged out of bed or difficulty breathing, some people may feel pressure or sense of chocking as they are about to die. Before I made research on this topic, I had a belief of having a demon in the room sitting on my chest or holding me down.

Sleep paralysis occurs in 50% of the whole world’s population but then most people have no idea what it is. “it is not a serious condition” Kushida says but it can be very disturbing. Many people especially Nigerians see it as demonic, they think their village people is finally at work and they are being attacked.

Sleep paralysis is caused by a couple of sleeping disorders, stress, sleep deprivation, panic. Though it is not physically harmful ,attention should be paid if it occurs frequently i.e. talk to a doctor , avoid using sleep pills, proper rest etc.