Sleep paralysis

2006-03-04
, , , , , , ,

more coming later

Sleep and dreaming > Awareness >
(on Wikipedia)

Sleep paralysis is a circumstance in which your body is completely paralyzed (except for your breathing, heartrate, eyes and eyelids), yet you remain fully lucid.

Sleep paralysis generates the stuff of nightmarish myth.

See also:

Table of Contents [hide]

Introduction ∞

//The cholinergic nervous system, which is controlled by the brain neurotransmitter acetylcholine, helps control body movement, such as sleepwalking, tossing and turning, and general muscle activity, during sleep.
— Robert Haas, Eat Smart, Think Smart 0-06-109234-7 page 116.

Paralysis while asleep is the normal condition. The body secretes hormones which relax certain muscles and prevent you from acting out your dreams. Sleep paralysis happens when the mind wakes up before they wear off; a person remains paralyzed although they are fully lucid.

A side effect of this paralysis is that your bed feels a lot more comfortable in the morning when you wake up than it did when you first got into it. It hasn’t changed, your body is just less sensitive.

Times when paralysis is not effective ∞

Some people have experienced times when they have moved during sleep.

I have physically had at least two such occurrences:

  • Waking up with a sliver under one of my fingernails.

  • Waking up with sore arms on one of my earlier lucid dreams, from “swimming” (through the air).

I have spoken in my sleep when under stress and am aware of a number of other circumstances where stages and moods of sleep do not always equal paralysis.

Names and stories ∞

  • Ag Rog, Canada (Newfoundland): A visit from the old hag. (Ag Rog)

  • kanashibari, Japan (金縛り, かなしばり, lit. “bound with metal”)

  • Other possible names: Bogeyman
  • Incubus and Succubus perhaps..

  • Nikola Tesla‘s well-attended lectures involved extraordinary experiments with electrical apparatus, and whom some saw as a sinister figure.

    • Will Murray, “Behind the Mask of Nyarlathotep”, ”Lovecraft Studies” No. 25 (Fall 1991); cited in Robert M. Price, ”The Nyarlathotep Cycle”, p. 9.

Related Effects ∞

  • Narcolepsy may have links, but I kindof doubt it.

There is an opposite disorder where people don’t get paralysed enough as they go to sleep. In a minor case this results in twitching and kicking while dreaming, but in a major case they can get up and walk around.

See also Hypnic jerk.

I wonder if this is why dogs kick when they sleep sometimes. =)

There have also been reports where people have undergone surgery and have remained conscious although paralysed. Some have reported experiencing the pain of surgery! There feels, to me, to be some slight connection here.. perhaps just in the body’s or mind’s ability to defeat the effects of paralysis.

a note to esr ∞

a note to esr
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8079&cpage=1#comment-1989932

–
Well I guess you’re ready for an additional step.

—

You literally were paralyzed.

I’ve had this described as an individually-tailored hormone acting as a muscle feedback-loop block to the “cholinergic nervous system”. I haven’t researched this in some time, so that description sounds off. I think this is the entrance to the rabbit hole if you’d like to pursue science on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholinergic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasympathetic_nervous_system

Terror (no, not fear.. Terror) is indeed common (probably guaranteed for first-timers). This happens, and is universal to (some?) humans enough to enter into mythology in a number of cultures (e.g. Newfoundland/Canada calls it “the hag” or “ag rog”).

When awaking from sleep, parts of your brain are coming online at different times, and doing all kinds of fun things like interacting with one another in novel ways. Hence the vivid end-of-sleep dreams, and “inspiration” upon waking up. Well.. spoilers. Your post means you’re beginning to notice the mechanics of your watchdog. Pulling the curtain back, as it were. Anyway..

If you’d like to experiment with the kind of terror probably stronger than substances and torture, then while in a good mood, already well-rested and on no substances: snack and nap. Don’t meditate or the like, just rest until you sleep without having been tired beforehand.

The important thing I noticed is I have a strong heartbeat and fall asleep without being tired. This’ll likely take under 15 minutes from beginning to end.

If you can sleep with your mouth open, please for the love of $deity pursue that. Yes you’ll be fine when breathing through only one nostril, but.. that’s not optimal.

Be alone, because the last thing you want is to have someone else (or a cat) be associated with the terror enough to need to face the touch of phobia of them you might get.

—

I’ve experienced it naturally, and have noticed that doing the above can trigger it. I’ve done so several times, and.. I’ve faced it. If you ever get there your posture will change.

I could give you additional tips on mindset and such, but I expect you’ll glean that from this text or while you’re in there.

—

For anyone else reading this — for fuck’s sake don’t do this unless you already have some shaman in you. There are good reasons this stuff is nightmarish myth and not the ghost stories of religion.

Resources ∞

Secondary Resources ∞

Random ∞

Footnotes


  1. was www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html [ ↩ ]
3 comments

3 comments on “Sleep paralysis”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *