Sleep Paralysis



The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseili (1781) is thought to be one of the classic
depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

A few weeks ago I took a nap on my loveseat on a Sunday afternoon.  I do this quite often on Sundays while my husband watches whatever game or race happens to be on.  On this particular Sunday I napped for about an hour or so and then woke up.  Or so I thought.  As has happened to me on occasions in the past, when I woke up I could not open my eyes or move my limbs.  I strained to do both, and although I could hear noises around me and was aware of where I was, I could not move.  Finally I forced myself into a sitting position and stood up.  But I still could not open my eyes.  I screamed as loud as I could trying to shake off this feeling and felt my way into the kitchen, still trying to open my eyes.  After what felt like several minutes, and still not being able to open my eyes I made my way back to the loveseat and laid back down by now starting to panic and wondering why my husband had not made any attempt to help me.  Within a few seconds I was able to open my eyes and sit up.  After talking to my husband and finding out I did NOT get up, did NOT scream, did NOT stumble into the kitchen and back, I decided it was time to do a little research. 

I've had these episodes sporadically since I was a teenager, but this was the worst of them.  Usually I just "push" my way through it and it does not seem to last more than a minute and fades similarly to a dream, so that by the time I am up and moving around, it just does not seem like that big of a deal.  This time was different and seemed to last longer so it stuck with me.  I Googled "unable to open eyes" and that led me to many stories very similar to mine and finally to the term "Sleep Paralysis" which is defined as "the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Sleep paralysis occurs either when falling asleep, or when awakening. When it occurs upon awakening, the person becomes aware before the REM cycle is complete.  The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes, with some rare cases being hours."  Thankfully this has not been accompanied by the terrifying hallucinations, perceived deafening loud noise and an acute sense of danger that others have experienced.  Some have even reported dream-like objects in the room with them. 

Additionally I learned that during sleep, our body alternates between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. One cycle of REM and NREM sleep lasts about 90 minutes. NREM sleep occurs first and takes up to 75% of your overall sleep time. During NREM sleep, our body relaxes and restores itself. At the end of NREM, our sleep shifts to REM. Our eyes move quickly and dreams occur, but the rest of our body remains very relaxed. If you become aware before the REM cycle has finished, you may notice that you cannot move or speak.  I knew of the term REM and NREM but never really understood how they worked together. 

I don't know if now I will be more relaxed if/when this happens again since I know what it is or if I will be more anxious wondering when the next episode will occur.  Either way in all of the articles that I read I learned that this is not a health concern and not a sign of any underlying condition.  There does not seem to be a treatment or a cause, so now I'm a bit more educated but I don't have much to do with that knowledge.  I have noticed that this has not occurred to me when I doze in my own bed, so I will definitely take that into account when I think about my next nap!