Sleep Paralysis: Research Assignment and Basic Description

Sleep Paralysis
Name
Affiliation/Institution
Course
Date
Sleep Paralysis
Introduction
Research involving sleep paralysis is indeed recent and according to Katz (2005), findings regarding it primarily include “firsthand reports by people who have experienced its different manifestations.” The occurrence of sleep paralysis is yet to be fully understood but currently, there is enough information to know what it entails, its symptoms, its causative agents as well as the line that separates it from nightmares and night terror. Initially, the lines that separate night terror, nightmares, and sleep paralysis were not as distinct as they are currently and thus people used to confuse or wrongly use them interchangeably. However, studies by sleep scientists and dream researchers have distinctively separated them.
According to the National Health Service (NHS), sleep paralysis is “a temporary inability to move or speak that happens when you’re waking up, or less commonly, falling asleep.” NHS continues to explain that one’s body becomes “briefly paralyzed, after which you can move and speak as normal.” This condition or phenomenon does not last long and sleep researchers estimate its duration to be from a few seconds to several minutes. Customarily, when people are sleeping or when dreaming, the body’s muscles are often temporarily paralyzed, but upon waking up, the body resumes normal functionality. Hurd (2005) explained the implication of muscle paralysis and said that it is “designed to keep us from living out our dreams, so we don’t hurt our sleeping partner as we swash-buckle through a pirate adventure.” The above often leaves people confused and to some extent frightened especially when someone assumes that what happened to them was real. In this article, the author will delve deeply into sleep paralysis and look into the causes, symptoms as well as the application of one’s understanding of sleep paralysis.
Literature Review
Sleep paralysis is a normal condition and cannot cause harm to people. However, some people often get frightened particularly because of the temporary inability to move. Doctors often get to treat or prescribe medication or therapy to people, mainly because they believe that some known agents triggered their temporary lack of movement during sleep. People often go to the extent of claiming that supernatural powers caused sleep paralysis but as sleep researchers have discounted this notion a countless number of times. Initially, sleep paralysis was thought to be linked to deep underlying psychiatric complications, but this idea has since been disregarded.
Biological Aspect of Sleep Paralysis
Doctors often have a hard time explaining to some patients about the difference between sleep apnea and sleep paralysis. Unlike sleep apnea which is genuinely a medical condition and one to be worried about, sleep paralysis does not harm the patient but often leaves many frightened. People experience it differently, and while some may experience it once or twice throughout the...