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SLEEP PARALYSIS IS NOTHING TO FEAR

    Q. I sometimes wake from sleep unable to move. These experiences can be
    extremely terrifying. What are they and what can I do about it?

    A. Experiences like this are called "sleep paralysis" and they are
    fairly common. Fifty-three percent of a class of 300 psychology
    students reported having experienced sleep paralysis at least once, and
    sixteen per cent at least once a month. Sleep paralysis is completely
    harmless--as harmless, in fact, as REM sleep.

    Nonetheless, the experience can be terrifying. In a typical case, a
    person awakens, but then finds he cannot move. He may feel like a great
    weight is holding him down, making it difficult to breath.
    Hallucinations may appear, often loud buzzing noises, vibrations in the
    body, or people and threatening figures nearby. The sleeper may feel
    things touch his body, body distortions, or "electricity" running
    around inside him. As the state progresses, the surroundings may begin
    to change, or the person may feel he is leaving his body--either by
    floating up or by sinking through the bed. This is an example from
    dreamworker Fariba Bogzaran:

        That night while in bed, I felt that I had awakened,
        but I couldn't move my body. I tried to roll on my side
        but I felt glued to the bed. I tried to move my hand,
        but my hands felt stuck on my chest. I yelled very
        loudly but no sound came out. My fear gradually
        increased until I was out of breath. I heard a noise,
        and a creature with no head and no lower body opened the
        door. I yelled and yelled, but there was no use. The
        creature came closer and closer and I got more and more
        frightened. It sat on my legs and held my hands tight,
        and then it started squeezing my hands and pushing them
        against my chest. I struggled to get out of this by
        reaching out to its neck, but it wouldn't allow me to.
        Finally, I jerked myself out of bed.

    The probable cause of sleep paralysis is that the mind awakens, but the
    body remains in the paralyzed state of REM sleep. The state tends to
    occur in afternoon naps and in the latter hours of the morning, because
    at these times people have a strong drive to enter REM sleep. At first,
    the dreamer actually perceives the environment around him, but as the
    REM process strengthens again and he enters into a dream, strange
    things may begin to occur around him. Anxiety seems to be a natural
    concomitant of this physical condition, and it is worsened by the
    dreamer's feeling that he is awake, his belief that the peculiar events
    are really happening, and the sensation of being unable to move. If the
    dreamer enters more completely into REM sleep, he loses the awareness
    of his body that had caused him to feel paralyzed. At this point, he
    may experience the sensation of "leaving the body," as his mental body
    image is freed from the constraints of sensory input to the central
    nervous system from his actual body.

    Sleep paralysis, variously interpreted, is the probable cause of some
    of the strangest night phenomena, such as visitations by aliens, demons,
    incubi, and succubi, and out-of-body experiences. The same state can be
    experienced in many different ways depending on cultural, religious, and
    personal beliefs. Although there may be some neural basis for the
    strongly negative emotion that frequently colors the experience, the
    associated fear can be minimized if you reflect as they are happening
    that they come out of the natural state of REM sleep and that the
    bizarre events are dreams, and therefore not dangerous.

    People in this state commonly try to cry out for others to awaken them,
    or to force themselves to move in order to awaken. This usually only
    makes matters worse, however, since it increases their feelings of
    anxiety. Anxiety itself may help to perpetuate the condition. A better
    approach is to a) remember you are dreaming and therefore not in any
    danger, and b) relax, and go with the experience. Adopt an attitude of
    intrepid curiosity. Dreams that proceed from paralysis experiences are
    often quite intense and wonderful. Fariba Bogzaran provides an
    excellent illustration. Immediately following the terrifying sleep
    paralysis recounted above, she reported:

        I awakened from this very frightened and very paranoid.
        I opened the door to see if anyone was out there, then
        locked the door and went back to bed. This was one of
        the worst cases of sleep paralysis I had ever
        experienced. I realized that my fear had created
        yet more fear in an frightening vortex of feedback.
           So, I decided that the next time I experienced
        paralysis, instead of fighting the experience, I
        would try to *relax* and see what happened. About two
        hours later the same night, the paralysis returned.
           "Here I go again!" Initially I was a little afraid,
        but I slowly let go of the fear by breathing and
        relaxing. I started to feel lighter and lighter in my
        body. Soon I felt I was sitting in bed, but I could also
        see my body lying in bed. I knew this was a dream.
           I stood up and looked out the window. A geyser of
        colored light particles came through it. I stood there
        with a sense of awe. I reached out with my hands, wanting
        to touch the particles. As I moved my hands, they became
        colorless, weightless, and I felt the beauty of their
        energy all through my body.
           I awoke with an ecstatic feeling of joy. I felt I had
        discovered a way to transform a state which I have always
        associated with fear to a healing and transformative one.

    From this it should be clear that sleep paralysis is nothing to fear.
    
    Dr. Stephen LaBerge