Thread: LaBerge Article on Sleep Paralysis.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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