Sleep Paralysis In Jorge Conesa-Sevilla's 'Wrestling With Ghosts'
Sleep Paralysis
I’m lying on the bed. If you come in now, you'll think I'm sleeping. But I see you. Even though my eyelids seem closed, they swirl slightly. They are the only parts of me that I can move. I am fully aware of it, but I cannot tell you: my body is completely frozen. All are paralyzed during sleep (REM), sleep stage where sleep occurs. If we were not paralyzed, we would realize our dreams by endangering ourselves and our sleeping companions. But sometimes, especially when sleep patterns are interrupted or fined, things go wrong: REMs extend to awakened consciousness, our bodies become immobile and our watchful brain blends with dream images. The awakening phenomenon during REM, completely incapable of moving, is called sleep paralysis. This experience can be scary. Trapped in your paralyzed body, you can feel the presence of a nasty intruder in the room or pressure on your chest, crushing your breath from your lungs. Hallucinations can shake the senses: there are sinister voices, supernatural …show more content…
In his book Wrestling with Ghosts (2004), he adopted a refreshing approach to the subject, formulating the paralysis of sleep in scientific terms, without denying his personal and explorative approach. Conesa-Sevilla taught me that people who suffer from sleep paralysis have a unique advantage in dreaming lucidly: they can use their altered state as a launch pad for total control of dreams. It makes sense: Both glossy dreams and sleep paralysis are "combined", according to psychologist James Cheyne of the University of Waterloo in Canada, but these states are different. " Lucid dreaming seems to consist of waking awareness intruding into dreams and sleep paralysis of dream imagery intruding into waking
I’m lying on the bed. If you come in now, you'll think I'm sleeping. But I see you. Even though my eyelids seem closed, they swirl slightly. They are the only parts of me that I can move. I am fully aware of it, but I cannot tell you: my body is completely frozen. All are paralyzed during sleep (REM), sleep stage where sleep occurs. If we were not paralyzed, we would realize our dreams by endangering ourselves and our sleeping companions. But sometimes, especially when sleep patterns are interrupted or fined, things go wrong: REMs extend to awakened consciousness, our bodies become immobile and our watchful brain blends with dream images. The awakening phenomenon during REM, completely incapable of moving, is called sleep paralysis. This experience can be scary. Trapped in your paralyzed body, you can feel the presence of a nasty intruder in the room or pressure on your chest, crushing your breath from your lungs. Hallucinations can shake the senses: there are sinister voices, supernatural …show more content…
In his book Wrestling with Ghosts (2004), he adopted a refreshing approach to the subject, formulating the paralysis of sleep in scientific terms, without denying his personal and explorative approach. Conesa-Sevilla taught me that people who suffer from sleep paralysis have a unique advantage in dreaming lucidly: they can use their altered state as a launch pad for total control of dreams. It makes sense: Both glossy dreams and sleep paralysis are "combined", according to psychologist James Cheyne of the University of Waterloo in Canada, but these states are different. " Lucid dreaming seems to consist of waking awareness intruding into dreams and sleep paralysis of dream imagery intruding into waking