Theories Of Sleep Paralysis

You wake to find that you are paralyzed and unable to move or speak.. Can't move a bit, can't say anything. But you’re fully aware of what is happening around you. Feel like a heavy weight of something holding you down and you’re having an encounter with a menacing presence. You might be having sleep paralysis. About half of the population has experienced this strange phenomenon at least once in their life This episode can last anywhere from seconds to minutes, and may involve visual or auditory hallucinations.
In 1867, Dr Silas Weir Mitchell was the first medical professional to study sleep paralysis. He captured the condition with the following description: “The subject awakes to consciousness of his environment, but is incapable moving a muscle; lying to all appearances still asleep. He is really engaged in a struggle
Modern scientists that sleep paralysis is caused by an abnormal overlap of the REM and waking stages of sleep. During a normal REM cycle you’re experiencing a number of sensory stimuli in the form of a dream, and your brain is unconscious and fully asleep. During your dream, special neurotransmitters are released which paralyze almost all of your muscles. That’s called REM atonia. During an episode of sleep paralysis you’re experiencing normal components of REM, dreaming, muscles paralyzed, but your brain is conscious and wide awake. Also during REM, the function that keeps you from acting out your dreams, REM atonia, also removes voluntary control of your breathing. You breath more shallow and rapid. During a sleep paralysis episode, a combination of your body’s fear response to a perceived attack of an evil presence and your brain being wide awake while your body is in REM sleep state triggers a response for you to take more oxygen, but you can’t because REM atonia has removed control of your