What is sleep paralysis? Is it harmful to the body?

A netizen asked: I’ve been suffering from sleep paralysis quite often recently, sometimes when I’m sleeping at night, and sometimes when I’m taking a nap.

Although everything was normal after waking up, I was still quite scared during the experience, because the feeling of "I want to move but can't, I want to shout but can't, I want to open my eyes but can't" always made me feel like I was struggling to survive.

What exactly is sleep paralysis?

The so-called "sleep paralysis" is medically known as sleep paralysis. It often occurs when you just fall asleep or are about to wake up. It is a normal physiological phenomenon.

The general manifestation is that the consciousness has awakened, but the person cannot open his eyes, cannot move, cannot shout, and feels like something is pressing on the chest. It may be accompanied by nightmares. Therefore, people figuratively call this terrifying experience "sleep paralysis."

As for its cause, the medical community generally believes that sleep paralysis is the result of the failure of the cerebral cortex and motor neurons to wake up synchronously.

In other words, the cerebral cortex has awakened, but the motor neurons that control the muscles have not awakened synchronously, and sleep paralysis occurs.

At this time, the muscle tension of the whole body is the lowest, so you will feel like you can't get up, you can't make a sound when you want to, and there is a lack of coordination between the body and the brain.

To sum it up in one sentence, the brain is awake, but the body is still "staying in bed".

Fortunately, this situation can be terminated by external intervention, such as someone waking you up or pushing you, and the nightmare will disappear immediately.

However, everyone needs to pay attention that studies have found that the onset of sleep paralysis is closely related to psychological factors, and excessive stress, anxiety and tension may all trigger it.

In addition, excessive fatigue and lack of sleep are also triggers of sleep paralysis.

Fortunately, sleep paralysis usually has no complications, and everything returns to normal after the attack.

Therefore, this condition does not require special treatment. As long as you pay attention to developing good work and rest habits, try not to stay up late, avoid excessive fatigue, tension and anxiety, you will usually reduce the chance of an attack.