The scary-looking gremlin, perhaps, demonstrates the feeling of pressure on the chest that one feels during sleep paralysis. A very crucial historic example of sleep paralysis can, in fact, be explained with the help of this very famous, and very creepy, Renaissance painting by a Swiss painter Henry Fuseli. He believed that a 50-year-old woman was suffering from ‘Night-Mare’ until the 19th century, after which it was termed as ‘sleep palsy’, and ultimately ‘sleep paralysis.’ The first medical observation, however, was made by a Dutch physician in 1664.
So much so that Persian medical texts dating back to the 10th century have accounts of sleep paralysis. Likewise, researchers have been trying to explain this phenomenon for a very, very long time. But really, people have been trying from a very long time to decipher why it happens once in a while or every alternate day, but there has been no explanation thus far. Several researches have also consistently shown that people who are exhausted, stressed or simply sleep-deprived are more likely to experience sleep paralysis and other sleep disorders.
That being said, young adults and people with a history of mental illness are more prone to it. The experience is always highly individualistic and differs from person to person. In fact, several studies have shown that most people have at least one episode in their life, and they aren’t even aware of it. It’s a completely natural occurrence, and is definitely not a disease! Sleep paralysis can happen to anyone under the sun. This makes it double scary because we have been conditioned to believe that seeing is believing! The added anxiety of not being able to move your body or scream for help also makes people super afraid of their surroundings. Because unlike the visuals in your dreams which occur when you’re deep in sleep and your eyes are closed, these hallucinations occur when your mind is alert and eyes are open. It also often includes hallucinations and reported nightmares. The episode can last from somewhere between 20 seconds to a few minutes. But, as I said, majority of people have to wait this out. A very miniscule amount of people can slightly move their fingers, wiggle their toes or facial muscles, which eventually helps them wake up the rest of their body. No matter how much you try, even if you consciously know that you’re undergoing a sleep paralysis-you can’t wake your body up. Whereas if it happens while waking up, it’s called as ‘hypnopompic’ sleep paralysis. If it happens when you’re falling asleep-it’s called ‘hypnagogic’ sleep paralysis. Sleep paralysis happens when your body has trouble making this transition. The body MUST go into REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, and must come out of it. Sleep paralysis can often occur in one of the two transitions-when you’re falling asleep or waking up (the reasons for which are still pretty much unknown).
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