SLEEP PARALYSIS (Causes of Sleepiness And How to Overcome Them)

SLEEP PARALYSIS (Causes of Sleepiness And How to Overcome Them)
Picture by Pixabay Free Images

Have you ever felt your whole body paralyzed when you began to lie down to sleep or wake up from sleep? Or, have you ever felt your chest so tight when you fell asleep? Eyes are literate, conscious mind, it feels like screaming at the top of the line to ask for help to be awakened? At that time you feel very close to death, and you want to be free from that feeling. There you seem to enter another realm, with an unclear mind, very light, flash, without burden, but you are very scared if the process will continue to the stage / phase that you are very afraid of.

If so, you are experiencing weakness, or in medical language it is called sleep paralysis, aka sleep paralysis.

Until now, there are still many myths that have developed in the community about sleeplessness. One of the most famous myths is that oppression is caused by interference from jinn or spirits that haunt. But did you know that this phenomenon is a unique event that is officially recognized in the medical field?

WHAT IS SLEEP PARALYSIS

According to https://id.wikipedia.org/ Sleep paralysis or sleep paralysis refers to a state of inability to move while sleeping or when you wake up. Someone who experiences sleep paralysis will usually experience problems to move the limbs, unable to make sounds and so on. Sleep paralysis is usually accompanied by spooky hallucinations or nightmares.

Sleep paralysis occurs when the patient is half asleep, is fast asleep, or is awake when he experiences sleep paralysis. This condition generally occurs when the sufferer sleeps stretched or facing upwards, which is characterized by feeling short of breath such as strangulation, chest tightness, the body cannot move and is difficult to speak out.

Sleep paralysis is believed to occur due to disruption of the REM sleep phase, which causes complete muscle atony which prevents a person from acting outside their dreams. Sleep paralysis has been linked to other disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea.

This phenomenon of slowness is not dangerous and will end after a few seconds or minutes. Every person will experience a paralysis phenomenon at least one or several times in his life. This phenomenon can also happen to anyone, young, female or male. But this is more common in adolescents to young adults.

What causes sleep paralysis?

The many mystical myths that arise around sleep paralysis because this phenomenon makes hallucinations see black shadows around you, which are considered to be spirits. In fact, sleep paralysis actually occurs when the mechanism of the brain and body becomes overlapping, does not run in harmony while sleeping, causing us to wake up in the middle of the REM cycle. When you wake up before the REM cycle is over, the brain is not ready to send a wake-up signal so that the body is still half-awake half-conscious. Therefore, you will feel a stiff body, difficult to breathe, unable to speak, and still in the mind that is waving when you 'miss'.

Get to know the four stages of sleep

There are three stages of Non-REM sleep. Each stage can last from five to 15 minutes. You will pass a total of four years before finally reaching the REM sleep phase. Dreams usually occur during REM sleep.

1. NREM Stage: Sleeping chicken

During the first stages of sleep, namely light sleep, body, mental, and your mind is on the verge of reality and the subconscious - half conscious, half (almost) asleep. The brain produces what is known as beta waves, which are small and fast. Your eyes are closed, but you can still be awakened or awakened easily. Movement of the eye at this stage is very slow, so is muscle activity.

As the brain begins to relax and its performance slows down, the brain also produces slow waves which are called alpha waves. During this period of sleep, you may experience a strange sensation that feels very real, known as hypnagogic hallucinations. Common examples of this phenomenon include feeling like falling or hearing someone calling your name. Familiar, isn't it?

Then, the brain produces high amplitude theta waves, which are very slow brain waves. People who wake up from stage 1 sleep often remember fragments of visual image memory. If you wake someone up during this stage, they might report that they don't really fall asleep.

Another event that is very common during this period is known as myoclonic jolt. If you have been surprised suddenly without any reason, it means you experience this phenomenon. It may seem alarming, but myoclonic jerks are actually quite common. 2. NREM Stage: Welcome to sleep soundly Heart rate and breathing slow down, become more regular, and body temperature decreases. You will also become less aware of the environment. If there is a sound heard at this stage, you cannot understand what the content is.

Because you can skip this stage several times throughout the night, there is more time spent in the second stage of sleep than the other stages, and usually covers 45-50% of total sleep time for adults, even young adults.

When entering the second stage of sleep, the motion of the eye stops and brain waves slow down, in the presence of occasional rapid wave bursts, called sleep spindles. In addition, stage 2 NREM sleep is also characterized by the presence of K-complex, which is a short negative high voltage peak. Both of these phenomena work together to protect sleep and suppress the response to external stimulation, also to help incorporate sleep-based memory and information processing. Our bodies get ready to sleep well.

3. NREM Stage: Sleep well

The third stage of sleep is what is called deep sleep. At this stage, the brain releases delta waves, which are initially interspersed with smaller and faster waves, then will be exclusively dominated by delta waves. During this stage, you become less responsive and voice and activity in the environment may fail to produce a response. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. The third stage also acts as a transition period between light sleep and deep sleep.

It would be very difficult to wake someone who was sound asleep. Usually, if it wakes up, it cannot adjust to changes as soon as possible and often feel nervous and confused for several minutes after waking up. Some children experience bedwetting, night terror, or sleepwalking during the deep sleep stages.

During the deep sleep stage, the body begins repair and growth of the tissue again, builds bone and muscle strength, increases blood supply to the muscles, increases and strengthens the immune system. Energy is also restored and growth hormone - important for growth and development, including muscle development.

4. REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement): sleep dreaming

When we turn to REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, breathing becomes faster, irregular, and superficial; the eye moves in all directions very quickly, like anxiety; brain activity increases; and, heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, and, for men, develops an erection. Most dreams begin at this stage

The American Sleep Foundation that people spend about 20 percent of their total sleep at this stage. REM sleep is also often referred to as the sleep paradox, because while the brain and other body systems are actively working, the muscles become more relaxed. Dreams occur as a result of increased brain activity, but muscles experience involuntary temporary paralysis.

The first REM sleep period usually occurs around 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep. A complete sleep cycle takes 90 to 110 minutes on average. After about 10 minutes in REM sleep, the brain usually cycles back through non-REM sleep stages. On average, four additional periods of REM sleep occur, each of which has a longer duration.

You will lose some ability to regulate body temperature while under REM sleep, so that hot or cold temperatures that beg forgiveness in the sleeping environment can disturb your sleep.

The first sleep cycle every night contains a relatively short REM period and a period of deep sleep. As the night progresses, the period of REM sleep increases in duration, while sleeplessness decreases. In the morning, people spend almost all of their time sleeping in stages 1, 2, and REM.

It is also important to understand that you do not go through these stages of sleep in sequence. Sleep begins in stage 1 and progresses to stage 2, and then 3. After the stage of sleep 3, stage 2 sleep is repeated before entering REM sleep. After REM sleep ends, the body usually returns to stage 2. If REM sleep is disrupted, our body does not keep up with the normal sleep cycle, the next moment we fall asleep. Instead, we often slip directly into the stages of REM sleep and experience an extended REM period until we "catch up" at this stage of sleep.

The study published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science mentions that the sensation of being overwhelmed and panicked from a series of sensory experiences tends to make someone feel more depressed, especially when they have already believed that the phenomenon of sleep paralysis occurs due to supernatural factors. This is what makes some sleep experiences for some people a horrible and traumatic experience. The same study states that people who tend to think logically do not even experience problems or significant trauma after recovering from sleep paralysis.

"Abstinence" can be a genetic factor, but there are a number of other factors that may be related to this phenomenon, such as falling asleep, most staying up late, stressed, supine sleeping position, bipolar disorder or other sleep disorders (narcolepsy or night leg cramps). Sleep paralysis can also be a side effect of consuming certain drugs, such as ADHD drugs or narcotics abuse.

What can you do when you're 'feeling down'?

If you experience sleep paralysis, the thing you can do is take a deep breath and exhale hard. Then try to force a move, like moving the tip of your finger / foot as a form of resistance. This is done to help you wake up and escape the sleep paralysis.

After successfully waking up, Sleep Paralysis does not heal by itself. Sometimes it recurs to 2, 3 or 4 times or more. After you wake up you can do the following so that sleepiness or paralysis is not repeated.

Sleep paralysis can improve over time, you still need to make efforts to prevent sleep paralysis, such as getting enough sleep, creating a comfortable sleeping environment, avoid eating before bed, don't smoke or drink alcohol, exercise regularly, and before bedtime try to do some breathing exercises or reading something fun to eliminate anxiety / stress that can be a factor in sleep paralysis.

1.  Carry out respiratory activities as above,

2.  Drink enough water. So I suggest you always have mineral water or water near your bed.

3.  Wash your face, flush your eyelids and do reflection massage on your joints