SLEEP PARALYSIS

You woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and tried to get up but you couldn't. You are wide awake now but your body seems to be disobeying you. You try harder to move but it seems like your body is frozen, like you are paralyzed from your neck downwards.
To your horror, there is someone in your room, a total stranger staring at you, you try to shout for help nothing comes out, you try to pray out loud no sound. You can't really make out the face of this person but as you try to figure it out, you start feeling like someone is pressing your chest down and you seem out of breath. Then after many seconds pass by, what seems an eternity, your leg suddenly responses and everything comes back to normal. YOU JUST EXPERIENCED THE HORROR THAT IS SLEEP PARALYSIS. I have experienced this too and its one of the scariest thing that can ever occur to you.

SLEEP PARALYSIS
Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or awakening, temporarily experience an inability to move. More formally, it is a transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It can occur at sleep onset or upon awakening, and it is often associated with terrifying visions (e.g. an intruder in the room), to which one is unable to react due to paralysis. It is believed a result of disrupted REM sleep, which is normally characterized by complete muscle atonia that prevents individuals from acting out their dreams. Sleep paralysis has been linked to disorders such as narcolepsy, migraines, anxiety disorders, and obstructive sleep apnea; however, it can also occur in isolation.

The two major classifications of sleep paralysis are isolated sleep paralysis (ISP) and recurrent isolated sleep paralysis (RISP). Of these two types, ISP is much more common than RISP. ISP episodes are infrequent and of short duration, approximately one minute. Sleep paralysis might even only occur once in an individual's lifetime. As the name suggests, recurrent isolated sleep paralysis is a chronic condition. The individual suffers from frequent episodes throughout their lifetime. One of the major differences between ISP and RISP is duration. RISP episodes can last for up to an hour or longer, and have a much higher occurrence of perceived out of body experiences—while ISP episodes are generally short (usually no longer than one minute) and are typically associated with the intruder and incubus hallucinations. ISP episodes can, however, persist for up to half an hour. With RISP the individual can also suffer back to back episodes of sleep paralysis in the same night while this is unlikely in individuals who suffer from ISP.

 The paralysis can last from several seconds to several minutes, with some rare cases being hours, "by which the individual may experience panic symptoms". As the correlation with REM sleep suggests, the paralysis is not entirely complete; use of EOG traces shows that eye movement is still possible during such episodes; however, the individual experiencing sleep paralysis is unable to speak.

Many people that experience sleep paralysis are struck with a deep sense of terror, because they sense a menacing presence in the room while paralyzed—hereafter referred to as the intruder. This phenomenon is believed to be the result of a hyper vigilant state created in the midbrain. More specifically, the emergency response activates in the brain when individuals wake up paralyzed and feel vulnerable to attack. This helplessness can intensify the effects of the threat response well above the level typical to normal dreams; this could explain why hallucinations during sleep paralysis are so vivid. Normally the threat activated vigilance system is a protective mechanism the body uses to differentiate between dangerous situations and determine whether the fear response is appropriate.This threat vigilance system is evolutionarily biased to interpret ambiguous stimuli as dangerous, because "erring on the side of caution" increases survival chances. This could explain why those who experience sleep paralysis generally believe the presence they sense is evil.

PREVENTION

Several circumstances have been identified that are associated with an increased risk of sleep paralysis. These include insomnia and sleep deprivation, an erratic sleep schedule, stress, overuse of stimulants, physical fatigue, as well as certain medications that are used to treat ADHD. It is also believed that there may be a genetic component in the development of RISP due to a high concurrent incidence of sleep paralysis in monozygotic twins. Sleeping in the supine position has been found to be an especially prominent instigator of sleep paralysis.

Sleeping in the supine position is believed to make the sleeper more vulnerable to episodes of sleep paralysis because in this sleeping position it is possible for the soft palate to collapse and obstruct the airway. This is a possibility regardless of whether the individual has been diagnosed with sleep apnea or not.

 By maintaining a regular sleep schedule and observing good sleep hygiene, one can reduce chances of sleep paralysis. It helps subjects to reduce the intake of stimulants and stress in daily life by taking up a hobby or seeing a trained psychologist who can suggest coping mechanisms for stress. However, some cases of ISP and RISP involve a genetic factor—which means some people may find sleep paralysis unavoidable.

CULTURAL BELIEFS

• In Scandinavian folklore, sleep paralysis is caused by a mare, a supernatural creature related to incubi and succubi. The mare is a damned woman, who is cursed and her body is carried mysteriously during sleep and without her noticing. In this state, she visits villagers to sit on their rib cages while they are asleep, causing them to experience nightmares.

• Folk belief in Newfoundland, South Carolina and Georgia describe the negative figure of the hag who leaves her physical body at night, and sits on the chest of her victim. The victim usually wakes with a feeling of terror, has difficulty breathing because of a perceived heavy invisible weight on his or her chest, and is unable to move i.e., experiences sleep paralysis. This nightmare experience is described as being "hag-ridden" in the Gullah lore. 

• In Nigeria, "ISP appears to be far more common and recurrent among people of African descent than among whites or Nigerian Africans," and is often referred to within African communities as "the Devil on your back."
• Ogun Oru is a traditional explanation for nocturnal disturbances among the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria; ogun oru (nocturnal warfare) involves an acute night-time disturbance that is culturally attributed to demonic infiltration of the body and psyche during dreaming. Ogun oru is characterized by its occurrence, a female preponderance, the perception of an underlying feud between the sufferer's earthly spouse and a 'spiritual' spouse, and the event of bewitchment through eating while dreaming. The condition is believed to be treatable through Christian prayers or elaborate traditional rituals designed to exorcise the imbibed demonic elements.
• In Zimbabwean Shona culture the word Madzikirira is used to refer something really pressing one down. This mostly refers to the spiritual world in which some spirit—especially an evil one—tries to use its victim for some evil purpose. The people believe that witches can only be people of close relations to be effective, and hence a witches often try to use one's spirit to bewitch one's relatives.

• In Turkey sleep paralysis is called karabasan, and is similar to other stories of demonic visitation during sleep. A supernatural being, commonly known as a djinn (cin in Turkish), comes to the victim's room, holds him or her down hard enough not to allow any kind of movement, and starts to strangle the person. To get rid of the demonic creature, one needs to pray to Allah with certain lines from the Qur'an.

• In the Southern states of the United States, elders refer to it as the "witch riding your back."

• In Eastern Chinese folklore, it is thought that a mouse can steal human breath at night. Human breath strengthens the mouse, allowing longevity and the ability to briefly become human at night, in a similar fashion to fox spirits. The person whose breath is being stolen by a mouse sitting near his face or under the nostrils, experiences sleep paralysis.