According to research, around 30 percent of people experience sleep paralysis at least once during their lifetime.
You can experience it either right before falling asleep or as you’re waking up. Some of the symptoms include: inability to move your arms and legs, inability to speak, sensations of pressure against your chest (suffocation) or moving out of your own body, hallucination, and daytime sleepiness. It can least from a few seconds to up to 20 minutes and is accompanied with feelings of fear, panic, and helplessness.
Sleep paralysis is actually the result of normal biological processes. During REM sleep, which is the stage when most dreaming occurs, our brain switches off our muscles so we don’t physically act out what we see in our dreams. A paralysis episode happens when the mind wakes up before the body does. The outcome is that you’re conscious, but your body is still “asleep.”
In order to avoid it from happening, try getting regular sleep, avoid screen time right before going to bed, try to manage your stress, and create a quiet and comfortable sleeping environment.
In case it still happens, focus on your breathing and try to move just one finger or toe. Bit by bit, your body will loosen up and movement will return.
