**My battles with SLEEP PARALYSIS **
Yes!!! Sleep paralysis, I'm sure you probably wondering what sleep paralysis is right?
It's sounded weird to me the first time I saw it online also but before I proceed I would like to tell you a short story about my sleep paralysis experience .
My sleep paralysis wasn't a nice experience at all if only I knew on time it wasn't something serious and it's can be prevented it will have been nice.
ignorance is not an excuse
I can't really remember when it's started but I just know there are times I had difficulty waking up,it was the most scary thing ever, like my mind is conscious but my body is not, I cant move or talk for some minutes ,it feels like someone is at the window about to hurt me or I'm about to take my last breathe, and at times its the feeling that I'm falling down from a high building. I started seeing thing that are not there..I used to feel it's a bad dream or something then it got more frequent that when I told my parent about it , it sounded like Im making things up so I let it be and suffered in silence. During exams season,i hardly sleep, their is always a change in my sleep pattern, so it got really frequent and last longer, this time around I have had enough, something is wrong and I need to know what is wrong, so I decided to research about it then I found the term used to describe what I was going through is SLEEP PARALYSIS
**what is SLEEP PARALYSIS? **
Sleep paralysis in a lame man language is a sleep disorder .
Sleep paralysis is also a feeling of your mind being awake but your body is still asleep, you are conscious but you cant move any part of your body nor speak, you start seeing things that are not there {hallucinations} and its accompany by intense fear.
Sleep paralysis is a common phenomenon among young individuals
Its important to note that sleep paralysis last only for a short period of time and does not endanger the body in any way nor affect the body on a long run.
Those afflicted with sleep paralysis usually see things that are not there( hallucination) or sense a danger in the room, find it hard to breathe, the individual believes they are about to die or the sense of falling from a high building
NOTE: sleep paralysis is not limited to just specific group of people. Its can happen to anyone (man or woman) and its affects everyone in a similar way.
Before scientist finds out what sleep paralysis is, people thinks it's one evil spirit that sit on the individual chest and preventing consciousness of the body, so people was majorly consumed in that thought with great fear and that fear can lead to frequent in Sleep Paralysis.
According to research, high rates of sleep paralysis have been found in Egypt, because of their belief that sleep paralysis inovles spirit like creatures.
Causes of sleep paralysis
Sleep paralysis happens when there is disruption of the REM sleep cycle.
REM : raid eyes movement is a period when the muscles in the body are turned off so as the body will not injure itself from acting out dreams. The individual sleeping position or sleeping pattern can also lead to sleep paralysis and sleep paralysis can be inherited also.
Its important to note that sleep paralysis is not a medical diagnosis and it can be prevented by talking a walk or exercising few hours before bed, improvement in sleeping habits.
Exercise more
But if sleep paralysis becomes too frequent ,its advisable to go see your doctor as it could be as a result of another type of sleeping disorder that has not been treated.
You can be sure the next sleep paralysis I had after all the knowledge I gathered wasn't as scary as the previous once because now I try as much as possible to prevent it.
After all the knowledge I gathered I still went to do a check up to be sure it wasn't another form of another sleep disorder, but my doctor assured me it's just sleep paralysis and I just need a good diet, improve my sleeping pattern and I will be just fine
It's been a while now that I have sleep paralysis but when ever I do I just try and tell my mind this is just temporary, you going to be fine soon and that's has always worked!!!!
Thank you for reading and I hope youve been able to learn one thing or the other from this post and please feel free to share your own SP experience at the comment section
**References **
https://soundhealthsolution.com/sleep-paralysis/
http://pediaa.com/why-does-sleep-paralysis-occur/
https://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.org/spiritual-problems/sleep-disorders/sleep-paralysis/