|
I'm a graduate student in psychology and I actually have done a lot of research on sleep paralysis. Basically, when you are in REM sleep your body becomes paralyzed temporarily so you don't swing and hit shit or hurt yourself. You are not suppose to wake up during this time, but some people do by accident and are still paralyzed. The paralysis usually goes away in a few seconds or minutes. They may have hypnopompic hallucinations especially since they are still kind of in a dream state. This can include auditory and visual hallucinations and occisionally tactile and olfactory hallucinations.
People often describe feeling a presesne around them which is what they find most terrifying. I haven't found any literature on why they feel a presence other than they are hallucinating, but I have my own hypothesis on it and I wouldn't be suprised to see it confirmed in research somewhere.
In the same way that we evolved to be paralyzed during REM we probably evolved that sense of something around us should we wake up. See fear is an evolved emotion that helps to protect us and most people feel fear when they wake up in sleep paralysis. Now imagine you are a cave man in a cave a sleep with other cavemen. You wake up from the deepest sleep, REM sleep because a sabertooth just roared outside. But you woke up and don't realize what woke you up. Nonetheless, you feel a presense and as soon as you are out of your paralysis you get up and hide because you are scared. Your cave buddies though were awoken by the sabertooth roar and they to didn't know what awoke them, but just assumed it had been a dream that stirred them awake and so they went back to sleep. They get eaten and you are the only one left with a couple of cave babes that awoke and hid as well becaue they felt fear when they awoke as well. So the gene that codes for "Feel fear and a sense of presence when you awake from REM sleep" is passed on from generation to generation.
Also I haven't found much research on this but I would be curious to read more, but most people are different types of sleepers. Some sleep on their sides more, some sleep on their backs more, some curl up in a ball, some sleep on their stomach. I'm curious what percent of sleepers get sleep paralysis the most. The only thing I ever read was from a woman who was reporting she had sleep paralysis, but only ever had it when she went to sleep on her back.
__________________
24-15-0 (Official)
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=658046
Last edited by NHB7 : 05-30-2008 at 02:41 PM.
| 
