
Originally Posted by
ritchepaul
Sleep paralysis isn't that deadly as we all used to think. Actually it's a half state between waking state and dreaming state.
There are times that after a dream episode we wake up prematurely. When that happens, our brain didn't turn off the paralysis (by the way, when we are in a stage 4 sleep or the REM sleep, our brain paralyses our body in order not act out our dreams, get it?) so basically our mind is awake and the body still asleeps.
Now, as I said that it's a half state so we're awake yet we can still see our dream. If we realize that we cannot move...we start to panic and it triggers the limbic area (this is the area of our brain which handles our emotions) and turns on the panic mode so the fear heightens. And because of panic mode, we tend to see what we don't want to see and hear what we don't want to hear.
The danger part though...too much panic in this state could trigger a heart attack (labi na tong duna mga sakit sa kasingkasing, hypertension, etc. Mao nang duna agkamatay ani sa sleep paralysis kay nataranta.
(Nakabantay ba mo nga after mo nakamata gikan sa sleep paralysis ang atong kasingkasing kusog kaayo ug palpitation?)
The best thing to do when we encounter sleep paralysis, relax lang. Don't even force to move a finger or anything....just stay calm and let the brain turn off the paralysis.
I know these things coz I'm a psychologist.