I was frozen for a while before I became aware that I was paralyzed. I remember smokey, dark clouds behind me to my right and  left. I was stepping on-stage for a talk show, but before I could make it to my destination, I felt an intense dragging from the left side my body as if something was dragging me out of bed. I was screaming my friend’s name as we had fallen asleep on the phone, but no noise was coming out. I could barely breathe from panicking. All I remember next was waking up to a dark room with my phone dimly lit and myself full of sweat. I turned the lamp on immediately and texted my friends to reaffirm that I was back to reality. Even then, I needed a few minutes to guarantee that I was no longer dreaming. It was 2:01 A.M.

That was my first sleep paralysis on April 25, 2017. I had immediately scrambled to sleep in my mom’s room out of fear.

As I googled sleep paralysis to understand what had happened, I stumbled upon plenty of articles leading down the spiritual, demonic, and religious paths. As I am already terrified of the supernatural, it only made sense to justify sleep paralysis with science.

Plenty of people have had experiences regarding sleep paralysis associating their dreams and hallucinations with dark figures, demons, aliens, and anything that you regularly see in horror movies. I’m glad I did not experience anything scarier than what I had imagined or I would have been hospitalized. As I spent my time researching this phenomenon, the scientific explanation stands at large- sleep paralysis is an occurrence when your REM, the deepest part of your sleep, becomes disrupted. When sleeping, it is natural for your body to relax your muscles into diminished inactivity so you don’t physically act out your dreams. When your REM has been disrupted, you become semi-awake hence making you somewhat aware of your surroundings, but as a result of still being semi-asleep, your mind is still in its dream state. This is paired with your body becoming frozen since your body hasn’t been awoken yet, but your mind somewhat has.

Sleep paralysis is accompanied with feelings of suffocation, choking, and out of body floating experiences. According to Google, sleep paralysis appears through constant stress,  bipolar disorders, narcolepsy, drug abuse, taking new medications and simply not developing a healthy sleep regimen. It is recommended that before seeking help to try and create a sleep routine including sleeping around the same time each night, surrounding yourself in a quiet environment, avoiding electronic devices before sleep, releasing stress through aromatherapy, meditation, or any other methods, cutting out caffeine after 2 P.M., and overall gaining more sleep in general. If these solutions do not help, seek help with your doctor. There have been reports of patients who have chronic sleep paralysis taking antidepressants to help reduce the REM cycle and therefore reducing it. (Taking antidepressants doesn’t mean you have depression, but it can simply be used as treatment for sleep paralysis.)

Some common techniques to help get your body out of sleep paralysis is first attempting not to panic and understand that it’s merely sleep paralysis (harder said than done, but will help), trying to move your pinky, wiggling toes, sleeping on your side instead of your back, and clenching fists open and shut. If you sleep next to someone, try coughing and hope they wake up to hear or having a conversation with your partner about signs to look out for when you have sleep paralysis such as sleeping on your back, rapid breathing, or quiet breathing so they can shake you awake.

The scientific explanation of sleep paralysis can assist in alleviating your fears of superstitious beings. However, whether you choose the spiritual route and/or the scientific route will be ultimately your decision. Remember- sleep paralysis is only temporary and in your mind. The human brain is a wild, energetic, creative, and complex organ.