How to prevent sleep paralysis? This is what experts say

At this point, García has highlighted the importance of sleep hygiene to avoid this disorder. “Sometimes we do not perceive the importance of always going to sleep at the same time and knowing what hours of sleep we need, all of this is very important for rest. In addition, we must add nutrition and sun exposure. These factors seem isolated, but, if we put them together, they can prevent this type of pathology,” he pointed out.

Despite this, sleep hygiene “is not cause-effect”, as it can happen to someone who does take care of these aspects, although “it has been proven that there is a relationship”, added the specialist.

However, although the etiology of sleep paralysis is not very specific at the moment, it has been shown that there are certain comorbid neuropathologies. “Like people who have a diagnosis of narcolepsy, which is excessive daytime sleep. Generally, these types of patients tend to have sleep paralysis, and schizophrenia is also associated with the disorder.”

Regarding what happens during sleep paralysis, García has explained what happens in one of the phases of sleep: “While we sleep, the brain tells the body to be still, to be paralyzed. In sleep paralysis what happens is that at that moment in which we go from sleep to wakefulness, the body remains paralyzed. It is as if voluntary movement is not possible. would have found out that the person is already awake.”

“The person who suffers from sleep paralysis cannot move, they do not have voluntary movement, something that is very frightening. It greatly affects patients on a psychological level because you find yourself awake in the middle of the night, but you cannot move parts of your body , especially the legs,” the expert detailed.

One of the consequences of sleep paralysis is that people who suffer from it often have panic attacks. “The patient begins to have intrusive thoughts, he may even believe that he is suffering from a stroke,” highlighted García, who assures that “this type of person may need treatment for paralysis and to reduce such extreme anxiety levels.”

Regarding the diagnosis, The doctor in Psychology has stressed that experts, such as neurologists, neuropsychologists and psychologists, know this type of disorder; However, he highlighted that the difficulty lies in the fact that sleep paralysis is not well known socially.

“There are people to whom it never happens in their life, while there are other people to whom it happens once or twice throughout their life cycle. A panic attack is better known in society, in general population, but you know about sleep paralysis when you have already experienced it, something that can make diagnosis difficult for health workers who are not experts,” he clarified.

While sleep paralysis occurs, patients may experience hallucinations. “They can be hypnagogic hallucinations, which occur when falling asleep, or hypnopompic hallucinations, which occur when waking up,” García stated.

According to the expert, this type of hallucinations are “not very concrete”, and can manifest with sensations similar to pressure in the chest: “As if they were putting a corset on, something that increases anxiety.” Likewise, they can also perceive figures or presences of people in the same room. “These are usually both visual and sensory hallucinations. When this happens, the person really believes it is happening.”

In this sense, García has highlighted that until now the reason why these hallucinations appear is not known, although “experts attribute it to that state between sleep and wakefulness, which would be related to the theory of mind, of where dreams come.”

“It is a state that very little is known about right now. It is very difficult, even in sleep studies, to capture that state right at the moment. Not even with psychophysiological measures, such as an electroencephalogram or an MRI. It is quite difficult, unless you make a record for many days, even months, of the same person and you know what psychophysiological waves they have when they go from sleep to wakefulness,” he said.