============================================================== To reach ALL SJD members, please send to sjd@satjadham.net ... Do NOT include any other addresses when sending to the list... Include as LITTLE of the original messages as possible........ Message sent by: michaelv@uclink4.berkeley.edu *** Announcement: *** Please register for SatJaDham Fifth Annual conference at the website http://www.satjadham.org/sjd5sd/ ============================================================== They get you while you're sleeping. Michael Vongvanith Molecular Cell Biology 61 1 May, 2000 They get you while you're sleeping. "As I lay there, paralyzed, a great fear traversed through my psychological state in synch with the paralysis overwhelming my every limbs and vocal cords. Unable to move, unable to cry for help, with every breath shortened, I began to fear for my life. I wanted to listen, I can't hear; I wanted to cry out to my parents, I could not. My eyes scan rapidly around the dark room, just as I remembered it before I fell to sleep. Paranoia sets in and the dark pile of clothing on the chair close to the closet began taking a ghostly shape. I recall telling myself: 'Think happy thoughts. Think happy thoughts.' I began praying as I try to force my limbs to move. To no avail, I remained paralyzed and the shape clarified into a human figure with long curly mangled blonde locks and the face began to take details. I tried not to focus on the facial features for fear of seeing something I did not want to. But curiosity sets, in and the pile of clothing completed the transformation into an unfamiliar person gazing into my eyes. What seemed like eternity, the paralysis went away with a sudden jerk of my right arm, and the hallucination slowly dissipated." Similar incidents to the one aforementioned have been recorded throughout history, throughout every culture: from the Laotian "Pee Um" to the Irish "Old Hag." Although extensive research have been made, not all of the mysteries of sleep have been answered with scientific research. The two most puzzling element of sleep, is the haunting experience known as "Sleep Paralysis" (SP) and "Hypnagogic Hallucination Experiences" (HHE). Interaction (and confusion) between endogenous and exogenous sources, between illusion and reality, is an illustration that characterizes hypnagogic hallucination experiences of sleep paralysis. In other words the wandering mind coupled with external elements, such as the reflection of light and environmental noises leads to visual and auditory hallucinations. Sometimes the visiting 'being' is an animal, sometimes an alien, most of the time a demonic presence, but all of victims agree the feeling in the room is one of negativity. Some women have even claimed experiences not only of the threat of rape, but sometimes also rape itself. Scientists have thrown in many hypotheses concerning the causation - With the Sleep On-Set Rapid Eye Movement Period (SOREMP) theory being the most widely accepted due to findings in concrete narcolepsy research. But the most useful by-product of scientific research is how one can prevent this overwhelmingly fearful trauma from ever occurring again, at least decreasing its likelihood to take place . Because of it mystics, sleep paralysis was never fully understood and will never be understood by society as a whole. From the time before Christ (30 B.C.), sleep paralysis have been blamed on supernatural phenomenon, beings, or just a mere 'presence': "When, doomed to death I shall have expired, I will attend you as a nocturnal fury; and, a ghost, I will attack your faces with my hooked talons (for such is the power of those divinities, the Manes) and brooding upon your restless breasts, I will deprive you of repose by terror." (Horace, 5th Epode). (WWW1). Nightmares and nocturnal attacks have been closely connected to myths and monsters across time and cultures. Almost every culture has some sort of correlation between the condition to a nocturnal creature or the more common term: 'ghosts.' Lilitu, an evil Sumerian spirit, is one of the earliest Hag-demons. She was capable of flying, which she preferred to do at night, at which time she frequently attacked men in their sleep. In addition, the Greeks also had their version: pnigalion (the choker) and the barychnas (the heavy breather) troubling would-be sleepers (Coren, 1996). The sensations brought about by these entities are shared among every culture's explanation for the phenomenon, which include: pressure on the upper chest area, the inability to neither move nor speak, and overwhelming anxiety. In Japan, Kanashibara ("to tie with an iron rope") is a common and widely known experience with an experienced rate of 39.8% out of a population of 635 university students (Olgivie & Harsh, 1994). Furthermore, in the West Indies, the attack of Kokma comes at a time that the individual is just falling asleep or just waking up, usually at the beginning or interruption of the Sleep-Onset REM Period (Coren, 1996). The term sleep-onset is described as changes in the host of physiological, behavioral, and cognitive-mentational processes. There is no sharply defined sleep-onset transitional point, researchers can only agreed that there is a transitional period - a transitional zone from wakefulness to sleep. The ambiguity of the length and timing on SOREMP is also illustrated in the different individuals. Studies concluded that SOREMP usually pertains to the condition known as narcolepsy, thus defining sleep paralysis as a symptom of narcolepsy. The first REM period normally happens after a period of delta sleep, approximately 90 minutes after sleep onset, and lasts from about 5-20 minutes. REM periods occur roughly every 90 minutes throughout the night with later REM periods occurring at shorter intervals and often being longer, sometimes up to an hour in length. However some subjects, such as narcoleptics, will lapse into REM at sleep onset, thus the unusual occurrence of SOREMP. Studies on narcolepsy have suggested that sleep paralysis occur during SOREMP. But other researches have broadened the field to include regular REM sleep as a possible environment prone sleep paralysis (Oglive & Harsh, 1994). In both REM dreams and Sleep Paralysis, hallucinations, a general atonia, are maintained during REM by marked and sustained hyperpolarization of the motorneurons (Fishbein, 1981). One likely function of the general atonia is the prevention of the physical enactment of the motor components of dreaming. Most of the muscles of the body are paralyzed in REM sleep to prevent us from acting out our dreams (Fishbein, 1981). Referring back to the stages in sleep-the first stage is a transitional period between waking and sleeping known as hypnagogic state, the muscle relax and the person often experiences a sensation of floating or drifting. The eyes roll slowly and vivid images may flash through the mind-perhaps an eerie unfamiliar landscape, a beautiful abstract pattern or a succession of face. As those sensations and visions come and go, a sudden spasm of the body called hypnagogic startle may momentarily waken the sleeper, and put the sleeper in the paralysis state (Charles & Morales, 1989). REM sleep paralysis with hypnagogic hallucination experiences differs from REM dreams in that during SP there is little or no blocking of exteroceptive stimulation and there is no loss of waking consciousness. SP with HHEs differs from dream experience in that the sensory cortex may be receiving both externally and internally generated information. The peculiarity of the Hypnagogic Hallucination Experiences in Sleep Paralysis may, in part, be a result of the brain's attempts to integrate endogenous cortical arousal originating in the pons with normal sensory input. A similar peculiarity may exist for motor pattern arousal during Sleep Paralysis, thus once the mind has integrated, one's body is fully awakened (Meier-Ewert & Okawa, 1997). But the damaged of a traumatic sleeping experience have already taken its toll on the individual. To prevent this feeling of hopeless anxiety, scientists have hypothesized about the many factors that may lead to sleep paralysis. As is with most sleeping disorders, stress and sleep disturbances are the most common precursor to sleep paralysis (Oglivie & Harsh, 1994). Often time they come hand in hand, because a stressful person would most likely experience a disruption in their circadian sleeping cycle, those causing sleep disturbances. A majority of the testaments that I have read while researching this topic, along with my own, have in some way been related to a stressful or a long weary day. Many subjects reported that they had experienced psychological or physical stress, tiredness, or an irregular sleep pattern, "which might weaken the circadian rhythm of sleep and wakefulness..."(Oglivie & Harsh, 1994). Therefore, it's not surprising that sleep paralysis is common in the under 30 age range. However, some older respondents have mentioned that they had experienced sleep paralysis many years ago, and had gone for many years without any problems until they began to experience family-, professional-, or job-related stress (Oglive & Harsh, 1997). These two factors seem to be the only factor in invoking sleep paralysis and obviously there are no absolute antidote to the condition. Acknowledging the fact that stress plays a significant role in bringing about the sleeping disorder may not seem like much help, but by correcting the sleeping disruption it evokes, can reduce the likeliness of the night-mares. Periods of stress can be largely associated to insomnia: difficulty in falling asleep, periodic disturbances during sleep, and early waking. Sleep deprivation due to difficulty in falling asleep is not as significant as the REM-affecting periodic disturbances during sleep and early waking, because sleep paralysis is closely related to REM sleep (Coren, 1996). Because of sleep deprivation, one may enter into REM prematurely on any given night thus increasing the chance of having sleep paralysis due to the high correlation between the SOREMP and sleep paralysis. The obvious solution is to maintain a regular sleeping schedule, a coordinated time of arousal and retirement. Reduction in late evening cafeinated drinks and certain food intake in the late evening, coupled by stress-free abstinence of alcohol consumption as well as nicotine would reduce stress. Clearly avoiding any of these, especially in the late evening, will help prevent sleep loss and debt, which contribute to increased incidence of sleep paralysis. Work Cited 1. http://info.uah.edu/student_life/organizations/SAL/texts/horace/epodes.html 2. Coren, Stanley. Sleep Thieves. The Free Press (1996). 3. Oglive, Robert D. & Harsh, John R. Sleep Onset: Normal and Abnormal Processes. American Psychological Association (1994). 4. Fishbein, William. Sleep, Dreams and Memory. Spectrum Publications (1981). 5. Meier-Ewert, Karlheinz & Okawa, Masako. Sleep-Wake Disorders. Plenum Press (1997). ----- Sent using MailStart.com ( http://MailStart.Com/welcome.html ) The FREE way to access your mailbox via any web browser, anywhere! _ ***************************************************************** Visit SatJaDham Homepage at: http://www.satjadham.org (or .net) *****************************************************************