Sleep Paralysis

[HBioStudie]

Does anyone know what it's caused by???
Thanks a lot...

[Iftekhar]

REM atonia is a normal function of the body. The muscles that move the body are "turned off" during REM sleep, which prevents you from acting out dreamed actions in reality. Non-REM sleep paralysis after waking up ("old hag") is caused by a failure to re-activate the muscles immediately. Normally this condition lasts only a few seconds, but sometimes it can go for a minute, which causes a scary feeling. You are sure you're awake now but you can't move. This is unpleasant but not dangerous.

[mith]

not quite sure what you mean by old hag....

[Iftekhar]

Old hag is an old-fashioned term which was used for referring sleep sickness.

[ushishir]

Some people can experience hallucinations while half awake but still paralysed. These usually involve figure/s in the room but maybe just a 'sensed presence' or a seeing/feeling that something is on top of your chest - the 'mare' in nightmare comes from a word which means "one who leaps on, oppresses or crushes"

Some links:

http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~acheyne/S_P.html

http://www.dreamsnightmares.com/sleepparalysis.html

http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html