Hallucinatory Sleep Disorder
When you hear the phrase, “hallucinatory sleep disorder,” it sounds jarring. However, it is slightly inaccurate. It is actually a symptom of a syndrome known as REM atonia, in which your brain awakens from a rapid eye movement (REM) state but your body is still unable to move. That seems a frightening position.
After all, you may be conscious of what surrounds you but your body feels paralyzed. Ordinary sleep paralysis is normal enough—when you sleep; your body releases hormones that keep you immobile enough in sleep to stop you from acting out your dreams. The hormones tend to wear off before your dreams end, and that allows you to awaken completely functional—even if you still feel a little groggy and would not mind another hour’s sleep.
However, sleep paralysis can also be part of such conditions as narcolepsy (excessive daytime sleepiness) and cataplexy (a rare disorder in which muscle tone is lost transiently); the latter a condition that often affects those suffering the former. Normal sleep paralysis keeps your body from acting out your dreams, but if you are unable to move when you awaken you have an acute disorder of sleep paralysis.
Hallucinogenic sleep disorder lasts longer than normal sleep paralysis—eight minutes is considered average for the condition—and, while you may be unable to move or speak, you may still see what you were dreaming about and believe deeply that it seems real. Indeed, there are researchers who believe that reported sightings of unidentified flying objects or extraterrestrial alien life forms may actually have been testimonies from people suffering hallucinogenic sleep paralysis.
Some of the reported causes for the rare condition—other studies have suggested many if not most people may incur it at least once in their lifetimes—include face-up (on your back) sleeping, which can also be a cause of chronic snoring; irregular sleep and sleep deprivation; stress; sudden lifestyle changes; and, an extremely lucid dream that may trigger the syndrome immediately.
In hallucinogenic sleep disorder, persons who did not have bedmates and were experiencing the syndrome have reported feeling as though they were not alone in the room, often as not a kind of demonic presence. (Several cultures consider hallucinogenic sleep paralysis to involve demons or ghostly presences pinning down or taking over the body.) Some of these sufferers have described feeling as though another being was sitting atop them and possibly trying to suffocate them.
Healthy diet and regular exercise are often recommended to arrest sleep paralysis of any kind but hallucinogenic sleep paralysis in particular.
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