Why Sleep Paralysis Happens

Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis? During my school days, I used to experience it quite frequently while napping at school, and I would try all sorts of methods to break free from it. These days I rarely have that experience anymore, which I consider a blessing.

1. Key Points

Looking back, I wish I had understood the reasons behind sleep paralysis and knew how to break free from it more quickly so I could have recovered sooner. Since you never know when it might happen again, I thought it would be good to learn about the causes of sleep paralysis in advance, so I decided to look into it.

Before getting into the reasons behind sleep paralysis, I first looked into the exact concept of sleep paralysis. What we call sleep paralysis is medically known as sleep paralysis — a condition where, although your consciousness is awake, the muscles fail to properly relax during sleep and instead remain tense, making it impossible to move your body.

So while sleeping, your mind wakes up but your body cannot move because of the tensed muscles. Learning this definition also naturally helped me understand why sleep paralysis occurs, which resolved my curiosity.

This sleep paralysis symptom generally occurs during dreaming — that is, during REM sleep — when the muscles, while tense, become powerless and unable to move. When you enter REM sleep and start dreaming, you fall into a light, very drowsy sleep, which is also why you tend to wake up more easily compared to other stages of sleep.

When you do wake up, the muscles remain paralyzed while only consciousness returns, resulting in the temporary sleep paralysis experience. Learning this made me feel a little embarrassed for having been so scared of sleep paralysis — it turned out to be not such a big deal after all.

This made me curious about why sleep paralysis happens to some people and not others, so I decided to look into it further.

2. Detailed Explanation

Experts say that sleep disorders are the biggest cause. Most people who experience sleep paralysis tend to have sleep disorders. People who frequently dream are said to experience this symptom more often and have difficulty regulating their sleep.

Causes of sleep disorders include extreme stress, accumulated fatigue leading to overwork, symptoms of depression, or sleep-related conditions such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy — all of which can lead to sleep disorders and make sleep paralysis more likely to occur.

Sleep paralysis is common enough that many people experience it, and it typically goes away on its own. However, since it lowers sleep quality and can be frightening to go through alone, prevention is important. To prevent it, you should try to sleep at regular times and get deep, sufficient sleep by going to bed and waking up at consistent times, and avoid excessive mental stress.

Also, avoiding violent or intense media before bed is helpful. Sleeping in conditions free from visual and auditory stimulation — using a sleep mask, blackout curtains, and a quiet environment — is beneficial. Avoiding phones and computers at least one hour before bedtime is also a good practice. Getting sunlight during the day to support healthy melatonin secretion is helpful, as is regular exercise to tire the body physically — though you should be careful not to exercise right before bedtime, as that can have the opposite effect.

3. How to Break Free

Even so, some people may still experience sleep paralysis. For those individuals, changing your sleeping position is recommended. In my own experience during school, simply adjusting my sleeping position stopped it from happening.

If you do experience sleep paralysis, you may feel panicked because your body won't move — but that doesn't mean your entire body is completely immobile. You need to make an effort to move and break free. There will be parts that move, even if very slowly. Most often it's the toes, fingers, mouth, or tongue that can be moved, so try applying a little force to your fingers or toes and gradually work at moving them — before you know it, the paralysis may lift.

Trying to move your eyes is also effective. Although you may feel a sudden sense of terror as your whole body feels paralyzed, making the effort to move your eyes can help you overcome it. Another method is to try coughing — this works for some people and not for others, but forcing yourself to cough can sometimes break the paralysis. Try whichever method works for you in the moment.

I was always curious about why sleep paralysis happens, and now I finally have a proper understanding. Since you never know when it might happen again, maintaining a regular lifestyle to improve sleep quality seems essential.

Come to think of it, I've been living quite irregularly myself — if I continue like this, it wouldn't be surprising if sleep paralysis struck at any time. Starting today, I'm going to make it a habit to go to bed and wake up at consistent times. I encourage you to do the same and improve your sleep quality.