Conscious while sleeping but unable to move

Sometimes we sleep very deeply and know that we are awake in our dreams, but our bodies just won’t obey us and we can’t move. The elderly always say that this is sleep paralysis or that we have encountered something unclean. This is a superstitious statement. In fact, the scientific explanation is that our brain nerves are awake, but the nerves in our limbs are still in a sleeping state and cannot be controlled by the brain.

This is called "sleep paralysis" definition

When people are sleeping, they suddenly feel as if there is a thousand-pound weight pressing on their body, making them drowsy and breathless, as if they are neither awake nor asleep. They want to shout but cannot, they want to move but cannot. People feel puzzled and terrified, as if there is a transparent object pressing on their body, and combined with dreams, it is given a "figurative" name - being pressed by a ghost. In fact, this is called "nightmare" in medicine. Like dreaming, nightmare is also a physiological phenomenon. When a person suddenly wakes up from a dream, some of the nerve centers in the brain have woken up, but the nerve centers that control the muscles have not yet fully woken up. Therefore, although he feels uncomfortable, he cannot move. At this time, if someone wakes him up or pushes him, the nightmare will disappear immediately. In fact, this phenomenon is very common.

For example, it is impossible for us to clench our fists completely when we just wake up; many people need to take a few minutes to recover after waking up. This is because the central nervous system does not work synchronously. Lying on your back, covering yourself with a thick blanket or placing your hands on your chest, being overly nervous during the day, and eating too much at dinner are all triggers of nightmares. If the listeners are careful, they will find that those who have experienced "ghost paralysis" were all lying on their backs. If they sleep on their sides and avoid the above-mentioned factors, nightmares will not occur.

Definition 2: Sleep paralysis means that you suddenly become conscious while sleeping but your body cannot move. Generally, people who suffer from sleep paralysis like to sleep in reverse, with their chest facing downwards, and they also like to sleep with their heads covered.

Because the chest is facing downward, the heart is under greater pressure, so the blood circulation will be slower, and it is normal for the body to have no intuition. Covering the head is because of inhaling too much carbon dioxide, which leads to brain hypoxia. In this case, the body is also unconscious, so it is very important to adjust your sleeping position. Sometimes, right after a dream, you will associate the body's lack of intuition with the dream. Maybe you are not unfamiliar with the term sleep paralysis. I think the folks have been filled with various explanations about sleep paralysis. Since childhood, the most authoritative, most "scientifically based", most supported, and most convincing explanation I have heard is "You just put your hand on your chest accidentally when you are asleep, which increases the burden of breathing, so you feel it, which is the so-called sleep paralysis. Some people also have cold sweats, hypoxia, and even hallucinations caused by rapid heartbeat. These are all caused by bad sleeping habits. Of course, it is not ruled out that some people have sleep problems caused by organic diseases, and severe cases may cause sudden death..." The so-called "ghost pressing the body" is definitely not sleep paralysis, let alone being haunted by ghosts. In fact, it is a disease with sleep disorders.

The phenomenon of "ghost pressing on the body" is a symptom of sleep paralysis in sleep neurology. The patient is in a state of half awake and half asleep during sleep, and the brain waves are of the awake amplitude. Some people even have visual hallucinations, but the muscle tension of the whole body is reduced to the lowest level, similar to the "paralyzed" state. The whole body cannot move, as if covered by a golden bell. This is what ordinary people call the phenomenon of "ghost pressing on the body".