Types of Sleep Paralysis

Sleep, and all the things that come with it, is one of the most mysterious activities we do as humans. The act of simply shutting off our bodies for about eight hours each night while our mind wanders to the strangest of places is bizarre in and of itself. But what about those who suffer from sleep disorders?

At the same time, people with narcolepsy experience paralysis as they’re falling asleep or waking up. This is the normal muscle paralysis associated with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, but occurring at the wrong time.

The symptoms of restless legs syndrome are frequently worse at night than in the morning. A related problem is that your leg muscles might tighten or flex while you are still. These movements can be out of your control.

Because of all the disruptions of sleep it causes, the link between sleep apnea and sleep paralysis seems rather intuitive when we look at when sleep paralysis occurs--during arousals in REM sleep. One can imagine that frequent arousals due to sleep apnea could increase the amount of arousals during REM sleep and thus the amount of opportunities for the body to experience a sleep paralysis episode.