What is Sleep Paralysis? AKA ep 98 with Dr Jalal

On ep. 98 of Ask Kati Anything, Dr. Baland Jalal is our guest. He is a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and previously at Harvard University and considered one of the world's leading experts on sleep paralysis.

• Can you have sleep paralysis in places other than your bed? A member of our community recently felt like she had this happen in a car.
• What percentage of sleep disturbance is chemical or naturally formed and what percentage is trauma induced?
• What causes sleep paralysis? How can we get it to stop?
• Is sleep paralysis more common when you’re young?
• Why do many experience sleep paralysis most often right as they are falling asleep?
• How much sleep should someone get every night? 7 or 8 hours?
• Can SSRI’s or SNRI’s cause sleep paralysis?

#podcast #psychology #katimorton

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kati morton

[eloisemarie]

What a great talk. Tips for
Helping with Sleep Paralysis:
1. Tell yourself this isn't too terrifying
2. Distance yourself & don't worry.
3. Focus on something (someone) positive.
4. Don't try to move. Let it pass.

[mahmoodabdulkareem]

This is so enlightening. I had sleep paralysis a lot when I was younger and I actually found that when I said a little prayer and relaxed it passed and I could relax. When Dr Jalal mentioned the tricks for dealing with it I realised I had been doing a version of that already

[Madmatilda]

Katie this one is one of your best videos ever. Fantastic.

[saratexas]

I can’t believe you put out this much information this frequently. I’m really enjoying these.

[azariana]

I had this happen twice to me. It was super scary.

[Sarahhedger]

I have a sleep disorder called non 24 so the time I fall asleep and wake up go ahead an 1-4 hours each day, I rarely get deep sleep as I wake up so many times due to pain from my chronic illnesses. I’ve only ever had sleep paralysis a few times it tends to happen when things are extremely stressful in my life. The biggest issue I have is that I have really vivid dreams most days and it messes me up because they feel so real, so I have to really ground myself when I wake up to make sure I know that whatever happened in my dream didn’t happen in real life.

[skissors]

Hi Kati and OTDM! I bumped onto this channel a few days ago and I'm getting into it with the podcasts. Sending you love and support, keep it going! 💖

[andi.grke]

Had it the first time when I was seven, I was on ADHD medication. Had it a couple months ago, the first time after 14 years, that's the worst thing I've ever experienced. It felt like there was so much pressure on my chest, I couldn't breathe in a normal way. Haven't had panic attacks for a long time now but during that, I panicked and hyperventilated until I passed out. Before that, I had hallucinations, weird looking guys standing at the end of the room, slowly walking towards me. You just lay there, see it, can't move and can't do anything at all. Great combination, especially if you have CPTSD like I do. I also felt like I screamed desperately for help but nobody hears me because there isn't coming anything out of my mouth. I tried so hard to move my body and to scream but it's just not possible.

[raywood]

Fascinating video, Kati! I hope a lot of people see this, we all have a brain and there is something for everyone to gain from watching this.
Bit of a catch-22, we need to get more deep sleep to help with depression but depression sabotages your deep sleep.
I'm sure others have felt their legs be really weak and slow when trying to run in a dream. I will note that I'm always trying to run away when this happens, never to something. Maybe I'm not all the way into sleep paralysis?
And sometimes I will wake up not able to hear, though it comes back within a minute. On one side that's helpful, but also worrisome for my safety that I might not hear something and wake me up to avoid danger.
Since we see upside down and the brain turns it right side up and also fills in the missing pixels in what would otherwise be a really grainy image, it's easy for me to accept that our body is all mapped out in our brain and lost limbs are still felt. I probably shouldn't feel phantom gallbladder pain since mine is gone but I do a little bit sometimes.
As I said, something for everyone here!

[HikingWithHenry]

Finally I got some answers to this phenomenon! Thank you! And the brainstorming between you two gave me several clues to what is going on, and why I have these paralysis sometimes. I have ME/CFS, and I tend to get sleep paralysis when I have over exerted myself. But I seem to get them when falling asleep quite often, more than waking up in the middle of the night with them? That also happens, but more rarely. I also sleep a lot, and have to, to function properly. I think I'm lucky that way, since most people with ME/CFS struggle to get enough sleep. Not quite sure that my sleep is of good quality though. But hard to tell, since my illness deprives me of most of the energy I should have had anyway. The sleep paralysis was more frequent when I was younger though. Now it's more rare, and I think it is because I have learned pacing and not to over exert myself so much. Maybe also because I have processed past traumas, and now am in an environment that I feel safe in? Oh, and also; as with a lot of chronic illnesses, we tend to disassociate to our bodies as a survival mode. One simply cannot feel all that discomfort and pain all the time, so we learn to ignore the body's signals. Anyways, this was most interesting and educational. Thank you! 🙂❤️

[_maia_m]

This was so interesting, I wish you could have talked longer! The brain is so fascinating, and learning about it has been incredibly beneficial for me, because it's helped me stop judging myself all the time.

[sperez]

I get sleep paralysis all the time. It’s kinda just part of my life. Mostly, there’s certain times it’ll get bad or worse and I’ll have it every day/night in a row or every other day. But usually it is just a couple days in a row (but several times one night 😂 I’ll be so upset because i lose sleep; because instead of “falling” into “slee”.. whenever it haplens, I just slip into sleep paralysis. Over and over. I’ll get myself out of it, Barry awake, and I try to just slip hack into “sleep” but I will just keep slipping into paralysis. Sometimes it will keep happening so many times, I have to physically GEG UP, WAKE up, my entire mind and body and walk around…then I lose like 2 hours of sleep… EVEN though I was prepared to get my rest. Like I was TIRED, Responsible, LAYING DOWN, IN BED, and VIRTUALLY asleep.

[fritzginger]

My biological father had sleep paralysis but my mom never has. She use to think my father was crazy or drunk when he would talk about the evil spirit sitting on his chest and strangling him. She was very surprised to find out years later that I and my three other siblings all have sleep paralysis regularly.
That day we all found out that we have it and realized for the first time that theirs people that don’t have sleep paralysis.

It’s terrifying and I agree that sometimes it seems like when I’m having it nights in a row for a week or one that takes long to break out of that it is little traumas. I tend have to leave my room when I finally wake up because I’m afraid of getting “caught” by it again. I try so hard to scream when it happens to me but my family and now roommates have never heard me. Even when sleeping beside my ex girlfriend they never notice it when it happened. Crazy to think how hard I’m trying to scream and trash around when I’m it but in the waking world I must be so still and calm. Crazy

[whereloveblossoms]

Super interesting Video that covered various aspects of Sleep stuff and Mental health, Life and wellbeing.
The Bit where Jalal describes the part in the Brain that has a Coded.Body Map of a person's Body and Sense of Self.. I wonder if this is a Dominant factor for people living with ED, Body Dysmorphia..

[anglenawaller]

My oldest (grown) son said he has experienced sleep paralysis and saw a being with red, glowing eyes. I haven't experienced this but I'm told I get vocal in my sleep at times, yelling, crying, and embarrassing to me as a Christian, cussing. I have woke myself up a couple of times talking in my sleep; those are usually dreams where a loved one is in danger and I'm trying to get their attention or warn them. Interesting talk but I wonder about the spiritual component to sleep paralysis. I've had nightmares of entities or the devil and when I speak out in my sleep to go in the Name of Jesus or cry out for Jesus, the entity/devil leaves and I immediately wake up and am able to go back into a peaceful sleep.

[_maia_m]

From 25:50 when Jalal talks about body image and that map of the body in a certain part of the brain, and how if you zap it, you could feel like you're out of your body - it made me think of dissociation. (Edit: and so did Kati of course 😁) I wonder if dissociation can involve different parts of the brain from case to case, and that that's why it can feel in different ways and affect you differently? Like, you can dissociate emotionally, so maybe then the amygdala is involved? Or if you don't remember anything, maybe then the hippocampus is involved? Or you feel out of your body and then that other part he mentions is involved. If this is so, I wonder if it's random what part of the brain is cut off, or if it's

[cariinaa]

Hellou Katie🥰 thanks so much for this New Podcast :) I always have something to Look forward to and they help so much!
Did you aready Pick the New questions? Because I didn't See your likes🥰 thanks so much

[simsalabimdubistweg]

I used to have sleep paralysis quite often until I went to college. Glad that stopped lol..

[littlelisa]

I get sleep paralysis and it's absolutely terrifying, I always see a black shadow hovering over me and I feel like it wants to kill me

[andreafeelsfantastic]

4:35 Comedian Mike Birbiglia did a great movie called Sleepwalk With Me about his experience with REM a behavior disorder