Kendall Jenner’s Sleep Paralysis Is Actually Pretty Common

On Sunday, Kendall Jenner opened up about struggling with a sleep problem that is thought to affect nearly eight percent of the general population: sleep paralysis. “I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t move,” Jenner said in the latest episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. “I’m freaking out.” Indeed, sleep paralysis is a phenomenon where you are awake and conscious, but your body is paralyzed (except for your eyes) and between 80 and 90 percent of the time you experience nightmares or disturbing hallucinations.  “They [can be] scary experiences,” Brian A. Sharpless, associate professor at the American School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University and author of Sleep Paralysis, told The Huffington Post. Episodes happen during your lightest stage of sleep ― rapid eye movement sleep (REM), during which you dream ― and can last anywhere from a few seconds to a few (terrifying!) minutes. Experts aren’t sure what causes sleep paralysis, but they suspect stress and anything that disrupts your sleep in the first place ― including alcohol, caffeine or jet lag ― can increase your risk of experiencing the phenomenon. Sleep paralysis can also be a symptom of other, more serious sleep disorders and mental health conditions, like insomnia, narcolepsy, anxiety disorders, panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Everyone says I’m fine, but I don’t...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news