Sleep Paralysis [Case Study excerpt]

Back to the Timeline and Nicki’s health history, with this very significant experience that she had been having relatively recently.

 

A few years earlier, during a very stressful final year of her degree she would often take a nap during the day to recharge. But often when she woke up she would be wide awake and physically could not move!

She would feel paralysis from the neck down and would need to lie there for a few minutes until it wore off and she could move again.

 

The NHS define sleep paralysis as “when you cannot move or speak as you are waking up” and “it’s not clear why sleep paralysis can happen” and that “it can be scary but it’s harmless and most people will only get it once or twice in their life.”

 

There’s no real description of the mechanisms and of course it is important to acknowledge that it is generally thought to be harmless.

 

However, this is certainly a significant indicator of how much load, stress or demand the body is under/experiencing. It’s an intense version of ‘fight, flight or freeze’.

 

The Sympathetic side of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) seems to be in a significant state.

 

Nicki also had had some similar experiences when studying exams at school. She would often be found by her Mum just talking to herself, almost in a zone of replaying information and details from her studies.

 

Again – this is not necessarily something detrimental, but certainly interesting in a demonstration of how much influence and connection the Psychological, Physical and Physiological aspects of the human body have.

 

[Read more aspects of Nicki’s Case Study: https://functionalhealthclinic.co.uk/case-study-nicki…/]