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Have you ever yelled at your partner in your sleep or realized you can’t move when you wake up? These and other strange phenomena happen to us while we sleep.
sleep apnea
Expressed as holding the breath for 10 seconds or more. As a result, there is a lack of oxygen, the brain receives a signal to wake up or go into a mode of less deep sleep. Sleep apnea occurs in people of all ages, but is especially common in the elderly. In any case, this disturbance impairs the quality of sleep and affects your partner’s sleep because it is often accompanied by loud snoring. The partner, by the way, will help to pay attention to the problem, because, upon waking up, you can not remember about it.
Paralysis
The body is paralyzed during REM sleep (this natural stiffness keeps us from active movement with dreams and prevents accidental injury), and after waking up, it remains motionless. You are fully conscious but unable to move or speak, sometimes for several minutes. Some people at this moment feel that the chest is squeezed and they suffocate. This may cause visual hallucinations. Sleep paralysis occurs in people who are chronically sleep deprived, take certain medications, and suffer from other sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.
“At the moment of awakening or falling asleep, a deafening noise is heard, like a bomb explosion. In fact, there is no noise.»
Sleepy (hypnotic) hallucinations
This is the name given to the sharp twitches and bouncing, which sometimes happen to us at the time of falling asleep and are often accompanied by a feeling of falling. The reason for this phenomenon remains a mystery to scientists. One possible explanation is that you begin to sleep before the body becomes still. There is another thing: these jerks are just a side effect of the complete relaxation of the nervous system that occurs when falling asleep.
Behavioral disorder during REM sleep
If you hit someone lying next to you in the middle of the night or yelled at him, but you can’t remember about it in the morning, this may be your case. The essence of the violation is that the body is not completely paralyzed during the REM sleep phase and you are actually acting out your dream in reality. This only happens in bad dreams.
Exploding head syndrome
The essence of this mysterious phenomenon is that at the moment of awakening or falling asleep, a deafening noise is heard, similar to a bomb explosion or a shot. In fact, there is no noise, it just seems. The disorder is familiar to about one in ten of us and manifests itself at the age of about 50 years. No one knows what causes «explosions». Possibly physical changes in the middle ear or small bouts of temporal lobe epilepsy1. Despite the intimidating name, the violation is considered harmless.
1 A. Brian «Exploding head syndrome», Sleep Medicine Reviews, 6, 2014; G. Ganguly et al. «Exploding Head Syndrome: A Case Report», Case Report in Neurology, Jan-Apr, 2013, № 5.