A study explores the benefits of meditation-relaxation therapy for people with narcolepsy who experience sleep paralysis.
As the lead study authors explain, finding oneself mentally awake as the body’s voluntary muscles remain asleep can be a terrifying experience; sleep paralysis can bring with it a range of hypnagogic hallucinations.
“I know firsthand how terrifying sleep paralysis can be, having experienced it many times myself,” says first study author Baland Jalal, from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
“But for some people,” adds Jalal, “the fear that it can instill in them can be extremely unpleasant, and going to bed, which should be a relaxing experience, can become fraught with terror.
