Sleep Paralysis Article

[greytraveller]

Greetings all.
I've just come across a fascinating article on Sleep Paralysis. Here is the link

http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/09/the-dark-side-of-the-placebo-effect-when-intense-belief-kills/245065/

This is well worth your time to read.
The article was posted in the www.coasttocoastam.com >> 'Articles' >> 'In the News Section' for September 17.

Regards cool
Grey

[CFTraveler]

Very interesting article. If you put it right besides the one (somewhere else in this forum, prob. in the science section) that shows that the placebo/nocebo effects are becoming more significant, it may be a cause for alarm.

[Beekeeper]

I enjoyed the article as well. I tend to be a person who if I read something predictive that pertains to me and it's good, I'm happy to believe it but if it's bad I dismiss it as superstitious rubbish.

[Summerlander]

It's superstitious rubbish and sleep paralysis does not kill you. I guarantee you! Those young men probably had heart arrhythmia...

Imagine that their irregular heartbeats became more erratic in sleep paralysis, as the flight-or-fight sensation builds. The amygdala stimulates the hypothalamus and causes the nervous system to become active. In the process, adrenaline is pumped. Ever noticed how you can sometimes get an adrenaline rush, temperature rises and you get palpitations? Well...imagine that happening to someone with a heart condition, who, on top of it all, panics because they believe there is an evil presence coming.

The breathing would become irregular too, and, in his struggle, pressure in the chest would be felt - further reinforcing his beliefs and the hallucinatory nature of such state would further add fuel to the fire depending on how deep the individual has gone.

In a way, arrhythmia (or any other condition) plus their strong beliefs killed them. Sleep paralysis is a natural mechanism caused by REM atonia. It prevents us from moving when we dream. Sleep paralysis does not kill anyone. Physiological abnormalities are the culprit in those cases. SP is harmless. Period.

[CFTraveler]

It's superstitious rubbish and sleep paralysis does not kill you. I guarantee you! Those young men probably had heart arrhythmia... Did you read the article? It explains exactly what they had and why the numbers are significant.


Imagine that their irregular heartbeats became more erratic in sleep paralysis, as the flight-or-fight sensation builds. The amygdala stimulates the hypothalamus and causes the nervous system to become active. In the process, adrenaline is pumped. Ever noticed how you can sometimes get an adrenaline rush, temperature rises and you get palpitations? Well...imagine that happening to someone with a heart condition, who, on top of it all, panics because they believe there is an evil presence coming.

The breathing would become irregular too, and, in his struggle, pressure in the chest would be felt - further reinforcing his beliefs and the hallucinatory nature of such state would further add fuel to the fire depending on how deep the individual has gone.
None of this is debated by the article- it actually points out this.


In a way, arrhythmia (or any other condition) plus their strong beliefs killed them. Which is the point of the article. What should have been a harmless incident became deadly because of their beliefs.


Sleep paralysis is a natural mechanism caused by REM atonia. It prevents us from moving when we dream. Sleep paralysis does not kill anyone. Physiological abnormalities are the culprit in those cases. SP is harmless. Period. No one is stating different, but the language in your post reads as if you're arguing a point that is not being made in the article, or by anyone on this thread, unless I'm missing something.

[Summerlander]

You are missing the point. I'm not arguing anything. I'm just reinforcing and elaborating more from Beekeeper's post.

[greytraveller]

Greetings all
Technically speaking Summerlander is absolutely right. Sleep paralysis by itself will not kill anyone. It was the sleep paralysis In Combination with the deeply held spiritual/cultural beliefs that apparently was the cause of death for so many Hmong men.
I will also make a personal observation that, as a general rule, very religious people tend to describe their experiences with sleep paralysis in very scary and dramatic terms. I have read many accounts of people 'afflicted' with SP. (Not just here at astral dynamics but on many different web sites.) As a rule religious Christians tend to use terms like 'evil' and demonic' to describe SP (I'll post an example here the next time I see one.) This is another reinforcement of the concept discussed in the article - that deeply ingrained cultural and religious beliefs shape and mold the way a person will view any new and, (especially) unsettling, experience.

Regards
Grey