A ghost came over me at four o'clock in the morning. I saw it. It was so scary.

Ghost on the bed

Open categories: physiological phenomena, subconscious, nightmares

Definition 1

When a person is sleeping, he suddenly feels as if There is a thousand kilograms of heavy weight on the body, and people are hazy and out of breath. They seem to be awake but not awake, but not asleep. They want to shout but can't move. People feel puzzled and horrified, as if there is something transparent pressing down on them. On the body, and in conjunction with the dream, it was given an "image" name - Ghost Pressure. In fact, this is called "nightmare" in medicine

Similar to dreams, nightmares are also a physiological phenomenon. When a person suddenly wakes up from a dream, part of the nerve center of the brain has woken up, but the nerve center that controls the muscles has not yet fully woken up, so although he feels uncomfortable, he cannot move. At this time, if someone wakes him up or pushes him One handful and the nightmare disappears instantly.

In fact, this phenomenon is very common. For example, it is impossible for us to fully punch our fists when we first wake up; many people have to slow down for a few minutes after waking up. This is due to the unsynchronized working of the central nervous system.

Lying on your back, covering yourself with a thick quilt or putting your hands on your chest, being overly stressed during the day, and having a full dinner are all triggers of nightmares. If the audience is careful, they will find that those who have experienced "ghost pressure" all sleep on their backs. If they sleep on their side and avoid the above-mentioned triggers, they will not have nightmares.

Definition 2

Ghost pressing the bed means suddenly having consciousness while sleeping but unable to move the body.

Generally, people who are forced into bed by ghosts like to sleep on their backs, that is, with their chests facing down, and they also like to sleep with their heads covered.

Because the chest is facing down, the pressure on the heart is greater, so the blood circulation will be slower. It is normal for the body to have no intuition. The head covering is due to inhalation of excessive carbon dioxide, which leads to brain hypoxia. In this case The body is also very unconscious, so it is very important to adjust your sleeping position. Sometimes just after dreaming, you will connect the body's unconsciousness with the dream. Maybe you are not unfamiliar with the term "ghost on the bed", I think Folks have long been full of various explanations about ghosts pressing on the bed. Since childhood, the most authoritative, most "scientific basis", most supported, and most convincing explanation I have ever heard is "You only However, when you are sleeping, you may inadvertently put your hands on your chest, which increases the burden of breathing, and it feels like a so-called ghost pressure. Some people also experience cold sweats caused by accelerated heartbeats. Hypoxia, even hallucinations, etc., are all caused by bad sleeping habits. Of course, it is not ruled out that some people have sleep problems caused by organic diseases, and sudden death may occur in severe cases..."

The so-called "ghosts on the body" are definitely not ghosts on the bed, let alone haunted by ghosts. In fact, they are suffering from sleep disorders. The phenomenon of "ghost pressing on the body" is a symptom of sleep paralysis (sleep paralysis) in sleep neurology. When the patient is sleeping, he is half awake and half asleep, and his brain waves are awake amplitudes, some of which are awake. People may also have hallucinations of images, but the muscle tension of the whole body is reduced to the lowest level, which is similar to a "paralysis" state. The whole body cannot move, as if it is covered with a golden bell, which is what most people call the "ghost pressure" phenomenon.

Patients with "cataplexy-type narcolepsy" most often experience "ghost pressure". Patients with this type can fall asleep at any time, appear half-awake and half-asleep at any time, and often have "hypnotic hallucinations" , dreaming about strange people, things, and things. When the patient is awake, whenever he is excited, laughing, or angry, he will suddenly feel weak all over and may collapse.

There is a middle-aged woman who often suffers from "ghost pressure" and poor sleep quality. She thinks that the work pressure is high during working hours and the housework after get off work is too heavy. Later, she quit her job and reduced her housework. As a result, she suffered from poor sleep quality. Has not improved. The author conducted a 24-hour multifunctional sleep physiological examination for her. During her sleep at midnight, the patient suddenly felt an inexplicable force rushing through her body. The dream was weird and terrifying, and she wanted to scream but couldn't. She wanted to get up or open her eyes, but she couldn't. Unable to move; I keep shouting in my heart, but I can't speak or make a sound; my whole body's muscle tension is paralyzed, my ears are buzzing, and waves of strength are pressing on my chest. No matter how hard I try, I can't make it. , and after struggling for several minutes, he was finally able to slowly exert his strength until he woke up and found that he was sweating profusely.

The author conducted five more "multiple latent sleep tests" on her. A few minutes before the end of sleep, sleep paralysis occurred twice. Suddenly, her whole body kept shaking slightly and she was unable to make a sound. She had another ghost phenomenon. At this time, others immediately touched her with their hands, and she regained consciousness and returned to normal. Before seeking medical treatment, this woman often told the person next to her to call her or pat her immediately when she noticed the above condition to wake her up and everything would be fine.

Our sleep cycle consists of the falling asleep stage, light sleep stage, deep sleep stage, deep sleep stage, and finally enters the "rapid eye movement stage" (dreaming stage). Sleep paralysis is mainly related to the early onset of rapid eye movement, resulting in inconsistent coordination during the rapid eye movement stage. In fact, during the rapid eye movement period, the body is essentially in a resting state, and the connection signal with the brain is temporarily interrupted. This is a defensive measure so that the human body will not realize dreams in real life, for example. When you dream about hitting someone, you will not actually take action and punch or kick the person next to you.

When sleep nerves are paralyzed, the brain wakes up from sleep and has no time to reconnect with the body, leaving the person in a half-asleep and half-awake state. Dreams and realizations are intertwined, resulting in disharmony between the body and the brain. Condition. At this time, the muscle tension of the whole body is the lowest, so it will cause the situation that one wants to get up, but cannot, and wants to exert force, but cannot exert force. This is the most common situation of "ghost pressure".

Generally speaking, if you are too stressed, too anxious, nervous, extremely tired, have insomnia, lack of sleep, or have jet lag, your sleep will enter the rapid eye movement period (dreaming period) early. And the "ghost pressing down on the body" - sleep paralysis occurs. This condition can occur at any age, most often in adolescence and rarely continuously. Unless it happens frequently and you need to seek help from a sleep doctor, as long as you are aware of the symptoms, there is no need to worry too much.

According to American research reports, 40% to 50% of people will experience sleep paralysis (ghost pressure) at least once in their lives. The proportion of people is not low, so when you encounter " After a ghost comes over you, there is no need to be anxious and look for so-called "experts" to relieve the bad luck. Once you understand the truth about sleep, you can feel at ease and sit back and relax.

The above is a scientific analysis. Simply put, it means "the mind is very active but the body is very tired."

Causes and solutions:

1. Due to sleeping on your back, if you sleep on your side at night, the chance of occurrence is less.

2. Due to mental stress, I usually feel relaxed but not at night.

3. Get enough rest

Many people have had this feeling. When they just fall asleep or wake up, they feel that their consciousness is very clear, but However, my body cannot control myself. I can't get up and feel like my whole body is wrapped in something. I want to speak but can't. I can't open my eyes. Sometimes I may feel chest tightness. No matter how hard I struggled or how hard I tried to move my body, it was to no avail. Some people may even experience hallucinations, including seeing black apparitions. Folks often refer to this feeling as ghosts or nightmares.

How did "ghost pressure on the bed" come about?

According to some people who have had this experience, this feeling is very scary, like struggling on the edge of life or death. At that time, I really hoped that the people around me could wake me up or someone could push me awake. So how does this feeling come about? What is the medical explanation for this?

According to Western medicine experts, this symptom is medically called sleep paralysis. It often occurs when people have just fallen asleep or are about to wake up. At this time, people just fall into a deep sleep and begin to enter the dreaming sleep cycle. . All parts of the body are in a state of extremely low tension, and people's consciousness may feel like this due to excessive excitement.

The cause of sleep paralysis is not yet clear, but at present, physical fatigue, severe lack of sleep, or genetic predispositions are also the main causes of sleep paralysis.

Most people will feel panicked when this happens. Fortunately, this situation will usually disappear slowly or suddenly resume body movements within a few minutes. However, the feeling of panic at the time of the attack will still make people feel scared after waking up, and they will only feel that they are being pressed by some unknown object and their chest will be tight.

This sleep disorder symptom is very common!

Don’t be too nervous when encountering this situation. This kind of sleep disorder symptom is very common.

40%-50% of normal people have such symptoms once or twice, and only 3%-6% of people will have such symptoms repeatedly. This condition can happen to people of any age, but it rarely happens consistently.

Whenever we encounter a ghost, our heads are clear and we feel panicked, so we struggle desperately. However, most people struggle for a long time before they wake up. When they wake up, they find that their whole body is tired. We are powerless. In this process, we are very helpless. In fact, there is a very effective method: try to relax yourself, don’t think about the illusions in our heads, and then take a few long, deep breaths, and your whole body will relax. , the action can be resumed.

Medical explanation:

In fact, the medical name of this thing is sleep paralysis (sleep paralysis), which is commonly known as "ghost pressure on the bed".

Sleep paralysis usually occurs when just falling asleep or about to wake up. The patient feels that he has woken up. He can hear the sounds and see the images around him, but he cannot move his body or make any sound. Sounds are sometimes combined with hallucinations. Most people will feel panicked at this time. Fortunately, most people will slowly or suddenly resume body movements within a few minutes. Because of the panic at the time of the attack, many people will feel scared after waking up, and intuitively think that it is caused by being suppressed by some unknown object, so there is a saying of "ghost pressing on the bed".

In fact, sleep paralysis occurs in the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of the sleep cycle. The REM stage is the sleep cycle when we fall into deep sleep and start dreaming. During the rapid eye movement period, our skeletal muscles, except for respiratory muscles and eye muscles, are in a state of extremely low tension. This is a protective effect that prevents us from harming ourselves or the person next to us by acting in response to our dreams. Sleep paralysis is caused by unknown reasons during the rapid eye movement period. The consciousness has awakened, but the muscles of the limbs are still in a state of low tension, resulting in a situation where the person does not listen to the commands of the consciousness.

In fact, sleep paralysis is not uncommon, and many people have had this experience, especially teenagers and young people in their twenties and thirties. Sleep paralysis can be regarded as a normal physiological phenomenon, has nothing to do with ghosts, and has no adverse effects on physical health. It is usually more likely to occur under high stress, excessive fatigue, abnormal work and rest, insomnia, and anxiety. Try not to tire yourself too much, don't stay up late, and maintaining a normal schedule will usually reduce the chance of it happening. However, if it occurs too frequently, affects your quality of life, or is accompanied by daytime sleepiness, you should seek help from a doctor with medication or to diagnose other problems.

After reading the above, scientific explanation, I scientifically understood the "ghost presses the bed". . .

However, none of the explanations provide an immediate and effective solution.

I have been "suppressed" often, so I have summed up a set of effective and immediate solutions:

1. When you are suppressed, know it in your heart, don't rush to resist (resist) is in vain), don’t be afraid.

Relax your mind, either take a rest, or continue sleeping, just press on and ignore him.

2. If you want to get rid of the "ghost pressure on the bed" immediately,

1. All parts of the body cannot move,

2. Can't open the eyes (sometimes Can be forced to open but not see lightly)

3. Can’t speak

4. But can hear sounds

5. Everything is not absolute Can't move.

After the ghost pressed the bed, the only thing outside the body that I found "moveable" was the "mouth" (not that you could speak, of course you couldn't speak at the time)

< p>6. Use your mouth to suck up and down (just like kissing your mouth to make a sound, or feeding a chicken to make a sound with your mouth) and use the sound you make to let your ears hear it (point 4, the ear can heard) then

successful. You can wake up immediately, that is, quickly solve the "ghost pressure".