Sleep Paralysis News and Research

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Patients with narcolepsy face a dual nightmare of medication shortages and stigma

Nina Shand couldn't stay awake. She had taken afternoon naps since she was a teenager to accommodate her "work hard, play hard" attitude, but when she was in her mid-20s the sleepiness became more severe.

3 Jan 2024

Sleepers can respond to verbal stimuli, study finds

Sleep is generally defined as a period during which the body and mind are at rest-;as if disconnected from the world.

12 Oct 2023

Meditation-relaxation technique can help treat sleep paralysis

Sleep paralysis - a condition thought to explain a number of mysterious experiences including alleged cases of alien abduction and demonic night-time visits - could be treated using a technique of meditation-relaxation, suggests a pilot study published today.

12 Aug 2020

Heroin could could help patients with narcolepsy

A new study has found that users of heroin have high levels of a brain chemical called hypocretin. This hypocretin leads to “wakefulness” among the users and understanding this could help patients with narcolepsy.

29 Jun 2018

Sleep disorders appear to be first sign of serious neurological diseases

Sleep disorders are often the first sign of serious neurological diseases. Neurologists should inquire extensively about the quality of their patients' sleep.

18 Jun 2018

Sleep paralysis, hallucinations found to be widespread in student athletes

Pilot data from a recent study suggest that sleep paralysis and dream-like hallucinations as you are falling asleep or waking up are widespread in student athletes and are independently associated with symptoms of depression.

4 Jun 2018

Research findings may pave way for miracle drug to treat narcolepsy

Narcolepsy, a serious sleep disorder in which patients often fall asleep uncontrollably, has been incurable because no effective therapeutic agents are available to date. Recent findings by Japanese scientists in the sleep institute may shed light on this challenging problem.

30 May 2017

Review examines link between insomnia and alcohol dependence

Individuals with alcohol dependence (AD) often have sleep-related disorders such as insomnia, circadian-rhythm sleep disorders, breathing-related sleep disorders, movement disorders, and parasomnias such as sleep-related eating disorder, sleepwalking, nightmares, sleep paralysis, and REM sleep behavior disorder.

5 Oct 2016

Sleep paralysis can be strange and frightening experience but not harmful

Your eyes begin to open after a good night of sleep, but something feels weird. You try to rub the tiredness out of your face but can't lift your arms. In a panic you try to take a deep breath but can't draw air.

20 Sep 2016

Scientists develop potent compound that promotes wakefulness, remedies sleep disorder narcolepsy

Hiroshi Nagase, a Professor at the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, collaborated with Masashi Yanagisawa (Professor / Director of WPI-IIIS) and successfully developed a potent compound that promotes wakefulness and remedies the sleep disorder narcolepsy in model animals.

18 Nov 2015

One in five college students experiences exploding head syndrome

Washington State University researchers have found that an unexpectedly high percentage of young people experience "exploding head syndrome," a psychological phenomenon in which they are awakened by abrupt loud noises, even the sensation of an explosion in their head.

30 Mar 2015

Good night, sleep tight...or will you?

World Sleep Day is organized by the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) to spread awareness of important sleep-related issues through a series of special events. This year it is focussing on insomnia with the theme “When Sleep is Sound, Health and Happiness Abound”.

13 Mar 2015

FDA approves BELSOMRA® (suvorexant) for the treatment of insomnia

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved BELSOMRA® (suvorexant) for adults with insomnia who have difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep. BELSOMRA (pronounced bell-SOM-rah) is a highly selective antagonist for orexin receptors.

15 Aug 2014

Researchers explore factors associated with distress after sleep paralysis episodes

Ever find yourself briefly paralyzed as you're falling asleep or just waking up? It's a phenomenon is called sleep paralysis, and it's often accompanied by vivid sensory or perceptual experiences, which can include complex and disturbing hallucinations and intense fear.

5 Mar 2013

Powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during REM sleep

Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, according to new research in the July 11 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The finding may help scientists better understand and treat sleep disorders, including narcolepsy, tooth grinding, and REM sleep behavior disorder.

12 Jul 2012

Sleep paralysis more frequent among students and psychiatric patients

What do Moby Dick, the Salem witch trials and alien abductions all have in common? They all circle back to sleep paralysis.

9 Nov 2011

Longer looks: Fighting antibiotic resistance; a health care arms race video; the HVP debate

We won't stop the rising tide of infections until we develop a new business model to fight them. We are not quite on the brink of some dystopian Victorian future. But every year, the prognosis for infectious-disease patients gets a bit grimmer. … And more-powerful drugs tend to cost more than the old drugs. … Even in the rich world, death from infection still looms; MRSA alone kills thousands every year. And firms are not developing antibiotics as fast as they used to.

16 Sep 2011

Researchers study sleep paralysis

Professor Chris French, has co-authored a paper on sleep paralysis with Julia Santomauro, both of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, which is published in Issue 22 (August 2009) of The Psychologist.

14 Aug 2009

Obstructive sleep apnea increases likelihood of parasomnia symptoms

Patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have an increased prevalence of parasomnia symptoms compared with the prevalence rates of individual parasomnias, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Tuesday, June 9, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

9 Jun 2009

Nicotine use and narcolepsy

A research abstract that will be presented on Monday at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), provides the first description of nicotine use by narcolepsy patients.

9 Jun 2008