#emsarcade

Marks and Rec: Misc #997

Okay, so if you guys don't know I'm kind of a big fan of @markiplier  and in some of his recent videos, I've noticed that he's talked a lot about having nightmares and waking nightmares (also known as sleep paralysis, which I'll explain in a bit). 

Side note: I've also experienced what Mark has been talking about ever since I was in my tweens, so when he mentioned it, I got really curious and decided to science the shit out of this. I'm not a professional by any means, but here we go. Enjoy!

Nightmares are coherent visual dreams that seem real and get more disturbing as they unfold and cause you to wake up. 

They tend to happen towards the end of your REM cycle, as that is the last stage of the sleep cycle, in the last 1/3 of the night.

What's interesting is that "nightmares" are different from "bad dreams" in their classification.

 A "bad dream" is an unpleasant dream that you don't wake up from.

 A "nightmare" is a dream that is so unpleasant it forces you to wake up.

Sleep paralysis is something that's actually considered to be totally different. You would think that nightmares are what leads sleep paralysis, right? Not necessarily the case. 

Sleep paralysis occurs either one of two times;

when you're falling asleep (called hypnagogic or predormital sleep paralysis) 

 as you fall asleep, your body naturally relaxes. usually, you are not aware of this happening. however if you do remain aware while your body is falling asleep, this can lead to feeling unable to move or speak.

when you're waking up (called hypnopompic or postdormital sleep paralysis.)

your body switches between REM and NREM while sleeping. during NREM sleep, your body relaxes and restores itself. at the end of the NREM cycles, your sleep shifts to REM which causes eye movement and dreams to occur, but your body remains still. if at any time you become aware before your REM cycle is finished, it leads to feeling unable to move or speak.

Sleep paralysis tends to start in your teens and then continue and occur the most when you are in your 20′s-30′s. 

 Okay, so that's all the sciencey stuff behind nightmares and sleep paralysis. Here's some other cool facts you may like if you've made it this far.

 SEX DEMONS

Originally, sleep paralysis was thought to be caused by a sex demon sitting on a person's chest.

There really isn't a true explanation for this, other than some researchers believe this theory began as a way to rationalize risqué dreams and hallucinations to strait-laced men and women who had reported these experiences. 

 HALLUCINATIONS

Hallucinations tend to vary person to person. Generally, people have reported bring able to feel, hear, and see things that aren’t there.

Episodes can range from lasting seconds to minutes. They will end either on their own(which is the usual case), when someone touches/speaks to you, or by making an intense effort to move. 

Usually these hallucinations are stationary, whether they are animals or people. They tend to occur immediately upon awakening. 

I'm going to throw in my own personal story in to the mix. I usually experience sleep paralysis at the end of my sleep cycle, and each time it's a similar experience.

I can see the room I fell asleep in, and I always have this sense of awareness that I know what's going to happen next. It's almost always situations like someone is in my room, crawling on my bed, something bad is going to happen but I can't stop it etc.

There's always something weird happening when you look at the room. It's like if someone took two transparent photographs of the same scene and kept one normal, while filtering the other one like crazy and adding weird colors and then layering them both together.

Marks and Rec: Misc #661

After four YEARS of being locked out of my Tumblr account due to 2FA and a changed phone number, I can finally access my account again!

(I can't believe the last thing I ever posted about was Ethan's tiny nips...)

Not sure if anyone who followed me before is still hanging around on Tumblr, but if you are, feel free to say hi!