Czech scientists led by Eva Miletínová conducted a pilot study to explore how sleep paralysis affects brain structure. The authors recruited ten volunteers who regularly experienced sleep paralysis, plus a control group of ten participants who were unfamiliar with the phenomenon. They underwent polysomnography and MRI scans of the brain.
The researchers measured activity in the cerebellum, pons, and thalamus. The MRI results showed a significant increase in the height of the cerebellar vermis and the antero-posterior diameter of the midbrain-pons junction in people who experienced sleep paralysis compared to “healthy” controls. The authors suggested that this is the body’s way of compensating for the negative impact of sleep paralysis.
However, no differences were found in sleep structure or signs of other sleep disorders. But the scientists called their study a pilot study, acknowledging that measurements need to be taken to consider the frequency of sleep paralysis and the number of such episodes.
Would you consider treatment for sleep paralysis if it changed your brain?
The article was published in May 2024 in Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.
Get all the latest news about lucid dreams via our channels on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter
