The duration of sleep paralysis (muscle atrophy when waking up or falling asleep) can range from a few seconds to 20 minutes. Often, this state is also accompanied by hallucinations. Although there are no published clinical trials for the treatment of sleep paralysis to date, scientists have proposed a variety of non-drug solutions to the problem.
Thus, in August 2020, a pilot study led by Baland Jalal of Cambridge University, England, was published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology, which describes the results of treating sleep paralysis using Meditation-Relaxation (MR) therapy.
An experimental study was conducted on patients with narcolepsy (a sleep disorder characterized by sudden onset of sleep), since sleep paralysis is one of the common symptoms of this condition. Nevertheless, the scientists suggest that the study’s findings will be of interest to the general public, and especially to phase practitioners.
MR therapy, when applied to 10 narcoleptics for 8 weeks, led to a 50% decrease in the incidence of sleep paralysis attacks, while also reducing symptoms of anxiety. Although the control group was small, the discovery of the positive effects of meditation and relaxing breathing techniques could lead to the development of new therapies. In your opinion, if narcoleptics knew they could use sleep paralysis to enter the phase state, would they get treated for it? Share your views in the comments!
