James Allan Cheyne

Sleep Paralysis, State Transition Disruptions, and Narcolepsy

December 21, 2006 James Allan Cheyne

Sleep paralysis (SP) is a brief period of paralysis associated with REM occurring at sleep onset (hypnagogic) or offset (hypnopompic) (1,2). Descriptions and explanations of SP experiences have appeared in the scholarly, medical and scientific literature for at least 1500 years, often under the rubric of nightmare (3) and, more recently, as part of the narcoleptic tetrad/pentad (1). The nature...